Daikoku-mai no koto. (Daikoku-mai dancing.)
Reading edition
The custom of performing this Daikoku-mai dance has now completely disappeared in the Yoshiwara.
According to the reply given by Shichizaemon, manager of the dancing, and also a subordinate chief of beggars (hi-nin kogashira) to an enquiry made of him by the nanushi of the Yoshiwara in the 12th month of the 13th year of Tempō (January 1843,) there was, during the Genroku era (1688–1704), a subordinate chief of beggars, named Manjirō, living at the creek-side of Nihon-bashi, and this Manjirō was very proficient in the art of singing popular songs. One day he picked up a mask (representing the god Daikoku) floating in the creek, wore it, and danced comic dances in the Yoshiwara to the strains of the samisen played by his friend Shichizō. This was the origin of the Daikoku-mai. Shichizō (or Shichizaemon), who furnished this information, was a lineal descendant of the samisen-player Shichizō. The “Dōbō-Goen” says that in the first month of each year Daikoku-mai dancers came into the Yoshiwara, performed various antics, and entertained people with their buffoonery and comic imitations of things and persons.
They used to frequent the Yoshiwara from the 2nd day of the first month of the year until the first “horse day” (hatsu-uma) in the second month. After that the “Daikoku-kagura” players frequented the Yoshiwara. The Daikoku-mai dancers, however, visited the Yoshiwara on all principal holidays, especially on the bean-throwing day (mame-maki no hi) in the twelfth month and the last day (ō-misoka) of the year. These players were great favourites with many of the yūjo, and considerable money was given to them by the latter. It is said that a good many secret love passages took place between the yūjo and these dancers. In the whole of the Yoshiwara only Kado Tsutaya at Yedo-chō, Ni-chō-me, made it a rule of the house not to grant admission to the Daikoku-mai dancers. Prior to this, puppet dancers (ningyō-tsukai) also frequented the Yoshiwara, but since the appearance of the Daikoku-mai dancers their visits ceased.