The “Kembansho.” (Office which manages the affairs of geisha and other professionals.)

“The “Yedo-Kwagai Enkaku-shi” (江戶花街沿革誌) says:—“In the 7th year of Anyei (1778) there were about 100 professional artists in the Yoshiwara including 20 otoko-geisha (male geisha) 50 female geisha, and 16 young dancing girls (geiko).”

These people had to obtain licenses from the headmen of their respective districts, but as no fixed taxes were imposed upon them, all their earnings, including tips (shūgi) and fees (gyokudai), went into their pockets intact. Under these circumstances, many persons began to consider the advisability of taxing the geinin (artists and artistes) and appropriating such taxes towards defraying the common public expenses of the Yoshiwara. At this time the morals of the geinin were at a very low ebb, and their conduct so lax that great trouble was experienced in the quarter. Female geisha began to compete with the regular courtesans and openly offered themselves as prostitutes, while the male professionals contracted intimacies with the women in the brothels and carried on liaisons with the latter. All these abuses clearly showed the absolute necessity of putting the geinin under proper control and of framing regulations for putting a check to their unrestrained intrigues, amours, and general gross misconduct. In the 8th year of Anyei (1779) a certain person named Shōroku (who was the keeper of a brothel known as “Daikoku-ya”) agitated the question, and after consultation with his confrères established a Kemban-sho (registry office for geisha of both sexes). Abandoning his profession of brothel-keeping, Shōroku became the director (tori-shimari-yaku) of this institution, and under his supervision a system was inaugurated by which all geinin, including men, women, and children, jōruri-singers, samisen-players, etc., were brought under authoritative control. The business of the Kemban-sho was transacted by two bantō (head-clerks) and some ten assistant clerks (te-dai), the latter acting in the capacity of a modern hako-ya (attendant who carries a geisha’s musical instruments) and attending to female geisha when the latter went out to fill an engagement.

The male geisha, it appears, were all bound to do duty at the Kemban-sho in turn.