Shinmachi (新町) was a in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

, built between 1615 and 1623, and operating until its destruction in World War II. It was situated roughly two kilometers southwest of

Nakanoshima is a 3 km long and 50 hectares narrow sandbank in Kita-ku, Osaka city, Japan, that divides the Kyū-Yodo into the Tosabori and Dōjima rivers. Many governmental and commercial offices (including the city hall of Osaka), museums and oth ...

. Today, it is mostly a tourist attraction and historical site. Throughout the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

(1603–1868), there was widespread male and female prostitution throughout the cities of Kyoto,

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

, and Osaka. The

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

attempted to control this by restricting prostitution to designated city districts, known as ''yūkaku''. These districts were Shimabara in

Kyōto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it the ninth-most pop ...

(est. 1640Anne Louise Avery, ''Flowers of the Floating World: Geisha and Courtesans in Japanese Prints and Photographs, 1772–1926'' (

Sanders of Oxford Sanders of Oxford is an antique print shop situated on the High Street of the city of Oxford, England. Although stores trading in prints were once common in the country, there are now only a handful left, Sanders being one of the largest and lon ...

Exhibition Catalogue, March 2006)), Shinmachi in Osaka (est. 1624–1644) and

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 ...

in Edo (est. 1617). These restrictions and controls did not derive from a moral opposition to prostitution, but out of a desire to compartmentalize certain types of activity within the cities.

Kabuki is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...

and jōruri theatres, and other related entertainment establishments were similarly controlled.

References

External links

(Ruin of Shinmachi Bridge:East Gate) Geography of Osaka Sexuality in Japan Red-light districts in Japan Tourist attractions in Osaka {{Osaka-geo-stub