Japan: Low class prostitutes in a caged brothel, Yoshiwara entertainment area, Tokyo, late 19th century. Yoshiwara (吉原) was a famous Akasen district (red-light district) in Edo, present-day Tōkyō, Japan. In the early 17th century, there was widespread male and female prostitution throughout the cities of Kyoto, Edo and Osaka. To counter this, an order of Tokugawa Hidetada of the Tokugawa shogunate restricted prostitution to designated city districts. These districts were Shimabara for Kyōto (1640), Shinmachi for Ōsaka (1624-1644) and Yoshiwara for Edo (1617).

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Size: 5700px × 3123px
Photo credit: © Pictures From History / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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