Tokyo’s traditional hooker parade
Kyodo News photo - Apr. 12, 2008
The Japanese press calling this an “entertainers’ procession” is just a bit ingenuous. At least the Mainichi Daily News gets closer to the truth by explaining that these entertainers were Oiran “high-class” (expensive) “courtesans” (prostitutes).
Mainichi Daily News - AP Photo - April 12, 2008 –A participant (right) dressed as an Oiran, or high-class courtesan in the Edo period (1600-1868), marches during the annual Oiran festival in Tokyo’s Asakusa shopping district…
The-other-side-of-the-coin would be…
That similarities could be found between the ancient Greek hetaera, the Japanese Oiran, and Babylonian Nadītu–all complex figures that are perhaps in an intermediate position between prostitutes and entertainers.
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