¡®±á±ð²â oniichan (big brother), you want to come in and check out photos of our girls?¡±
It¡¯s only a little after 10 a.m. on a weekday, and middle-aged men with sluggish gazes ¡ª wearing grandpa sweaters and jersey pants ¡ª are trying to coax passersby into the brothel-esque bathhouses known as ¡°soaplands¡± that line the streets in the northeastern corner of Senzoku, a neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Taito Ward. The area is still referred to as Yoshiwara, for the pleasure quarters of the same name that flourished here during the Edo Period (1603-1868).
It¡¯s also the birthplace of Tsutaya Juzaburo, an 18th-century media maverick known for ¡°discovering¡± and catapulting to stardom ukiyo-e masters such as Utamaro, Sharaku and, to a lesser extent, Hokusai.
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