Yoshiwara

Old name for what is now part of the Senzoku district, Taitō Ward, Tokyo. The most famous of the government-regulated centers for prostitution in Japan for almost three and a half centuries, from the early Edo period (1600-1868) until 1958, when the Prostitution Prevention Law was promulgated. (adapted from Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1993)