"Sorry, I didn't know."
"If you treat them properly they'll give you pleasure, almost any kind you want--if they want to--and if the money you give is correct. You give them money which has no significance, they give you their youth. It's an odd bargain." Andr`e had looked at him strangely. "They give you their youth and hide the tears you cause." He quaffed his wine and stared at the cup, abruptly maudlin.
Tyrer remembered how he had quietly refilled their glasses, cursing himself for breaking the feeling of easy friendship, to him valuable friendship, swearing to be more cautious in future and wondering why the sudden fury. "Tears?"' "Their life isn't good, but even so it isn't always bad. For some it can be marvelous. The most beautiful and accomplished become famous, they're sought after by even the most important daimyo-- kings--in the land, they can marry in high places, marry rich merchants, even samurai. But for our Ladies of the Willow World who are just for us gai-jin," Andr`e had continued bitterly, "there's no future but to open another house here, to drink sak`e and employ other girls. Mon Dieu, treat them all properly, because once they're here they're polluted in the eyes of all other Japanese."
"Sorry. How awful."
"Yes, no one understan--"' A burst of drunken laughter from the men around drowned him for a moment, the Club filled, raucous and steaming.
"I tell you these cretins don't care or give a damn, none of them, except Canterbury, he did." Andr`e had looked up from the dregs of his drink. "You're young and unsullied, here for a year or two and seem willing to learn, so I thought... there's so much to learn, so much good," he had said suddenly and left.
That was last night and now they were within the Yoshiwara gate, Andr`e took out his small pistol. "Phillip, are you armed?"' "No."
Andr`e gave the pistol to the unctuous attendant who gave him a receipt and put it with many others. "No weapons are allowed within the fence--the same in all Yoshiwaras, even samurai must give up their swords. On you va!"
Ahead of them now, on either side of the wide street and alleys leading off it, were lines of neat little houses, many for eating or just small bars, all built of wood with verandas and oiled paper shoji screens, and raised off the ground on low pilings. Everywhere color and sprays of flowers, noise and laughter, and lanterns, candles and oil lamps. "Fire's a huge hazard, Phillip. This whole place burned down the first year but within the week, booming again."
All the Houses bore individual signs.
Some had open doors and sliding shoji windows.
Many girls were in them, ornately or demurely dressed in kimonos of varying quality, depending on the standing of the House. Other girls were promenading, some with colorful umbrellas, some attended by maids, paying little or no attention to the gawking men. Intermixed were vendors of all kinds, and swarms of maids shouting the virtues of the Houses in versions of pithy, raucous pidgin, and sounding over everything the happy banter of potential customers, most of whom were recognized and had their favored places. There were no Japanese except for guards, servants, porters and masseurs.
"Never forget, Yoshiwaras are a place for joy, the pleasures of the flesh, eating and drinking as well, and that there's no such thing as sin in Japan, original sin, any kind of sin."
Andr`e laughed and led the way through the well-ordered crowds except a few brawling drunks who were quickly and good-naturedly pulled apart by huge, expert bouncers, at once to be sat on stools and plied with more sak`e by the ever attentive maids.
"Drunks are welcome, Phillip, because they lose count of their money. But don't ever pick a quarrel with a bouncer, they're fantastically good at unarmed combat."
"Compared to our Drunk Town this place is as well disciplined as the Regent's Promenade at Brighton." A boisterous maid caught Tyrer's arm and tried to pull him into a doorway. "Sak`e heya? Jig jig plenty good Mass'er..."
"Iy`e, domo, iy`e..." Tyrer burst out--no, thank you no--and hurriedly caught up with Andr`e. "My God, I had to really tug to get away."
"That's their job." Andr`e turned off the main street through a passageway between dwellings, down another, stopped at a seedy door set into a fence, a grubby sign above, and knocked.
Tyrer recognized the characters that Andr`e had written for him earlier: House of the Three Carp. A small grill slid back. Eyes peered out. The door opened and Tyrer stepped into a wonderland.
Tiny garden, oil lanterns and candlelight.
Glistening grey stepping stones in green moss, clusters of flowers, many small maples-- blood-red leaves against more green--pale orange light coming from the half-obscured shoji. Little bridge over a miniature stream, waterfall nearby. Kneeling on the veranda was a middle-aged woman, the mama-san, beautifully attired and coiffured. "Bonsoir, Monsieur Furansu-san," she said, put both her hands on the veranda and bowed.
Andr`e bowed back. "Raiko-san, konbanwa. Ikaga desu ka?"' Good evening, how are you? "Kore wa watashi no lomodachi desu, Tyrer-san."
This is my friend, Mr. Tyrer.
"Ah so desu ka? Taira-san?"' She bowed gravely, awkwardly Tyrer bowed, then she beckoned them to follow her.
"She says Taira is a famous old Japanese name. You're in luck, Phillip, most of us go by nicknames. I'm Furansu-san --the nearest they can get to Frenchman."
Taking off their shoes so as not to dirty the very clean and expensive tatami, then sitting awkwardly cross-legged in the room, Andr`e Poncin explaining the takoyama, the alcove for a special hanging scroll and flower arrangement, changed daily, guiding him to appreciate the quality of the shoji and woods.
Sak`e arrived. The maid was young, perhaps ten, not pretty but deft and silent. Raiko poured, first for Andr`e and then Tyrer, then herself. She sipped, Andr`e drained the tiny cup and held it out for more. Tyrer did the same, finding the taste of the warm wine not unpleasant but insipid. Both cups were immediately filled and drained and refilled.
More trays and more flasks.
Tyrer lost count but soon he was enveloped with a pleasing glow, forgot his nervousness and watched and listened and understood almost nothing the other two said, just a word here and there. Raiko's hair was black and shining and dressed with many ornate combs, her face thick with white powder, neither ugly nor beautiful just different, her kimono pink silk with interweaving green carp.
"A carp is koi, usually a sign of good luck," Andr`e had explained earlier.
"Townsend Harris's mistress, the Shimoda courtesan the Bakufu arranged to distract him, called herself Koi, but I'm afraid it didn't bring her luck."
"Oh? What happened?"' "The story told amongst courtesans here is that he adored her and when he left he gave her money, enough to set herself up--she was with him for about two years. Shortly after he returned to America, she just vanished. Probably drank herself to death or committed suicide."
"She loved him that much?"' "They say that in the beginning when the Bakufu approached her she adamantly refused to go with a foreigner--an unheard-of aberration, don't forget he was the first ever to be actually allowed to live on Japanese soil. She begged the Bakufu to chose someone else, to allow her to live in peace, said she would become a Buddhist nun, she even swore she would kill herself. But they were equally adamant, begging her to help them solve this problem gai-jin, pleading with her for weeks to be his consort, wearing her down by what means no one knows. So she agreed and they thanked her. And when Harris left they all turned their backs on her, Bakufu, everyone: Ah so sorry, but any woman who has gone with a foreigner is tainted forever."