Nighthawk

A type of street prostitute from the Edo period, women who came out at night and prostituted themselves in the open or in temporary huts for the night. They were the Edo version of what was called "Tsujigimi" in Kyoto and "Soka" in Osaka, and the name is said to have come from the fact that they were rampant at night, or from an analogy with the nighthawk bird. All were the lowest-class clandestine prostitutes who prostituted themselves for a low price (also called 24 mon), and their main dens were in Honjo Yoshida-cho, where their customers were lower-class servants and lower-class laborers of samurai and merchant families, and they were often the target of crackdowns on nighthawk hunting. Descriptions of them can often be found in old senryu poems, humorous stories, and essays.

[Mami Yamauchi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸時代の街娼(がいしょう)の一種で、夜になると出てきて野天、もしくは夜だけの仮小屋で売春した女性たちのこと。京都では「辻君(つじぎみ)」、大坂では「惣嫁(そうか)」とよばれるものの江戸版で、名称の由来は、夜間に横行するため、あるいは、夜鷹という鳥がいたのでこれになぞらえたものともいわれている。いずれも安い代価（24文ともいう）で売春する最下級のもぐり娼婦たちで、主たる巣窟(そうくつ)は本所吉田町にあり、客は武家・商家の下級奉公人や下層労働者であり、しばしば夜鷹狩りの取締りの対象となった。古川柳(こせんりゅう)、洒落(しゃれ)本、随筆などにしばしばその記述がみられる。

［山内まみ］

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