Mistress Keeping in Japan (BoyĂŠ Lafayette De Mente, 2009)

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became a geisha in the Akasaka district because she was
bored with inactivity. Her patron visited her so often in her
new expensive surroundings that his allowance to her would
not cover their bills. Miss S finally had to quit the life of a
geisha and began lending money, primarily to mistresses.
One day she loaned money to the wife of the managing
director of a wine company. The wife subsequently lost a
huge amount in the stock market and was divorced by her
husband. The husband met Miss S to pay his ex-wife's debt
and immediately began trying to seduce her. When he
discovered that she was the mistress of the dry-goods-store
operator, he began to visit her patron and eventually talked
Mistress-Keeping in Japan / 67
him into giving Miss S up so he could marry her. Miss S and
the managing director were married in an elaborate cere-
mony at the Meiji Memorial Hall. Their go-between was her
former patron.
After the wedding her old patron continued to send her
gifts. This worried her new husband, and he always took her
along when he went on business trips. Four years later he
died of stomach cancer. When his obituary notice appeared
in the newspapers, Miss S's old patron rushed to reclaim her.
But six months later he too died of the same ailment. Later
Miss S became the operator of a dormitory for a large
company. "I was a mistress for eighteen years and have no
regrets," she said.
Mistresses Vs. Wives
THE EMERGENCE OF mistress-keeping as a practice
within the reach of the middle as well as the upper class
resulted in a boom in the private-detective business in Japan.
New agencies sprang up regularly, and all of them were said
to be flooded with requests from wives who wanted their
husbands investigated. The social position of mistresses had
improved to the point where their rights were championed,
and, like the Edo-period courtesans, they were made to
appear as glamorous and enviable. But the younger the girls
were, the more apt they were to resent being called mekake
or ni-go.
If their patron was an older married man, they even
resented being referred to as a sweetheart. They preferred
the very noncommittal term "friend." In their view they
were simply exchanging sex for kindness and friendship. It
was said that many middle-aged wives were relieved to
discover that their husbands were keeping young office girls
or students instead of consorting with cabaret or bar hos-
tesses.
Some middle-aged Japanese men claimed that main-
taining a mistress was cheaper than marrying or associating
Mistress-Keeping in Japan / 68
with women in the entertainment trades. In the mid-1960s,
one such man who then had three mistresses had reduced his
sexual life to numbers to prove this point. He said that a man
who married at twenty-five could expect to have sexual
intercourse with his wife about 2,000 times by the time he
reached the age of fifty. He then divided the typical salary
man's total earnings during this period by the estimated
number of times he had relations with his wife.
On the basis of an average monthly income of just under
$200, it costs the salary man a little over $25 every time he
had his wife. The mathematician admitted that a husband
got his home taken care of by his wife, but he still
considered that a husband's entire income was nothing but
payment for sexual intercourse with her. On the other hand,
this man figured that it cost him only about $12 each time he
visited one of his mistresses. He said that if he should pick
up a street girl or a cabaret hostess for a night it would cost
him around $30.
His conclusion was that a mistress offered the cheapest
sex a man could obtain. He emphasized that the more a man
can patronize a mistress, the cheaper the per-visit cost
becomes. He also pointed out that "it is not interesting to
have intercourse with the same old wife over and over." Of
course, not all Japanese men agreed with this particular
spokesman's figures. But almost all of them appreciated his
good intentions.
In regard to the relative costliness of wives as opposed to
mistresses (in the 1960s), it should be mentioned that rough-
mannered, low-class hostesses who slept in the bars and
cabarets where they worked and in the past were often
referred to as chimpira [cheem-pee-rah] (a derogatory term
meaning something like thug) were said to be available as
mistresses for a monthly fee of approximately $30, plus the
rent for a one-room apartment which might cost anywhere
from $15 to $30 a month.
Office girls and students who advertised for patrons in
the cheaper magazines ("We seek your assistance" or "We
Mistress-Keeping in Japan / 69
wish to keep company with gentlemen") were reportedly
available for a slightly higher fee.
Authorities on mistress-keeping summarized the sit-
uation by saying that one who was able to spend a minimum
of $90 a month on a mistress would be able "to maintain his
face as a man."
Some Techniques of Mistress-Keeping
AS COULD BE EXPECTED, during Japan's recent "age of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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