The “Kujaku Nagaya.”

In the “Yedo Sunago” (江戸砂子) we find this passage:—

“The Kujaku-nagaya (a nagaya is a long building in which are several separate residences. The old nagaya were used as a species of barracks for the retainers of the feudal lords. Kujaku = peacock) are situated at the rear of the street at the end of the paddy-fields, and are so called because from this place the brilliant spectacle of the lighted Yoshiwara can be seen to great advantage. The spot has therefore been compared to the body of a peacock, and the dazzling splendour of the Yoshiwara to the magnificent tail of that vain bird.

“In the “Bokusui Shōkaroku” (墨水消夏錄) it is written:—“A row of houses on the eminence along that part of the Nihon-dzutsumi which leads to Tamachi, is called the “Peacock nagaya.” The origin of this picturesque name is that about the era of Kwanbun (1661–1672) there lived in the extremity of the nagaya a lovely girl whose wonderous beauty was noised about the neighbourhood, and, owing to the dingy block of houses having such an enchanting damsel residing in the end building, some admirers of the fair nymph, by a quaint conceit, compared the block of houses to the body and the dainty maiden to the gorgeous tail of a peacock.”