Street prostitute

Japanese: 街娼 - がいしょう

A prostitute who solicits customers on the street. There are a small number of male street prostitutes. The term street prostitute began to be used around the end of the Taisho era, after prostitutes similar to the street prostitutes that haunt the urban areas of Europe and the United States began to appear in Japan, but it is used as a general term for street prostitutes without being limited to a specific type. The ukereme, which is considered to be the original form of prostitution, cannot be called a street prostitute, but the prostitutes who solicited customers from small boats in Eguchi and Kanzaki downstream of the Yodo River during the Heian period can be seen as a special type of street prostitute. Similar water prostitutes include the Asazuma boats on Lake Biwa, and in the Edo period, the Funamanju boats of Edo, the Pincho boats of Osaka, the Hashirigane boats of Shima, and the Ochoro boats of the Seto Inland Sea. All of these prostitutes catered to water travelers and sailors anchored in ports and harbors. The word yahochi appears in the mid-Heian period Wamyōshō as another name for prostitutes, and in later years it was used as another name for street prostitutes, but it is not clear whether it originally meant street prostitutes. Considering the number of people passing by at night, it is unlikely to go back very far. Therefore, as for land-based street prostitutes, the oldest confirmed example is the Tachigimi of Kyoto in the Muromachi period (Nanajuichiban Shokunin Utaawase), but other than the fact that they appeared in the evening, no other details are known.

Street prostitutes began to flourish in the early modern period as cities developed, and many appeared especially in the three major cities (Kyoto, Edo, and Osaka). The most common names for street prostitutes were Yotaka in Edo, Tachikuni in Kyoto, and Souka or Shiroyumoji in Osaka. All of them were considered to be the lowest class of prostitutes who went out to riverside areas and alleys after dusk and prostituted low-class workers on the street. The fee for prostitution was 10 mon in the Genroku period (1688-1704), and 24-100 mon in the late Edo period. After the Meiji Restoration, the population of the urban lower classes increased with changes in socio-economic life, and the number of low-class street prostitutes tended to increase from both supply and demand perspectives. On the other hand, high-class prostitutes, who were different from the traditional street prostitutes, appeared, such as the street prostitutes who appeared in Yokohama, an open port, catering to foreigners, who dressed nicely and charged 3 to 5 yen instead of the 10 to 30 sen that regular street prostitutes charged. These same types of prostitutes also began to appear in busy areas such as Ginza in Tokyo, but they served customers in waiting rooms and inns rather than on the streets.

After the Second World War, street prostitutes appeared to cater to the occupying soldiers, and their large numbers and unashamed behavior became a social problem. The social upheaval and economic poverty caused by the defeat in the war had encouraged the emergence of street prostitutes, and the occupying soldiers were barred from entering the comfort facilities that had existed until then, which led to a rapid increase in street prostitutes in the occupied cities. This was due to the collapse of various orders, as well as psychological factors such as a change in repressed sexual attitudes that had been a factor in the consciousness of the defeated. Initially, they were called "Yami no Onna" (Women of the Darkness), a derivative of the popular phrase "Yami," meaning unofficial, and has no relation to the term used before the war to mean "women of the underworld." Later, names such as "Yami no Onna" (Women of the Night) and "Panpan Girl" were also used. Unlike other private prostitutes who are bound by debts in advance, street prostitutes appear to have the freedom to operate at their own will, but there are many cases of forced employment through violence, and many cases in which prostitutes are unable to break away from their pimps for self-defense. The large number of regular users of narcotics and stimulants indicates a connection with organized crime. In September 1956, the number of street prostitutes nationwide was reported to be 13,406 (according to a survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare), but since then, with the strengthening of controls and the diversification of the sex industry, call girls, flyer cards, pink bars, etc. have become common, and the number of street prostitutes appears to be on the decline. However, there remain some high-class street prostitutes who work in bars, etc., and these now include foreign women.

[Yoichi Harashima]

foreign country

Historically, prostitutes came into being in situations of conquest, contact, exchange, and trade between different ethnic groups and tribes, with street prostitutes forming the lowest class of prostitutes. In ancient societies, there were street prostitutes in Israel who catered to travelers, and in ancient Greece and Rome, there were street prostitutes other than those employed in brothels. The most famous of these is the Lubanal (meaning "den of the she-wolf") in the Roman slum district of Spule, so named because she would come out at night. In the Middle Ages, there were street prostitutes who catered to knights in towns through which Crusader expeditions passed.

In China, there was a distinction between official prostitutes and street prostitutes, with the latter called private prostitutes, anmenzi, or half-kaimen, but during the Qing Dynasty in Shanghai, street prostitutes were openly derided as "wild chickens."

Street prostitutes were subject to crackdowns in many countries as they disrupted the system and organization of licensed prostitution, but the problem of street prostitution became especially acute when syphilis, which Columbus's sailors brought back to Italy in the 15th century, began to wreak havoc in various places. Syphilis affects even well-behaved men and women. It is said that there were 50,000 prostitutes in London and 13,000 in Paris in the 17th century, but the street prostitutes were not included in the measures to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. As a result, street prostitutes became a social problem, and in 1785, Paris established a prostitution registration system. Since the International Conference in London in 1899, every country has considered measures to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, and an increasing number of countries have issued bans on prostitution, but the underground street prostitutes have not disappeared.

