What is "yoshiwara"

Yoshiwara (吉原) was a famous 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). A leading motive for the establishment of these districts was the Tokugawa shogunate attempt to prevent the nouveau riche chōnin (townsmen) from engaging in political intrigue.

Yoshiwara is a 1937 French drama film directed by Max Ophüls and starring Pierre Richard-Willm, Sessue Hayakawa and Michiko Tanaka. It is based on a novel by Maurice Dekobra. The film is set in the Yoshiwara, the red-light district of Tokyo, in the nineteenth century. It depicts a love triangle between a high-class prostitute, a Russian naval officer and a rickshaw man.

Yoshiwara'' (German:Yoshiwara, die Liebesstadt der Japaner'') is a 1920 German silent film directed by Arthur Bergen and starring Lya Mara and Heinrich Schroth.