ABSTRACT
TheprosperityoftheYoshiwarawasatitszenithatthis period,andthequarterwascountedasoneoftheplacesin Yedowhichwas"worthathousandryoperday."
Atpres~nt,inthemonthofAugusteveryyear,alarge lantern,onwhichisapaintingfromthebrushofsomewellknownartist,isexhibitedinthecentreoftheYoshiwa.raat .Naka-no-choforthepurposeofattractingpeople.Besidesthis show-piece,revolvingandotherlanternsofvariousshapesand designsarehuuginfrontofthetea-housesandlitupnightly. Underthesecircumstancesmanypersons-notexcepting women-flockintotheYoshiwara.towitnessthebrilliant spectacle,andmanyaprodigalisinducedtosquandermoney therebyreasonofthelanternswhichapparentlyonlyserveto dazzlehiseyesandobscurehisreasoninsteadofenlightening himandguidinghisfootsteps.Thegeneralstyleoflanternis verticallylongbutnarrow·inbreadth,itbeingmadeofsilk stretchedonblack-lacqueredframes.Itissupportedbya pairofcedarpolescoveredwithanichimatsushijjibywayofa roof.Eachhouseisprovidedwithapairoftheselanterns, onefacingthestreetandtheothertheinteriorofthebuilding, sothatonecanbeseenfrom·eitherside:thisarrangement hasnullifiedtheoldsaying"taro1.oa'ltrakaramiro,niwakau'a maekaramiro"("lookatthelanternsfrombehindandthem:waka dancefromthefront").Onewriterobservesthataslateasthe 20thyearofMeiji(1887)thelanternsplacedinfrontofteahousesfacedthestreets,andwerethereforeonlyseento
advantage by pedestrians, while actual guests who went up into the second story of a tea-house had to content themselves with looking at the rear of these lanterns. The present day fashion would seem to be of very modern origin indeed. After the lOth year of Meiji (1877) the tea-houses in the Naka-nocho hit upon the novel idea of putting up white cloths at the entrance and making displays by means of magic-lanterns, but as this made the Y oshi wara practically a dark world it occasioned great inconvenience to the guests. From time to time the tea-house-keepers have shown themselves very ingenious in getting np new schemes to attract visitors, and on one occasion they displayed an artificial moon on a screen so contrived as to show the movement of clouds flitting across its face : all these displays are reckoned as making up one of the notable events which take place in the Yoshiwara yearly.
