HOTEL AND TEA-HOUSE GIRLS
A distinct class of domestics is that which serves in hotels,
tea-houses, and restaurants. Here the hours of labor are longer,--from
four or five in the morning till midnight, or later. My attention was
early called to their hard lot by observing that the poor girl who was
serving rice for my meal, sitting before me as I ate, often fell into a
sleep, from which I had to awaken her to get my rice. Inquiry would show
that she had risen at four o'clock that morning, and further questioning
would bring the information that she had retired the previous night at
midnight or later, sometimes even not till two o'clock! Rarely do these
girls get five hours of rest; frequently there are not more than three.
They must open all the _amado_ (sliding wooden shutters which protect
the paper "windows"), and get the general cleaning done before the first
guest rises, and must continue their service until late into the night,
answering the calls of the guests, till the last one has retired. In
addition to the usual cleaning of the rooms, which is really not much of
an undertaking, these girls carry all the meals of all the guests from
the kitchen on the ground floor to their rooms on the second or third
floors, serve them while they eat, and carry away the trays when the
meal is completed. In preparation for the night the girls bring out the
heavy _futon_ (quilts) and make the "beds" on the floor; and in the
morning remove, fold, and lay them all away in closets. The work of a
Japanese hotel is relatively heavy for the number of guests, but that
which is most taxing is the long hours of service and the insufficient
time for rest. As in the poorer homes, so in the poorer and smaller
hotels, the girls have no private rooms, but sleep in entryways and
reception-rooms. Of course they have neither time nor opportunity for
personal culture, nor even for recreation; and from the nature of their
occupation, is it strange if they sometimes yield to the solicitations
of guests?
These girls are of course neither professional prostitutes nor geisha.
Yet I was assured by a provincial chief of police, some years ago when
making investigations, that, in the eyes of the police, three fourths or
four fifths of the girls in hotels and tea-houses are virtually
prostitutes, though of course they have no licenses and are subject to
no medical inspection. Occasionally they are arrested for illegal
prostitution, at the instance however of brothel keepers. Hotels and
tea-houses take pains to secure pretty girls for servants, in order to
make their service attractive. It is a dreadful statement to make, but,
if I am justified in judging from such facts as have come to my
knowledge, it would appear that few traveling men in Japan feel any
special hesitation in taking advantage--with financial compensation of
course--of such opportunities as are afforded them. Hotels give the
girls their food, perhaps two gowns yearly, and generally a small
payment in cash, but their principal earnings come from tips. This makes
them attentive to the wants of the guests.
There are many first-class hotels throughout the country, but chiefly in
the principal cities, to which geisha are not admitted, but in those
hotels to which they are admitted the green country girls soon learn
from them the brazen ways and licentious talk that are evidently
pleasing to many of the guests. All in all the life and lot of the hotel
and tea-house girl are deplorable indeed. She does differ from the
geisha and licensed prostitute, however, in that she can leave her place
and retire to her country home at any time, being held by no contract or
debt. Hotel and tea-house girls are recruited largely from the families
of artizans and small tradespeople, living in interior towns and
villages; they do not often come from farming families, since they would
lack the regular features and light complexion desired by hotels. Their
family pedigree explains in part this easy virtue. They are saved from
more disaster than they actually meet, because geisha and prostitutes
abound and are more attractive.
I remember, one summer at a little country hotel, a girl rushed into my
room from a neighbor's in order to escape from the urgency of a guest.
She told me the following day quite freely of her troubles, of the
horrid men that came to the hotel, and of the fact that most of the
girls did not mind what she found unendurable. She had been there but a
few weeks and was resolved to go home as soon as possible, claiming it
was better to starve than to lead such a hard and especially such a
disgusting life. Realizing that I had an exceptional opportunity for
sociological study, I improved the occasion and asked many questions.
When asked for her reasons for not responding to the solicitations of
the men, she replied that it was the fear of being laughed at should
she have a child. I could not learn that she had ever been taught to
regard loose sexual relations before marriage as immoral or as
intrinsically wrong. In her mind the question had no connection with
religion, so far as I could discover. Her refusal was based wholly on
utilitarian grounds.
At another hotel where I often stopped I noticed on one of my tours that
an especially attractive girl of eighteen or nineteen, who usually
waited on me, was no longer there. On asking her substitute what had
become of her, I was told she had become a regular prostitute, having
found she could earn much more money that way than at the hotel. I asked
if the parents had not opposed. "O no!" replied the girl, "the parents
were the ones who proposed it and arranged for it." I asked the
substitute if she herself did not regard the business as shameful and
immoral. She looked at me with apparent surprise, hardly understanding
what I meant, evidently regarding the matter entirely as a financial
one.
Here is another case. A number of Young Men's Christian Association
secretaries, tramping in the Japanese Alps, were convinced by the noises
one night at the hot springs that the five or six guides and porters
were indulging in licentiousness. The next night it came out around the
camp-fire that these guides and porters had paid the hotel girls five
sen[4] (two and one-half cents) each.
[4] A sen has the value of one-hundredth of a yen, or almost
half a cent.
Of course one may not generalize from three cases. But three such cases,
together with the statement of the chief of police, and the experience,
closely corresponding with my own, of many missionaries who have
traveled in all parts of Japan, are strong evidence. I myself do not
think that guests often solicit the girls, nor that hotel girls commonly
yield to the requests of guests, but there can be no doubt that it
occasionally happens, and is not regarded in any such way by either the
men or the women as an Occidental would expect. As said above, there
are many hotels in the cities from which geisha are rigidly excluded,
and where without doubt the relations of guests with hotel girls are
above criticism.
It is an impressive fact of Japanese civilization that the "greenest"
country girls can in but a few short weeks of hotel service become so
graceful and attractive. That in their lives which to the Occidental is
so deep a sin is nothing to them. Their calm, innocent eyes, winning
ways, and gentle conversation can hardly fail to impress the foreigner.
But compared with the girls in their homes they have lost that air of
modesty and reserve which is so important an element in the charm of
Japanese womanhood. The hotel and tea-house girl belongs rather to the
geisha class, whose loud, harsh voices and artificial, coarse laughter
are distinguishing characteristics. Girls of both these classes however
have an advantage enjoyed by no other women in Japan, namely: that of
meeting large numbers of men of various occupations and interests. They
hear varied conversation and thus become somewhat acquainted with the
affairs of the outside world, which makes them more intelligent than the
average Japanese woman, so that it is possible to carry on some sort of
a conversation with them--a thing practically impossible with the
average young woman of Japan.
In regard to the numbers of hotel domestics, I have found no statistics,
but have no hesitation in venturing an estimate of many tens of
thousands.