Of course, it helped that Sayuri’s saga was made up. There may not be enough information out there to write a book about Yuki without filling in the cracks with fiction, but there can be no doubt that she led an interesting life. Morgan Oyuki created scandal and captured the headlines throughout her life and, incredibly, her presence alone may have saved Kyoto from the atomic bomb.

The Cure for a Broken Heart: 40,000 Yen

It was 1902, and George Morgan had just had his heart broken. His fiancee had split, so he took a trip to Japan to get over his feelings. George’s father was a rich man named George Morgan, and his mother was the sister of a considerably richer man, the famous banker J.P. Morgan. Yes, you may find it a bit creepy that both of his parents were born with the last name Morgan, but they were apparently unrelated. I’m skeptical.

Anyway, George was looking for something to cure his broken heart, and he found it: A Gion district geisha named Yuki Kato. He courted her for years, seeing her and asking her to marry him and visiting Kyoto as often as he could. She constantly refused, and something of a love triangle developed between her, George, and Yuki’s young lover Kawamura. The newspapers picked up on the story, and the scandal began.

Eventually, Kawamura moved away (maybe to avoid being drawn further into a scandalous story) and Yuki agreed to marry George Morgan. At this point, 40,000 yen, a tremendous amount of money back then, changed hands, and different stories give different reasons. Some say Yuki asked for the money in return for marriage, an old-school bride price situation, and others say the money was spent to release Yuki from her geisha contract. Whatever it was, George paid 40,000 yen or more to marry Yuki Kato, and this scandalous piece of news kept the Japanese newspapers talking for decades. January 20th, the anniversary of George Morgan and Yuki Kato’s marriage, is “Marry Into Money Day” to this day in Japan. It’s not a public holiday or anything, but it’s real.

With this marriage, the “Japanese Cinderella” story was born, and Yuki Kato became Morgan Oyuki. She left Japan with George, and visited America with him for a while. They found that the United States wasn’t quite ready to accept George’s young, recently geisha wife, so they left for France, where they would stay for the next decade.

In 1915, George Morgan was trying to return to France from America, as he’d done dozens of times. Due to the onset of World War I, this was no longer a simple process. To stay safe from German submarines, he took a ship to Gibraltar at the south tip of Spain, then had to travel overland the rest of the way to France. He would never make it. He died of a heart attack, and Morgan Oyuki was now a widow.

Mixed Narratives

At this point, the narratives split. Some accounts say that Oyuki left for New York, where three decades of Madame Butterfly performances had apparently now made the upper class more amenable to having a former geisha around. Wikipedia even claims that it was the Morgans who brought her there, but it cites a book that’s talking about something entirely different.

What’s wrong with that story? Oyuki hadn’t been welcome in New York about ten years earlier, and she probably knew English about as well as I know Tagalog. She learned French and spoke French so often that she was only an awkward Japanese speaker when she returned to Kyoto decades later.

Using Yuki’s letters and journals, Japanese writer Sumi Kosakai discovered what is probably the real story: Yuki stayed in France, living with a French ex-legionnaire who had been sending her love letters for some time. He would die a few decades later, and she would finally decide to return home.

Regardless of which story you believe, Oyuki returned to Kyoto in 1938, where she’d remain until her death in 1963. The Japanese media still wasn’t tired of talking about her, and every couple of years another novel or play based on her life would start the whole conversation over again. A 1947 issue of TIME Magazine details a particularly successful book about Oyuki which had been serialized over 260 installments in three different newspapers. Mademoiselle Yuki had never spoken with the author and refused to see him. The author had simply decided to fill in the cracks with fiction.

Box Office, Bombs

A movie director by the name of Masahiro Makino had a theory about Yuki. He said that it was his father, Shouzou Makino, who originally advised Yuki Kato to ask for an enormous amount of money to be wed. Makino says his father also met Yuki in France later on and tried to arrange a meeting between her and her former lover Kawamura, only to have Kawamura die along the way.

Masahiro Makino theorized that the Morgan family knew that Yuki had returned to Kyoto, and so they had the city stricken from the shortlist of potential atomic bomb targets (yes, this list definitely existed, and yes, Kyoto was originally on it).

It’s not by any means impossible that the Morgan family called off the dogs on Kyoto. If Lieutenant General Leslie Groves’ book about his experience leading the Manhattan Project is to be believed, it was Secretary of War Henry Stimson who adamantly took Kyoto off the bombing targets list. There have been a number of rumors as to why Stimson did this: Some say he thought it would be against the rules of war to bomb such a historic city. Some sources say Stimson rejected Kyoto because he had honeymooned there (embarrassingly, this may be the most well-supported story out there in historical sources).

