What's this? Book review of Yukaku (Pleasure Quarters) postcard photo book.

Impressions: If you collect vintage Japanese postcards and are fascinated by the geisha or oiran (high-class courtesan), this is a great reference book to see which oiran postcards you have and don't have. Seventy-three such postcards from the author's collection are shown in full color (including sepia). About half the postcards show the famous Yoshiwara Pleasure Quarter in Tokyo. Other cards show Shimabara in Kyoto and other yukaku in Osaka, Yokohama, and Nagasaki.

Besides a brief history of pleasure quarters in Japan at the beginning of the book, Japanese captions are provided for all of the postcards. The approximate date of the card is also mentioned. The only English you see are printed on the cards which may read "Yoshiwara play ground, "Yoshiwara harlot," or "Yoshiwara Prostitute Houses." Many of the cards were produced by offset printing which makes them look less beautiful than the earlier hand-painted, real-photo postcards.

Some of the cards show the Oiran Dochu , a colorful procession of the high-class courtesan proceeding through the street on extremely high platform clogs, escorted by little child apprentices called kamuro. This procession today can only be re-enacted in festivals like the Tokyo Jidai Matsuri held every Nov. in Asakusa.

This book is one of a series (called Meiji Flashback) of three books which came out in January 1998. The first book in the series shows workers of old Japan (see review here). (Reviewed by Philbert Ono)