Oiran
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Oiran is a collective term for the highest-ranking courtesans in Japanese history, who were considered to be above common prostitutes for their more refined entertainment skills and training in the tr
An oiran sitting with a client and an apprentice. Ukiyo-e print by Suzuki Harunobu (1765).
Picture of oiran in 1917
The modern-day tayū Kisaragi of the Wachigaiya okiya of Shimabara, Kyoto on parade
An actress dressed as an oiran in parade wearing distinctive high platform shoes
Yoshiwara
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Yoshiwara is a red-light district in Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1617, Yoshiwara was one of three licensed and well-known famous yūkaku created during the early 17th century by the Tokugawa shogunate
Oiran
…oiran by definition also engaged in prostitution, higher-ranking oiran had a degree of choice in which customers they took. The term oiran originated in Yoshiwara, the red light district of Edo in the 1750s, and is applied to all ranks of high level courtesans in historical Japan. The services of oiran were well…
Cherry Blossom Time in Nakanochō of Yoshiwara by Utagawa Hiroshige, woodblock print, depicting the main street lined with tea houses, 1848-1849.
Yoshiwara Night Scene, ukiyo-e painting by Katsushika Ōi
Women of the Yoshiwara, photograph during the Meiji period
Yoshiwara during the Taisho era in the 1920s