But, if you’re willing to delve a little further into conspiracy theory, Stimson had also been a partner and close friend of J.P. Morgan’s personal attorney Elihu Root, and he was certainly well-acquainted with the surviving Morgan family. If the Morgans were aware that Oyuki was in Kyoto, which they probably were, and the Morgans still had the ear of Stimson, which they probably did, then Makino’s atomic bomb theory isn’t the wildest theory you’ll ever hear. But, to my knowledge, there’s no documentation or proof of this justification for saving Kyoto, and there’s been plenty written on the subject, even if it is a little inconclusive.

Finally, An Eyewitness Account

Despite all the scandal, the hoopla, and the “Japanese Cinderella” name tag, there is at least one source which claims Morgan Oyuki lived her last few decades simply, without the money and the drama associated with her earlier years. In a letter to TIME Magazine, a man who’d met Oyuki wrote in to protest at their typically scandal-filled report of her life:

Sir:

Your article about Mrs. George Morgan [TIME, Dec. 22] and the accompanying cut is both conceived and written in extraordinarily poor taste. Your willingness to accept the evidence of a cheap Japanese novelist is right in keeping with the tradition of yellow journalism.

At the request of her niece, Mrs. Sarah Morgan Gardner of Princeton, I located Mrs. Morgan in Kyoto in May of 1946 while serving in Japan with the Marine Corps. I found her through the St. Francis Xavier Church missionaries in that city, men who willingly testified to her devotion to the church and to the hardships she had suffered in Japan as the widow of an American. Mrs. Morgan herself, a charming elderly lady, who seemed more Occidental than Japanese, was overjoyed to hear news of her American relations, who are all devoted to her and have made every effort to see that she is taken care of. Far from being a rich woman, as intimated in your article, all her income is frozen in the United States.

Articles such as yours can do little else than make life more uncomfortable for people who are unable to answer them.

ROBERT W. LOCKE Princeton, N.J.

The TIME editor shrugged off the complaint with a bit of snark:

TIME trusts that its other readers were not equally offended by this story of Madame-Butterfly-with-a-difference. — ED.

To be fair, with the exception of suggesting that Yuki was still rich, TIME didn’t say much that wasn’t true.

Yuki Kato’s story has continued to inspire talk and rumors and novels and plays. Just last year, a new play called “Morgan O-Yuki: The Geisha of the Gilded Age” was put on at Ventfort Hall in Massachusetts, a mansion built by George Morgan’s parents. Fictionalized or not, her “Japanese Cinderella” story keeps echoing on through the decades, and who’s to say it ever has to stop?

Bonus Wallpapers!

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Sources:

• TIME Magazine, the 12/22/1947, 1/19/1948, and 5/31/1963 issues.
• Women of the Pleasure Quarters by Lesley Downer, pp. 186-192.
• The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, and Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient by Sheridan Prasso, pp. 48-9.
• Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project by Leslie Groves, pp. 275-6.
• History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II by Murray N. Rothbard, p. 422.
• “What Future For Japan?”: U.S. Wartime Planning for the Postwar Era, 1942-1945 by Rudolf V.A. Janssens, p. 317.
• http://blog.goo.ne.jp/amachan_001/e/7f27c0a4e762b5f8416f1b77310fa70d
• http://www.joho-kyoto.or.jp/~wazaden/english/hito/morgan_e.html
• http://www.yorozubp.com/2011/2011/07/post-9.html
• http://uncoveringjapan.com/2013/09/25/good-eats-gogyo-kyoto/
• http://boardingarea.com/pointsmilesandmartinis/2013/09/how-a-ho…
• http://www.kyozei.or.jp/news/93/93-3.html
• http://www.nnh.to/01/20.html

So what happened to them? What brought about their downfall and how come nobody really knows or cares about them anymore? Well, this article will answer those questions and introduce you to the relatively unknown world of the taikomochi. Brace yourselves.

Who Are These Strange Men?

The taikomochi men got their start as the Japanese equivalents of jesters, and they were once attendants to the feudal lords of Japan. Houkan was the formal name for a jester with taikomochi being a less formal name for them, literally meaning “drum bearer”. Not all of them used drums, but it nevertheless became the common term for them.

Taikomochi started doing their thing in 13th century Japan, focusing mainly on dancing, the electric slide and gangnam style being two of their favorites. These men both advised and entertained their lords with many being tea ceremony connoisseurs and artists. By the 16th century, they also became known for their superb storytelling, focusing mainly on humor and conversation. The taikomochi also acted as advisors to the military, were involved in strategizing, and even fought alongside their lords in battle.

