(From a newspaper article of the year 1898)
The Depravity of a Stipend-holding, Samurai-Family’s Sons
In February of this year, the third son [Kyan Chōtoku] of the stipend-holding samurai-class member Kyan [Chōfu] from Gibo district in Shuri, together with four or five young women, secretly traveled by ship to Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture under the guise of being a textile merchant. In addition, at the beginning of this month, [Kyan Chōfu’s] heir and oldest son [Kyan Chōho 朝輔] boarded the ship Satsuma-maru to Kobe to correct his younger brother’s [Chōtoku’s] wrongdoings. Two of the young women, the daughter of commoner Higa from Shuri Kubagawa 47 (named Ushi, born 1878) and the daughter of samurai-class member Arakaki from Mawashi 9 (named Kamato, born 1878) were being held at the place of a certain Sakai Tatsuzō in [the old red-light district of] Fukohara, Kobe.
Regarding this incident, there is theory that Kyan brought those women to Kobe to sell them to a brothel, or into prostitution. There is another theory according to which Kyan planned to run such a brothel himself.
Although the true story is unknown, but the truth is that Kyan is staying in Kobe with daughters of unrelated persons. Moreover, it is evident that two of those women have already been registered for temporary residence at the aforementioned place [the brothel in the red-light district of Fukuhara].
Fukuhara is the red-light district of Kobe where no legitimate people reside. And, if someone is involved in prostitution, the prostitutes must be registered for temporary residence within the red-light district.
Kyan registered those women for temporary residence in the Fukuhara red-light district, and the place they are retained at is a brothel. For these two reasons it is logical that the previously mentioned rumors about Kyan’s activities must be true. Even if there were some objections that this is just a rumor or fake news, it is not difficult to conclude that Kyan acted in moral obliquity by taking advantage of these women by retaining them in a red-light district where a normal businessman should not live.
It seems inconceivable that a stipend-holding samurai-class member would have planned to be involved in brothel business, but it is exactly what Kyan did. While our time is called an age of decadence, this is truly the depravity of a stipend-holding, samurai familys’ son.“
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