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her class, but experts in these matters say the importance of
skill will soon reassert itself. This prediction is based on the
fact that the better class of geisha cater exclusively to a
select circle of men whose tastes become more and more
refined and therefore more traditional as they grow
older.
Many geisha who received their training in the 1920's
and '30's were still active in the 1960s, and they had not
given up the arts they learned in their youth. In the late
1960s two members of the Shimbashi Geisha Association
were designated by the government as "living cultural
properties" in recognition of their mastery of the traditional
geisha skills.
The Azuma Odori (East Dance) staged annually by the
Shimbashi Geisha Association attracts national interest.
Since keeping a geisha as a mistress is complicated because
of traditional customs that linger on, in addition to the
tremendous expense involved, the average mistress-keeper
today prefers to do his hunting among hostesses, call girls,
or non-mizu-shobai groups.
Some men are not averse to taking up with "instant
geisha" those who become geisha without benefit of any
special training because such women are so readily avail-
able. But Japan's "sex press" concludes that, of all women in
the country, "instant geisha" are the least desirable as
mistresses.
Around dusk in present-day Japan, it is still possible to
see geisha emerging from taxis, private cars and even
rickshaws and entering exclusive "geisha inns" in famous
entertainment districts in Tokyo, Kyoto and other major
cities.
Mistress-Keeping in Japan / 79
Call Girls or "Instant Mistresses"
MEN IN JAPAN who cannot afford to keep a full or even a
part-time mistress support a large-scale call-girl system.
The system operates under the guise of "date clubs,"
"straight clubs" and other such euphemisms. Girls who
belong to the latter type of club go "straight" to a hotel or inn
with a customer. Those who belong to the first type usually
expect to be taken out to dinner and perhaps a movie
beforehand.
In order to avoid problems with the Anti prostitution
Section of the Police Department the straight clubs operate
as date clubs until personal contact is made between a club
member and a customer. Then if the girl is sure the customer
is not an undercover policeman trying to trap her, she will
go directly to a "love hotel" with him.
Both date clubs and straight clubs solicit customers by
scattering name cards, posters, and advertising flyers
around the thousands of sidewalk telephones, placing them
under the windshield wipers of parked cars, and passing
them out to men walking in the streets of entertainment
districts. The clubs open for business around three in the
afternoon.
Each club is operated from a regular business office by
several clerks. The girls report to the office and are assigned
a number in the order of their arrival. The first girl to show
up gets the first customer to call in, unless the customer is a
regular and asks for a specific girl. The customer pays an
introduction fee to the club as well as a fee for the girl. Part
of the girl's fee may be kicked back to the club.
Officially the clubs do nothing but introduce girls to men.
Whatever arrangements they make later are their own
private affair. This prevents the girls from being accused of
having intercourse with nonspecific men and thus being
guilty of prostitution. The clubs are cautious about ac-
Mistress-Keeping in Japan / 80
cepting new customers until it can be determined that they
are not policemen in disguise. It is said that foreigners are
readily accepted because there is very little chance of their
being connected with the law.
The date-club business is very competitive. Some clubs
hire young students to go around and pick up the publicity
posters and cards distributed by rival clubs. This has
resulted in many of the smaller clubs' going out of business.
It is predicted that large clubs will eventually gain control of
the more desirable territories.
In Tokyo, date clubs are most active in the Ikebukuro
area. The majority of their customers are said to be the
owners of textile stores in Kanda and medical-equipment
dealers from Bunkyo Ward. In the past a number of
Americans living in Japan have attempted to break into the
date-club business, but so far all such efforts by foreigners
have ended in failure. There are usually a few small clubs
that cater more or less exclusively to foreigners. These clubs
occasionally advertise their services in the local English-
language newspapers.
Girls who belong to the clubs catering to foreigners are
mostly employees of second- and third-class shops and tiny
companies. A few are nurses. For the most part they are very
unsophisticated. Membership in the strictly Japanese-ori-
ented clubs includes students and house wives.
From the 1960s on, some of the most elite of the call girls
have been freelance operators who cater to foreigners
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