Wiktionary
n. 1 A mother, in Japan or East Asia. (from 1900s) 2 A woman in a position of authority, especially the madam of a geisha bar. (from 1940s)
Wikipedia
A mama-san or mamasan is usually a woman in a position of authority, especially one in charge of a geisha house or bar or nightclub in Japan and East Asia.
The term is also used to refer to a woman who works in a supervisory role in certain establishments in Southeast Asia, typically those related to drinking places. Papa-san may be used to refer to a man in a similar position.
The term is a combination of the English word "Mama" and the Japanese suffix -san which is a polite honorific attached to a person's name or title, coined by U.S. soldiers in Japan after World War II. This probably has had some influence in its spread to other Southeast Asian countries.
The term mama-san in Japanese is not a polite reference to a mother and should never be used as such. Most Japanese children today call their mother mama, but the term does not persist into adulthood. The way to refer to one's mother, in Japanese, is okaa-san.
It is considered extremely rude to refer to a woman in charge of a respectable restaurant or inn as mama-san. The proper title for her is okami or okami-san.
In Thailand and the Philippines, mamasan is commonly used to describe a woman who manages the female workers in bars and brothels.
To at least some extent, these can be considered the local equivalents of a madam, although the conventions of bar fine prostitution in Asia are quite different from those of street or brothel prostitution in western countries.
Mamasan (sometimes abbreviated MMS) is also used in the United States to refer to the woman managing the staff of Asian massage parlors.
While the context may be referred to as a sex term in some parts of Asia, in others the term has a much different connotation. The term mama-san is commonly used to describe maids and housecleaners. The term papa-san is detailed for men who work on yards.
Usage examples of "mama-san".
She groaned and cursed and they bargained back and forth, both enjoying the encounter, both knowing that the real cost of the medicine and medical advice was hardly significant to a brothel mama-san.
Give message mama-san, no mistake, arrange you see musume tomorrow, yes?
Meikin, her mama-san, was an adherent so of course she had agreed, her imagination devoured by his bravery and daring and his band of shishi, the rise of their fortunes.
Hiraga left, keeping his head on his tatami to hide the gnashing of his few remaining broken teeth, wanting to humble Hiraga, make him sweat, telling him, not sorry at all: oh so sorry, your late whore Koiko was implicated in the plot, so was your trained female assassin and wife-to-be Sumomo who had her head chopped off too, and your shishi supporter Meikin, mama-san to the most important men in Yedo--even Gyokoyama leaders--is not long for this earth because we surmise Yoshi knows all this too.
And even though he had agreed with her employer, the Mama-san Gyoko, to pay five times the usual price, he was still not sure that Kiku would stay.
Yoshi had not closed the trap on mama-san Meikin to learn the real extent of the plot against him before taking vengeance--vengeance best savored calmly.
One of the most inner secrets of their zaibatsu was that their founder was not only a mama-san, but a woman of genius.
By this time her son was an open secret with both mama-sans who, of course, had her watched, and followed.
As always, mama-sans and older, more experienced courtesans gentled them, repeating the same dogma that Meikin was saying to Teko, Koiko's maiko, now in tears, who was to make her debut as a courtesan this night, "Dry your tears, Moonbeam, accept without thinking the sad impermanence of life, accept what lies ahead, laugh with your sisters, enjoy wine and song and your pretty clothes, gaze at the moon or at a flower and drift with the current of life like a gourd drifting downstream.
Not all of the mama-sans approved, saying the added expense was not merited.
Five hundred koku was more than most Mama-sans made in a lifetime, so for one of them even to consider giving away five hundred .
Soon you'll be the greatest of all Mama-sans, and whatever happens, well, Kiku-san's still your protegee and her youth's not touched, neither is her karma.
Then, everything completed - even the formal cha invitation tomorrow to the eight most influential Mama-sans in Mishima to discuss a matter of great import - she sank gratefully into a perfect bath, "Ahhhhhhhhh!