Uw zoekacties: Sailortown,

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Sailortown,
Titel:
Sailortown
Naam uitgever:
Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. - E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc.
Jaar van uitgave:
1997
Omschrijving:
Liedtekst en Liedtekst verklaring
Aantal pagina's:
360
Taal:
Engels
Plaats van uitgave:
London & Newe York
Auteur:
Stan Hugill
THE PACIFIC, AUSTRALIA, ASIA, AND AFRICA
Other Japanese ports Nagasaki could boast a Toshiwara. I t was called Maruyama. Kaempfer, writing in 1700, mentions these brothels: 'That part of the town, where they stand, is called Keseitmatz (Kei- seimachi), that is, the Bawdy Houses Quarters. It lies to the South, on a rising hill, call'd Mariam (Maruyama).' Bumboat men were an institution in every Japanese port. They
would come alongside with their wares, and, if given permission by the ship's master, would display their curios, silks, tea-sets, and so on, on rice-mats on the ship's deck. Before leaving Japan I would like to insert a few paragraphs of
a letter I had recently from my German sailorman friend, Charlie Muller, concerning another kind of prostitute who visited ships lying in Yokohama harbour, and about another shore set-up of the nine- ties:
In Yokohama there were also famous brothels, I forget the name of the
street. [I think it would be Yamate-Gho.—S.H.] They had their own sampans and rickshamen. Six o'clock in the evening the sampanman was alongside and took you ashore, and here the rickshaman was waiting to take you to the house; you did not have to open your mouth. Then you got a bath and then you picked a girl and had supper and perhaps a show, and then you would turn in. Five in the morning you were roused, because \v'ork aboard started at 6 o'clock, and the Madame of the House took care that a man was on board when work started. And there were also the so-called 'Susi-susi Girls'. A Madame used to
come on board with eight or more girls, and they stayed on board while the ship was discharging and loading. I suppose you've heard all about this custom?
The hot bath mentioned by Charlie, of course, was a regular in-
stitution in Japan, and in all the brothels a common custom, the girl of one's choice scrubbing one's back. Most Japanese ports have a Main Street or Honcho-döri (Yoko-
hama, Kobe, etc.) and it is said that the phrase 'everything is hunkey dory' comes from the days when the windbag man, full of hootch, charged up the Honcho-döri, athwart a nag with a Japanese Phryne up astern of him, having the time of his life, and feeling that Main Street, Japan, was the finest drag in the whole wide world. Naturally, ships called at many other ports in the Far East but
as very few of them had a Sailortown, they are not worth treating individually. Ships would sometimes go up north to Vladivostock with coal or in later days to load tinned fish. Here Japanese prosti- tutes had dives close to the waterfront, and their prices were low. A couple of roubles went a long way in those days with beer, vodka, tobacco, and other sailor needs all being inexpensive. Desertions, too, were common enough here. Manila was another port of call, particularly for Yankee ships, and 310
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