Shimabara Tayū Women of the Shimabara Pleasure Quarters in Kyoto: Tayū, Shinzō, Hikifune, Yarite, Kamuro, Tsubone Jorō
Hyakunin jorō shina sadame, 1723, Vol. II
The Shimabara was one of the pleasure quarters in Kyoto; it also served as sort of a cultural salon in its day. Among the various categories of women who lived and worked in the Shimabara, the highest ranked and most exclusive type of courtesan was the tayū (shown at the far right here). To become a tayū, a woman needed a combination of beauty, intellect, extensive knowledge, and artistic prowess. An apprentice training under a tayū was known as a geigi shinzō (second from the right). Here, both the tayū and shinzō are shown wearing lavish outfits with numerous layers of robes including a long, loose unbelted outer robe (uchikake).
Other attendants of the tayū shown here are the hikifune (third from right), who mediates with clients, and the young girl apprentice, or kamuro, who was is just learning the dance, music performance, and other customs needed for life in the pleasure quarters. In this scene, the kamuro wears fashionable Rinpa-style patterns of autumn leaves on flowing water. The woman carrying the umbrella is the yarite, and wears a simple kosode with a repeated overall pattern. The seated woman smoking a pipe on the veranda is a prostitute of the lowest rank, known as a tsubone jorō. She seems to be dressed in a woven, ikat-patterned kimono. The depictions of clothing and other elements cleverly reveal the differences in rank and age among these various categories.
