During the Edo Period, in order to control the townsmen behavior, the Tokugawa shogunate established three official yūkaku “pleasure districts", in Kyoto, Osaka and Edo. The red-light district of Kyoto was the famous Shimabara, while its Edo counterpart was Yoshiwara, originally located in the middle of the city and later moved to an area north of Asakusa.
With streets in grid pattern and protected by a moat with walls, Yoshiwara was strictly guarded, with entrance and exit allowed through a single gate. It is said that the area was decorated with many sakura and willow trees, and by night it was strongly lit by rows of red lanterns…
Nothing survived until today though, Yoshiwara looks today as any other Tokyo neighborhood. However, a reconstructed movie set can be visited… in Kyoto, offering a glimpse of how the old Edo red-light district looked like. Inside the Toei Uzumasa Eigamura, we can visit a street lined with red colored two-story buildings, an architecture called yuujoya, specific to these pleasure districts.
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