Basically, the taikomochi could do anything – a jack of all trades, if you will. Need to be entertained? Taikomochi. Need someone to fight in battle for you? Taikomochi. Need some tea? Artwork? Music? Stories? War advice? Love advice? The winning lotto numbers? Taikomochi did it all, and they enjoyed their extreme usefulness for about four centuries.

Time for a Change

An era of peace began in the 17th century, however, making the taikomochi not as useful to their lords as they used to be. No longer being needed for military advising and soldiering and the like, taikomochi had to focus their skills to a particular area. Entertainment. Ultimately, they changed from being men of many hats to becoming pure entertainers. A number of them found employment with oiran, high class female courtesans.

These courtesans were employed at pleasure quarters that had quickly become glamorous entertainment centers offering more than just sex to their patrons. The highly accomplished courtesans of these districts entertained their clients by dancing, singing, and playing music, much like the taikomochi did for their lords back in the day. Some were even renowned poets and calligraphers, just like the taikomochi.

What a perfect place for the taikomochi to get involved with. Gradually, the taikomochi and the courtesans both became specialized in their new profession of pure entertainment. The first pure entertainers of the pleasure quarters were the taikomochi, and they were dubbed geisha (arts person). These male geisha were responsible for entertaining customers waiting to see the most popular and gifted courtesans of the day.

Women Ruin Everything #sadface #misogynyisntfunny

Around 1750, the first onna geisha (female geisha) emerged, causing quite a commotion. She was called a geiko (arts girl), and this is still the term for geisha in Kyoto because they like to talk differently than everyone else in Japan. But anyway, this geiko was a Fukagawa prostitute. She was a skilled singer and shamisen player named Kikuya, and she was an immediate success. Kikuya pretty much singlehandedly started the downfall of male geisha everywhere.

I mean, if you think about it, most of the patrons of these pleasure quarters were men, and most men would rather be entertained by a woman instead of a man. All entertainment skills equal, most men would probably choose a woman to entertain them, just because they’re more fun to look at.

Kikuya made female geisha extremely popular in Fukagawa during this time. As female geisha became more widespread, many courtesans began working only as entertainers (rather than prostitutes) right in the same places as male geisha. By the end of the 18th century these onna geisha outnumbered the male geisha and the men became so few that they had to go by the name of otoko geisha (male geisha) to avoid confusion with their female counterparts.

The female geisha took over due to their artistic skills, contemporary outlook, sophistication, and boobs. The men, not wanting to throw in the towel just yet, continued to assist the women working in the pleasure quarters.

According to the book “Geisha: The Secret History of a Vanishing World”, in Yoshiwara there were 16 female geisha and 31 male geisha in 1770, 33 female geisha and 31 male geisha in 1775, and then a whopping 143 female geisha and only 45 male geisha in 1800. The females started to really take over the field here and the role of the males was relegated to a role of supporting, rather than assisting, and most often only at big parties. The role of a geisha was now truly considered a female occupation.

The Decline of Geisha and the Rise of Maid Cafes and Host Clubs

During their heyday, there were about five or six hundred taikomochi in Japan. Since then, the geisha of both sexes started to decline with the increasing popularity of maid cafes and host clubs starting around 1920. Their decline sped up with World War II, and the taikomochi continue to decline today.

The main reason for the decline during the war was because most men and women had to go to factories or other places to work for Japan. The geisha name also lost status and respect during this time because prostitutes began referring to themselves as “geisha girls” to the American military.

In 1944, all of the geisha tea houses, bars, and houses, were forced to shut down, and all employees were put to work in factories for the war effort. About a year later, they were allowed to reopen, but very few men and women returned.

Although there are still small communities of geisha in Kyoto and Tokyo today, there are less than ten taikomochi in Japan. Few young women are interested in becoming geisha these days, and even fewer young men are interested in becoming taikomochi. Host clubs and maid cafes, however, are still going strong.

So tell me, did you already know that the first geisha were actually male? What do you think about their beginnings and how they eventually got stomped out by the female geisha and then society itself? Would you rather be a taikomochi or a host club host? Let us know in the comments!

Sites Referenced:
Wikipedia Taikomochi
Wikipedia: Geisha

The era of the Geisha for the most part has ended, but the cultural tradition of larger than life females remains very much alive.  Outside traditional areas in cities like Kyoto, there are very few Geisha to be found in Japan these days, but in their place are virtually endless varieties of “Fantasy Girls.”  Samurai used to pay elaborately dressed Geisha to sing, dance, and generally make them feel good about themselves after a long day working for their lord.  In modern times, “shain” 社員 (company men) can choose their own “Fantasy Girl” to perform the same function.  In many cases, the purpose of their service goes beyond simple physical attractiveness to provide an avenue of escapism through individual attention, fantastic scenarios, and over-the-top service.  People come from around the world to participate in the many fantastic worlds created by Japan’s “Fantasy Girls,” and this post should serve as an introduction to what all the fuss is about by presenting a few well known groups of women (sometimes men) who set the stage for fantasy: キャバクラ (Kyabakura), ホステスクラブ／ホストクラブ (Host/Hostess Club), スナックバー (Snack Bar), and メイドカフェ (Maid Cafes).

