Yotaka / Kiryu [R]

Kanji & Romaji: hiphopvomit
Translation: myself

Lyrics: Kurosaki Mahiro
Music: Sakai Mitsuki





夜鷹 [Yotaka]
Prostitute

Come here, Mr. Demon, follow the beckoning [hand] (1)     Selling spring (2) for 24 mons (3)

Coming in is easy, but returning is hard (4)     The twilight of outcasts from the red-light district blooms

A peony (5) while rising     a tree-peony (6) if lived with     Yoshida district (7) is where flowers (8) fall

In the bottomless life of prostitution

Worthless struggling is a warning

Even most passionate men will eventually disappear (9)

Hanging, chewing (10), vomiting with blood and crawling on the ground

Inserting one's crotch into a paper lantern

Aborted rotten baby [smeared] in black and red

Imprisoned woman     Imprisoned woman (11)     sliminess of crane and turtle (12)

The art of coaxing and tricking      "Please, come closer" (13)

Imprisoned woman     Imprisoned woman     behind the mirror surface (14)

Festering from sparsed spots, reflorescence of swollen pain

Combed hair are falling...

Getting to the poulterer (15)

Come here, Mr. Demon, follow the beckoning [hand]     Appearance of a depressed celestial nymph

Coming in is easy, but returning is hard     swirling the umbrella (16), as if it were raining during early summer

Imprisoned woman     Imprisoned woman     sliminess of crane and turtle

The art of coaxing and tricking      `Please, come closer`

Imprisoned woman     Imprisoned woman      A bird inside the treasury box (17)

It blooms ripened in flesh and bones, cracked skin and flesh (18) become gouged and fall

Miserably looking body is like a needle seat

In the evening of requesting and slurping the daily income     Waiting, taking money and haunting near the outside

Ataxia (19)     Left eye blindness      Cleft lip     The bud of the madness of flesh and bones is tearing (20)

Footnotes:

1. A phrase from a warabe uta (children song) singing while playing Onigokko - Oni-san kochira, te no naru hou e [Come here, Mr. Demon, follow the clapping of my hands] where the part <te no naru> is replaced with <temaneku> - to beckon; (Onigokko is a form of tag game; one child is the chosen oni` – it who is obliged to chase after another children while blindfolded). Here it's used as a metaphor of beckoning prostitute.
2. Selling one's spring is a metaphor of prostitution
3. Mon is an obsolete Japanese currency. 4000 mons equal 1 yen (approx. 0.01$)
4. An exact phrase from a warabe uta Tooryanse
5. Peonies are considered in Japan a symbol of royal style or richness
6. Tree-peony is a symbol of enchanting beauty
7. Yoshida-chou was one of red-light districts in Kyoto during the Edo period
8. Wordplay: はな [hana] can mean flower as well as nose depending on used kanji. It is also a reference to the syphilis which causes the cartilage inflammation leading to the eventual loss of a part of nose. There was also a comic poem about those noseless prostitutes suffering from syphilis in Edo Japan: 鷹の名にお花お千代はきつい事 [Taka no na ni ohana ochiyo wa kitsui koto – In the name of hawk, eternal flowers are hard to keep] where the part お花お千代 [ohana ochiyo – eternal flowers] is a homophone to お鼻落ちよ [ohana ochi yo – (your) nose is falling] and 鷹 [taka – hawk] is a reference to 夜鷹 [yotaka – prostitute; lit. night hawk]
9. Singing like in a phrase from a famous poem Iroha - 色は匂へど散りぬるを  [iro wa nioedo chirinuru wo – even the blossoming flowers will eventually scatter] but written as 情男は匂へど散りぬるを [Jou otoko wa nioedo chirinuru wo]; 情男 [jou otoko] means passionate man and 散りぬる [chirinuru] can be translated as scatter as well as disappear
10. Wordplay: 鶴亀 [tsuru kame – crane and turtle] written as 吊る咬め [tsuru kame – hanging and chewing]. Crane and turtle are symbols of longevity and good luck in Japan. It's also a reference to a warabe uta Kagome, kagome
11. A reference to Kagome, kagome as well; 籠目 [kagome – holes in a basket/cage] written as 籠女 [kagome – woman in a cage/imprisoned woman]
12. Another reference to Kagome, kagome; 鶴亀の滑り [Tsuru kame no numeri – sliminess of crane and turtle] – a form of 鶴と亀が滑った [tsuru to kame ga subetta – Crane and turtle slipped] verse, which may be a metaphor to unexpected death
13. おしげりなまし [oshigeri namashi – please, come closer / lit. please, don't be thick] is a phrase said by courtesans/prostitutes in Edo Japan as an encouragement for initiating the sexual intercourse
14. Kagome, kagome reference; 後ろの正面 [ushiro no shoumen – behind one's back] written as 後ろの鏡面 [ushiro no kyoumen – behind the mirror surface]
15. 鳥屋につく [Toya ni tsuku – getting to the poulterer] is another reference to Edo Japan prostitutes infected by syphilis. Syphilis causes intense loss of hair as well, like a hawk (reminder: 夜鷹 [yotaka – prostitute; lit. night hawk]) loses its feathers in summer, hence the comparison.
16. Wordplay: かさ [kasa] can mean, inter alia umbrella or syphilis depending on used kanji.
17. Kagome, kagome reference; 籠の中の鳥 [kago no naka no tori – a bird inside the cage/basket] where 籠 [kago – cage/basket] is replaced by 蔵 [kura – treasury box]
18. Wordplay: 皮肉 [hiniku – cynism] in its literal meaning based on given kanji – 皮 – skin and 肉 – flesh/meat
19. Wordplay: よいよい [yoiyoi – ataxia (loss of full control of bodily functions)] written as 宵宵 [yoi yoi - late evening hours]
20. Wordplay: 裂く [saku – to split/to tear] used in lyrics is a homophone to 咲く [saku – to bloom], therefore the entire phrase could mean The bud of the madness of flesh and bones is blooming context-wisely

Discussion:

      Have you ever wondered how is it to be an average prostitute from around XVIII century? Well, here is your quite obscure, but rather blunt guide provided by Kiryu. What's more, now you are able to imagine every stage of syphilis - the disease that plagued prostitutes and their reckless preys customers.

      Japanese people have seemed to love structures since forever (okay, an exaggeration, I know), and even their infamous yuukaku or hanamachi (red-light districts) had their hierarchy as well. Before the prostitution culture fell out of fashion (in favor of geishas), there had been enchanting and damn good at art Tayuu and later on - Oiran (you can easily distinguish them by counting the number of their hair ornaments - Oiran had relatively more of them) - top-class courtesans, plus a lot of low-class prostitutes if you couldn't afford. Yotaka is about the latter ones. Well, in Japan it used to be not that uncommon to sell young girls to pleasure districts, from where there was no escape...