ABSTRACT
The duties of a ym·ite consist in watching everything which happens in a brothel, and includes the management of the courtesans and the due espionage of both the inmates of the house and their guests. Nowadays these women are called "obasan" ("auntie! ") The yarite's room is generally situated in front of the stairs so as to be more convenient as a position from which the general affairs of the house can be observed. No person can fill this important post satisfactorily unless she be thoroughly well versed in the ins and outs of every matter pertaining to the Y oshiwara, and unless she possesses a fund of actual practical experience on which she can draw in an emergency. The ym·ite, therefore, are for the most part picked from the old veterans who have themselves served their time as courtesans. In the 0-mise (first class house) the yarite are ensconced in their rooms, employing shinzo who play the role of aide-de-camps, while in the komise (small houses) they are accustomed to receive visitors themselves and recommend suitable courtesans. The komise yar,ite is indeed kept very busy, for she has not only to receive guests, arrange meetings, etc., but she has to watch the recep-
tion given to visitors by her girls, form an opinion of the visitors themselves, and attend to a hundred and one other things also. The komise yarite may be described as "cute," and there are mighty few things that escape the notice of these lynx-eyed old beauties! The yarite originated in the furo-ya (a sort of brothel) and their original title was "kwasha" (1($=a fire wheel). In the "K1:yu Shoran" (~ill:~~!) is a note to the eflect that the meaning of kwasha was " to grasp" (tsukanm) which in former times was used in the sense of " buying" prostitutes : it also had the meaning of "making oneself familiarly selfish ; and as the yarite made rules which her women were bound to obey, she often showed herself heartlessly selfish towards the courtesans, and hence the name of kwasha. The regular wages received by yarite were insignificant, but their real sources of income were tips received from guests and (by previous arrangement with their employer) commissions on the sums spent by guests. They invariably wore maki-obi (a girdle simply wound round the waist without being crossed at right angles at the back). In ancient times they wore a hood or cap over the mae-gam'i (a coil of hair above the forehead) and wore 'rnaki-ob'i of black satin. They received wages twice a year, viz :-about the middle of August (chugen=15th day of the 7th month; the last day of the Feast of Lanterns) 2 Bu (Yen 5.00), and the end of December (seibo 3 Bu (Yen 7 .. 50).
