Kasutori Shobo in Yoshiwara celebrates history of Tokyo’s most famous red-light district

The gentrification and renaissance of Yoshiwara, the former licensed red-light district (and today, an unlicensed red-light district), continues.

After a designer souvenir shop we saw earlier in the year now comes a new book shop, Kasutori Shobo. The store opened on September 3rd in the heart of Yoshiwara, selling books reprinting valuable resources and history about Yoshiwara and the adult side to the Showa era.

Alongside other publishers’ titles, the shop also publishes its own books. The owner, Goh Watanabe, raised money via a crowdfunding service to do this, achieving his target in just 12 days. Watanabe used to work in IT but his passion for Yoshiwara inspired to launch a new career in publishing and retail.

One of the books it publishes is a guide to all the “women’s districts” around Japan, which was once the resource of choice for men looking to explore the pleasure quarters of cities. Watanabe has set out to rediscover this lost resources and reprint them in stylish new editions for contemporary readers.

Yoshiwara was the most famous example of an yukaku (or yuukaku): districts where brothels were allowed to gather and operate.

GHQ (the American occupation authorities) banned the licensed brothel system in 1946 and changed the name of prostitutes to a more euphemistic “barmaid”. The brothels were located in what were then renamed aka-sen (red-light districts) and operated, on the surface at least, cafes and restaurants, while they offered other services off the menu.

But even this wouldn’t last: in 1958, a law was passed banning prostitution entirely. And that is why honban (full service) is technically illegal in Japan today.

Kasutori is a reference the postwar-period subculture in which men escaped the uncertainty and poverty of the time through drink (kasutori is a type of shochu) and pleasure. Naturally, this meant visits to the aka-sen.

A lot of time has passed since that era, but in many ways little has changed. Yoshiwara is still full of soaplands and most salarymen bury their heads in the sand with booze and girls.