Takao II

Takao II (1640-1659) was a "tayū" (courtesan) of the Yoshiwara, one of the most famous of Japan's Edo period. She belonged to the Great Miura, the largest house in the Yoshiwara pleasure district during its early days, and would be one of eleven courtesans over time to hold the "myōseki" (inherited name) of Takao. She is particularly famous for her affair with daimyō Date Tsunamune; some time after her death, her story would be featured in kabuki (in the play titled "Meiboku Sendai Hagi"), in song and literature, though much of it would be fabricated and fictionalized.

According to the tale, Date Tsunamune, the young lord of Mutsu, was sent to the Yoshiwara as the result of a dispute involving family politics; his uncle sought to undermine his reputation in order to get his son (Tsunamune's cousin) to become lord of Mutsu sooner. He fell in love with Takao almost immediately upon meeting her, but his advances were rejected, as Takao had a lover at the time who she'd promised to marry following the end of her contract with the teahouse. Tsunamune thus offered to buy out her contract, and would pay in gold equal to her weight. The proprietor of the teahouse, it is said, forced her to place iron weights in her sleeves, but Tsunamune paid nevertheless, roughly 165 pounds of gold. Leaving the Yoshiwara by boat along the Sumida River, Takao tried to throw herself into the river to escape; Tsunamune flew into a rage and killed her with his blade. This is the tale popularized in kabuki theatre, in song, poetry and literature.

While based to a great extent on fact, there are a number of historical inaccuracies, the greatest of which is Takao's death at Tsunamune's hand. A number of contemporary sources, including one discovered by Santō Kyōzan, younger brother of the famous writer Santō Kyōden, describe her death as deriving from illness. These accounts combine to reveal Takao's death at the age of nineteen, from pneumonia or tuberculosis, and that a number of her suitors, though devoted to her before her illness, and attending her memorial service, did not attend to her during her illness. Another key inaccuracy in the tale involves Tsunamune, who did in fact suffer from conspiracies on the part of his uncle and other family members to unseat him, but who visited the Yoshiwara and fell in love with Takao after having already given up his post as daimyo.

References

*Seigle, Cecila Segawa (1993). "Yoshiwara: The Glittering World of the Japanese Courtesan." Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.

ee also

*Nakasu (Edo) - a small entertainment district erected at Three Forks ("Mitsumata"), the spot where Takao was supposedly killed a century earlier.