キャバクラ – Kyabakura

キャバクラ “Kyabakura” (referred to by some as hostess or host bars), ホステスクラブ “Hostess Clubs,” and スナックバー “Snack Bars” are all very similar in that they involve beautiful women and men who are dressed almost comically elegantly and are supposed to make you feel like a big shot…as long as you have cash.

The word キャバクラ (kyabakura) is made from a combination of the words cabaret and club.  I guess it’s kind of like a Las Vegas cabaret show that comes to you!  This type of establishment also has the same kind of bad reputation as Las Vegas has: full of organized crime, substance abuse, prostitution, illegal immigrant workers, and exploitation of women (and men).  While this negative stereotype has a lot of traction, and has even attracted some action from the Japanese government, キャバクラ are so widespread throughout Japan that the moral standing of the establishment varies from location to location.

In Kyabakura, The Experience Should Be Like This:

A man or women dressed as if he or she is about to go to the Academy Awards will approach you from outside the establishment and tell you about all the beautiful women (or men) inside the kyabakura and should you decide to go inside the clock immediately starts on your service charge (warning: this is how a lot of foreigners lose all their money very quickly).  Once inside, either a girl (or boy) will be chosen for you or you can pick from a menu.  From that point, you are seated with the partner you chose who dotes on you hand and foot, flirts with you, animatedly listens to stories about your boring life, and constantly praises you.  All this is done over very expensive drinks, and typically one is encouraged to buy an entire bottle of liquor for use on multiple occasions, i.e. they really want you to come back.  Depending on the location, once the night is over you will get a little kiss and then a flurry of text messages telling you how amazing you are and to come back as soon as possible.  If you develop a relationship with a particular hostess or host, sometimes paid dates, called “douhan” 「同伴」 outside the club are permitted to encourage loyalty to the particular kyabakura.  This practice is morally gray to say the least, but in theory these dates are limited to casual flirting only.  Once you leave the kyabakura you will feel like a great weight has been lifted from your shoulders…or wallet…I forget which one comes first.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw-PrZjGHaE']

This Japanese news report is kind of like an insiders guide to the girls inside kyabakura (a relatively un-sketchy one).

ホステスクラブ – Hostess Club

Take the concept of kyabakura, multiply the price and staff physical attractiveness factor by at least 10, add incredibly wealthy people, subtract most of the illegal activities, and you have a hostess club!

There will be no one begging you to come inside this establishment.  These types of clubs are highly exclusive, often the meeting place for very high ranking members of society, and located in high class areas of big cities like the Ginza district in Tokyo.  If you want in, there is typically no fee per hour, but in the best ones you need to shell out over $100K to get access (yes, in US DOLLARS… not that US dollars are worth that much anymore, though).  The workers here are generally taken care of very well by a former hostess called Mama-san, and often have successful modeling careers during and after their time as employees.  Sometimes they get married to celebrities or high ranking officials who frequent the club.  The women are highly trained in the skills of making you feel good about yourself and are on the forefront of fashion trends.  Definitely not unlike Geisha right?!  This type of celebrity like status is what allures a lot of young women into the business, but a high quality place like this is usually not were they end up.

ホストクラブ – Host Club

One interesting difference between the “Age of the Geisha” and now is the inclusion of men as servers in Japan’s night time industry.  Host Clubs work almost exactly the same way as Hostess Clubs, but are typically not as high class and include a rainbow of gender preferences: female or male customers who like males, female or male customers who like very feminine males or cross dressing males, female or male customers who like females dressed as males, and the list goes on and on.  No matter what type of male they are, you can be assured that they are very confident, cool, fashionable, and oozing with money.

スナックバー – Snack Bar

A snack bar is like the smaller cousin to kyabakura.  These places typically are not the epicenter of modern fashion, but are more like hangouts for everyday salary men that would rather hang out with younger, probably foreign girls, than go home to their wife.  These places often have a variety of options for activities to do together like billiards, karaoke, darts, drinking, and eating.  It’s like going to a bar with a hot young girlfriend who does nothing but praise your every action and encourage you to drink as much as you want!  Definitely a fantasy world, and you’ll end up paying for it when the bill comes.  Unlike kyabakura, snack bars are a little bit more on the “honor system” in that if you really like the service you should leave a substantial tip.  Snack Bars are also not as hardcore as kyabakura about getting you to come back over and over again through financial and emotional pressure, so it’s typically a good option for foreign visitors.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4--S9DO5PE']

This set up is pretty normal.  It’s pretty much just a bar where the female bartenders and staff are extra nice, so you tip them accordingly.

