On the origins of Edo's pleasure quarters

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Hokujoryo kigen shōsho ["Origins of the northern pleasure district, abridged"]

Shōji [Nishida], Katsutomi [original text by].

[Japan, ca. Ganji period (1864-1865)?]. Manuscript.

An abridged manuscript version of Hokujoryo kigen - an edition of Ihon Dōbō Goen ("Sequel to A garden of words from the boudoir", 1733) with additions by poet Ishihara Toryū (or Toru), on the origins, language, and culture of the Yoshiwara, Edo's red-light district. Ihon Dōbō Goen was itself a continuation of Dōbō goen ("A garden of words from the boudoir"), a zuihitsu on the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters completed in 1720 by Shōji Katsutomi (1668–1745), a poet, merchant, brothel owner, and descendant of the founder of the Yoshiwara. As the editors of A Kamigata anthology (2020, p. 439) note,

"A Garden of Words from the Boudoir (Dōbō Goen, hand-copied distribution, 1720; first printed edition, 1738) is an anthology of light prose interspersed with poetry in Chinese and Japanese and was written by residents and frequent guests of Edo's officially sanctioned pleasure district. The editor ... was well positioned to gather and publish literary gleanings from the early eighteenth-century world of Edo brothels."

A late Edo period abridgement featuring two maps, in remarkably clean condition.

One four-hole (yotsutoji) manuscript volume, presumed complete, on double leaves, traditional East Asian binding style (fukurotoji). Original wrappers, lightly creased. Small internal marks and creases, inconsequential ink stains to foot, one small wormhole to margins. [45] leaves. 24.2 x 17 cm.

On the origins of Edo's pleasure quarters
Price: $2,385.00 (USD)