Japan is well-known globally for its idol culture. But that culture, some argue, isn’t a recent phenomenon. Indeed, some point to its origins in the Edo era. And they point to one woman in particular: Kasamori Osen.
Idol Legacy
A lot of controversy gets kicked up, both within and outside Japan, about otaku culture. One of the reasons Japan is saddled with the 少子化問題 (shoushika mondai; low birth rate) problem, some pundits say, is that men are refusing to grow up. They don’t have intimate relationships, get married, and populate the world with the next generation of Japanese. Instead, they’d rather engage in “relationships” with the 二次元 (nijigen, two-dimensional) fantasies in anime. Or they spend their time fixated on the girls in idol groups like AKB48 or Nokizaka 46.
The result? Marriage rates are plummeting, divorce rates are skyrocketing, and Japan is dying. Thanks a LOT, idol groups.
That Edo Bachelor Life
But at least one expert argues that that’s a bunch of crap. Author Aragawa Kazuhisa, a researcher with lifestyle publisher Hakuhoudou, says that, actually, nothing has changed in the past 300 years.
もともと日本人は未婚も離婚も多い人々でした。江戸時代から明治初期にかけての離婚率に関して言えば、当時の世界一だったかもしれません。現代の離婚率世界一はロシアの4.5（人口1000人当たりの離婚者数、2012年）ですが、江戸時代はそれを超える4.8だったといわれています。。。。結婚して子孫を残すというのはどちらかいえば身分や階層の高い者に限られていて、本家ではない傍系の親族や使用人などの隷属農民たちは生涯未婚で過ごした人が多かったのだとか。たとえば、1675年の信濃国湯舟沢村の記録によれば、男の未婚率は全体で46％であるのに対して、傍系親族は62％、隷属農民は67％が未婚でした。
From the beginning, the Japanese have had many people who remain single or get divorced. In fact, the Edo era [Editor: 1603–1868] on through to the Meiji Era [Editor: 1868–1912] may have had the world’s highest divorce rate at the time. Currently the highest divorce rate in the world is Russia’s 4.5 (the number of people divorcing per 1,000 people, in 2012). But it’s said the Edo era exceeded that at 4.8….The people who could get married and leave behind grandchildren was limited to the upper class. The number of collateral families without a head of household and servants living as vassal farmers who passed their lives without marrying was huge. For example, in the 1675 record of Yubunezawamura, Shimanokuni, while the marriageless rate for men overall was 46%, it was 62% for subsidiary families, and 67% for vassal farmers.
(As a commentary, this makes a lot of sense from a historical standpoint. It wasn’t until shortly after the Meiji era, for example, that Japanese authorities enshrined motherhood as a national value via the four-character compound 良妻賢母 (ryousai kenbo): “Good wife, wise mother”. Part of the “decline” in marriage and birth rates may just be a return to normal.)[1]
Kasamori Osen: Tea House Idol
Aragawa goes on to further profile the life of the average Edo bachelor. Most men didn’t cook for themselves (fucking typical — am I right, ladies?), leading to the creation of eateries much resembling the izakaya (居酒屋), or small plate and drinking shops, of modern Japan. Many modern Japanese “fast-foods”, such as nigiri sushi, were born during this era in response to this demand for eating out.
Bachelors also whiled away their time at roadside tea houses. Because, hey, it beats sitting in your mother’s basement all day. Among them was the Kagiya tea house at the gates of the Kasamori Temple in the capital Edo (Tokyo). People flocked to Kagiya thanks to its flagship tea-server, Kasamori Osen.
Kasamori Osen was born the daughter of Kagiya owner Kagiya Gohee in 1751. She began working at the tea house in 1763. (Yes, she was 12. This was 300 years ago, folks.) The people of Edo extolled her not simply for her beauty but for her elegance and singing . Specifically, fans flocked to see her performance of temari-uta (手毬唄), a form of singing done while playing a game with tamari balls. She quickly became the shop’s 看板娘 (kanban musume), or “board girl” — i.e., a pretty woman whose looks are used to lure men into a shop to spend their money.
Woodblock Model Du Jour
Osen’s fame grew the same way and for the same reason idols get famous now: people started distributing pictures of her. In 1768, the ukiyo-e (浮世絵; wood block) artist Suzuki Harunobu asked Osen to pose for him. That print kick-started Osen’s career as a 美人画 (bijinga), a woman who served as a popular model for painting.
Soon after, men flocked to the store to catch a glimpse of her. In a move that would foreshadow centuries of merchandising to come, the shop began selling “Osen goods” — games and other merchandise with Osen’s likeness featured prominently.
Osen’s fame grew so large that an artist enshrined her in painting and legend as one of the “three beautiful women of the Meiwa era” (明和三美人; meiwa sanbijin) . Osen shared the appellation alongside Yanagiya Ofuji of the Yanagiya tea house and Tsutaya Oyoshi of the Tsutaya tea house chain.
Kasamori Osen’s Sudden Disappearance
At the height of her fame, Osen suddenly disappeared. Customers coming to the shop expecting to see the graceful woman featured in Ukiyo-e and finding nothing but a balding old man popularized the phrase, とんだ茶釜が薬缶に化けた (“the beautiful tea pot has become a stovetop kettle”).
Rumors abounded for years. History blogger Busoo Japan[2] says one prominent rumor was that she had been stalked by a jealous fan, who ended up biting her in the neck and killing her.
Fortunately, the truth was far less salicious: Kasamori Osen had simply married. She gave birth to 9 children, and lived a good, long life, passing away at age 77. As Aragawa wryly writes in his article:
今でいえば、金持ちエリート実業家と結婚してアイドルを引退したというところでしょうか。オタクたちの純粋な恋が悲しい結末を迎えるのは江戸時代も今も変わらないようです。
Even now, aren’t there cases of idols marrying elite, moneyed industrialists and retiring? It seems that nothing has changed from the Edo era to the modern era, as the simplistic love of otakus beckons them towards a depressing denouement.
Ouch. Sharp, but accurate. After all, it’s de rigueur for idol groups to forbid members of their casts from dating . And when they cross that line, the rage of otakus can be blood-curdling. In 2017, when idol Kiraboshi Asuka announced she was marrying her manager and that she was pregnant with their first child, netizens accused her of “treason”, and some former fans called for her to get an abortion.
How little has changed, indeed.
What to Read Next
Idol Yamaguchi Maho Forced to Apologize for Her Own Sexual Assault
Sources
[1] 独身が5割超､江戸男子に学ぶシングルライフ. Toyo Keizai
[2] 江戸時代の人気No.1アイドル「笠森お仙」よだれを垂らすほどの美人とは. Bushooo