[Mitsusada Fukasaku]

[References] | Prostitution | Nighthawk

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

街頭で誘客する売春婦。少数ながら男性の街娼がいる。街娼の用語は、欧米の市街地に出没する路上売春婦に似た娼婦が日本にも現れるようになったあと、大正末ごろに使い始められたものだが、特定の形態に限らずに街頭売春婦の総称として使っている。売春の起源形態にあげられる遊行女(うかれめ)は街娼とはいえないが、平安時代に淀(よど)川下流の江口、神崎などで小舟に乗って客を誘った遊女を、街娼の特殊な形態とみることができる。同様の水上売春婦には、琵琶(びわ)湖の朝妻(あさづま)船や、江戸時代には江戸の船饅頭(ふなまんじゅう)、大坂のピンショ、志摩のはしりがね、瀬戸内海のおちょろなどが知られる。いずれも港湾などで停泊中の水路旅人や船員を客にした売春婦である。平安中期の『和名抄(わみょうしょう)』に遊女の別称として夜発(やほち)の語がみえ、後年には街娼の異名に用いられたが、当初から街娼を意味したかは断定できない。夜間の人通りなどを考えると、あまり古くにさかのぼることはなかろう。したがって、陸上の街娼としては、室町時代の京都における立君(たちぎみ)が確認できる古い例であるが（『七十一番職人歌合(うたあわせ)』）、宵から出没したこと以外の詳しいことは不明である。

　街娼の活躍は都会が発達してくる近世以後のことで、とくに三都（京都、江戸、大坂）を中心に多くの街娼が出現した。江戸で夜鷹(よたか)、京都で立君、大坂では惣嫁(そうか)または白湯文字(しろゆもじ)とよぶのが代表的名称であった。いずれも、夕刻以後に河岸端(かしばた)や小路に出て、下層労働者らを相手に路上で売春する最下級の売春婦とされた。売春料は、元禄(げんろく)時代（1688～1704）で10文、江戸後期には24～100文であった。明治維新以後は社会経済生活の変化に伴って都市下層民が増大し、需給の両面から底辺の街娼が増える傾向にあった。一方では、開港地横浜に出現した外国人相手の街娼のように、服装も整い、一般の街娼が10～30銭の売春料であるのに3～5円をとるなど、従来の街娼とは違った高級街娼が現れた。同種の街娼は東京・銀座などの繁華街にも出没するようになったが、接客場所は路上でなく待合や旅館を利用した。

　第二次世界大戦後、占領軍兵士を対象とする街娼が出現して、その数が多いことや人目をはばからぬ行動などもあって社会問題となった。敗戦による社会的変動と経済的貧困とが街娼の発生を促していたところへ、従前の慰安施設への占領軍兵士の立ち入りを禁じたため、被進駐都市では街娼が急増したものである。これには、諸秩序の崩壊とともに、抑圧された性意識の変革などの精神的要因が敗戦者意識のなかに介在したことが認められる。当初、闇(やみ)の女とよんだのは、非公認を意味する流行語「やみ」の派生語で、戦前に使われた暗黒街の女性という意味の用語との関連性はない。その後、夜の女、パンパンガールなどの名称も用いられた。街娼は、他の私娼が前借金などで拘束されるのに反し、本人の意志でかってに営業できる自由があるようにみえるが、暴力による強制就業が少なからず、また自衛のためもあってヒモと絶縁できぬ例が多い。麻薬や覚醒剤(かくせいざい)の常用者が多いのは暴力組織との関係を示している。1956年（昭和31）9月の全国街娼数は1万3406人と報告されているが（厚生省調査）、その後は取締りの強化や性産業の多様化によって、コールガール、チラシカード、ピンクバーなどが続出したため街娼は減少傾向にみえるが、酒場などを利用した高級街娼が一部に残り、そのなかには外国女性が含まれるに至っている。

［原島陽一］

外国

史的にみると、娼婦は異民族・異部族間の征服・接触・交流・通商などの状況下に生まれており、街娼は娼婦の最下層を形成している。古代社会では、イスラエルで旅行者相手の街娼がいたし、古代ギリシアやローマでも娼家の娼婦以外の街娼がいた。そのなかでもローマの細民街スプウレのリュバナール（「牝狼(ひんろう)の巣」の意）が有名だが、牝狼という名前は夜になると出没するためである。中世では、十字軍の遠征軍の通過する町々に騎士相手の街娼がいた。

　中国では、官妓(かんぎ)と街娼を区別し、後者を私窠子(しかし)・暗門子・半開門などとよんでいたが、清(しん)朝のころは上海(シャンハイ)で街娼をあからさまに「野鶏(イエチ)」とさげすんでいた。

　街娼は公娼の制度や組織を乱すものとして諸国で取締りの対象であったが、街娼問題がとくに切実になったのは、コロンブスの水夫たちが15世紀のイタリアに持ち帰った梅毒が各地に猛威を振るいだしたためである。梅毒は品行方正な男女にも及ぶ。17世紀にはロンドンに5万人、パリに1万3000人の娼婦がいたといわれるが、そのうちの街娼には性病対策コントロールが及ばない。そのため街娼が社会問題化し、パリでは1785年に売春登録制を設定し、1899年の国際ロンドン会議以来どこの国でも性病防止対策を考え、売春禁止令を出す国々も増えたが、もぐりの街娼は消え去らない。

［深作光貞］

[参照項目] | 売春 | 夜鷹

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