メイドカフェー – Maid Cafe

We have just left the Salary Man’s escape and have moved on to Otaku-land:  秋葉原 AKIHABARA!!  Of course it is very easy to find numerous salary men (Japanese term for someone working 9-5 at a large company) who also lead dual lives as serious Otaku (basically “nerd” in Japanese).  Akihabara is a section of Tokyo where the Otaku culture is at its peak, and chances are as soon as you step off the JR train, you’ll be greeted by a very cute Japanese girl dressed up like a French maid who will pose in pictures with you and invite you to her cafe.

“WELCOME TO AKIHABARA MASTER!!”

“秋葉原にお帰りなさいませご主人様！”

The predominant maid cafe style is where the maids treat you as though you are royalty and they are lowly, but very cute servants and dote on you hand and foot (see a pattern here at all?).  They will compliment you, tell you that you are handsome, put ketchup on your omelet in heart shapes while sitting on their knees at your table, make cute noises like a cat, blow kisses, make heart shapes with their hands, and encourage you to act cutely as well.  At many locations, they also play eating and drinking games with various prizes.

One example is that a maid will fix a huge stack of pancakes for you and a tiny pancake for herself and the bet is that if you can eat your pancakes faster than she can, you will get a kiss on the cheek, but if you lose she will slap you in the face in front of the entire restaurant.  All of this is done while they speak in an overly cute style called Mo-e “萌え” which in English I suppose would be the equivalent of baby-talk.  That sounds like it would get real annoying real fast, but people LOVE it, especially Otaku who don’t ever get attention from pretty girls (funny thing is, a lot of American otaku who learn Japanese on their own, probably using anime, often sound kind of like this… “funny” because it’s funny to listen to them talk like a baby girl).  It unfortunately leads to a lot of stalking, but in comparison, maid cafes are free from a lot of the other problems associated with kyabakura.  Almost everything you do at the cafe will cost money, from taking pictures to eating contests, and the food is of course at a premium cost, but for people who love Japanese girls dressed and acting like your personal French-maid servant, it is well worth the cost.

The wild thing about maid cafes though is that there are SO MANY DIFFERENT KINDS! There are some that are the exact opposite of the description above, and basically involve the maid treating you like a piece of crap and verbally abusing you the entire time you are in the restaurant.  Others are for women who like called Butler Cafes, some of which are entirely comprised of European men, who will even carry you around for a fee.

Here’s a link to a video to give you an idea of what exactly happens at a few different types of maid cafes.  The first that is shown is the typical style, the second is tsundere “つんでれ” which is basically where they make you think they hate you but in the end they show they really like you, and lastly is like samurai adventure where they do mock battles while you eat epically named food. Tofugu even wrote about a pretty creepy maid cafe a while ago: Mom Cafes.

Disneyland – but far more creepy

One new style of maid cafe that’s real real weird is called “kigurumi” 着ぐるみ which is basically some one wearing a head to toe costume like in Disneyland, but in this case it’s much more otaku adult themed…

This place is just like a regular maid cafe except the people dressed in anime costumes do not talk, but write on whiteboards to communicate with you.  This sounds like a bad horror movie!  To each his/her own I guess…

Japan’s Fantasy Girls – Past and Present

There are of course many many differences between Geisha in the past and the present form of fantasy girls in Japan, but the connection is clear: women (and men) in this industry provide a service that goes beyond the physical excitement present in similar services originating in the West like strip clubs, Hooters, etc.  The people performing all of these services in Japan are of course physically attractive, but more so they are experts in creating atmosphere where the customer feels removed from the world they live in and receive special individual attention.  In the West, people pay two separate groups: one to listen to their problems like counselors, and one that is unrealistically physically appealing like strip dancers.  In Japan however, they have a tradition of combining those roles that arguably has roots during the time of the Geisha.

This post was written by Nick W., who has traveled throughout many regions of Japan in search of unique cultural gems.  He is currently earning his MBA and has researched topics like folk music in WWII Japan and Ainu cultural revival through music.  His favorite Japanese musician is the late Nujabes.  He has experienced great amounts of culture shock when unknowingly encountering kyabakura hostesses.  In hindsight it was hilarious.

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