Nihonbashi Nakasu (日本橋中洲) is a neighbourhood in the

Nihonbashi is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan, which sprung up around the bridge of the same name that has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The curre ...

area of

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan. It was the site of a short-lived but vibrant and popular entertainment district built upon an artificial

landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

in the

Sumida River The is a river that flows through central Tokyo, Japan. It branches from the Arakawa River at Iwabuchi (in Kita-ku) and flows into Tokyo Bay. Its tributaries include the Kanda and Shakujii rivers. It passes through the Kita, Adachi, Arak ...

, at a place called ''Mitsumata'' (三又, "Three Forks"), in 1771, and lasted until 1790, when the landfill was removed.

Nakasu pleasure district

Mitsumata, a short distance from the

Yoshiwara was a famous ( red-light district) in Edo, present-day Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1617, Yoshiwara was one of three licensed and well-known red-light districts created during the early 17th century by the Tokugawa shogunate, alongside Shim ...

pleasure district, had long been a popular spot for entertainment. Teahouses, restaurants, and houseboats were common there, and it was a popular site for pleasure boating as well. A famous, but likely fictional, tale of a courtesan named

Takao II , also known as Sendai Takao or Manji Takao, was a (highest-ranking courtesan) of the Yoshiwara red light district of Edo, and one of the most famous courtesans of Japan's Edo period (1603–1867). She debuted in 1655 as the leading courtesan of t ...

took place there in the 1660s; she was bought from the Yoshiwara by daimyō Date Tsunamune for her weight in gold, and when brought on Date's pleasure boat to Mitsumata, she tried to leap overboard, to drown herself, out of depression. She was instead murdered, stabbed, by Tsunamune. In any case, by 1771, Nakasu had become popular enough, and crowded with enough restaurants and teahouses, that the shogunate decided to create an artificial landfill jutting out into the river. There gradually appeared many more places of entertainment, and "by 1779, there were eighteen restaurants (some catering exclusively to daimyo deputies), ninety-three teahouses, fourteen boathouses, and at least twenty-seven geisha."Seigle, Cecila Segawa (1993). "Yoshiwara: The Glittering World of the Japanese Courtesan." Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. This made it the greatest concentration of famous restaurants and teahouses anywhere in Japan. The area became especially prosperous in 1787, when a fire ravaged the Yoshiwara. A number of proprietors of Yoshiwara establishments were allowed to set up shop in Nakasu temporarily, and for a few years, the area truly flourished. Courtesans plied their trade, free of the complex and burdensome rituals and procedures of the Yoshiwara, and their young attendants were able to experience a bit more of a normal childhood. However, many courtesans relied on those same rituals and procedures to maintain a certain degree of class and restraint. Outside the Yoshiwara, they were unable to be as discerning as usual in choosing their clients, and suffered less comfortable room arrangements. Overall, the arrangement was very freeing for the courtesans and their clients, but less classy as well. As another example, courtesans in Nakasu might wear the same kimono for an entire day, or over multiple days, not bothering to look her absolute best; this saved a lot of bother and money for the courtesans and their establishments, but it also reduced them to looking, and possibly behaving, not too unlike lower-grade prostitutes. However, the corrupt politician

Tanuma Okitsugu (September 11, 1719 – August 25, 1788) was a chamberlain (''sobashū'') and a senior counselor ('' rōjū'') to the ''shōgun'' Tokugawa Ieharu of the Tokugawa Shogunate, in the Edo period of Japan. Tanuma and his son exercised tremendo ...

was ousted in 1786, and replaced with a more severe moralist, Matsudaira Sadanobu. Citing the flooding caused upstream by the partial blockage of the river by the landfill, Matsudaira ordered it removed, and the river restored, in 1790.

References

{{coord missing, Japan Nihonbashi, Tokyo Edo-period sites Entertainment districts in Japan Restaurant districts and streets in Japan