BUTTERFLIES OF THE NIGHT: Mama-sans, Geisha, Strippers, and the Japanese Men They Serve

by Lisa Louis

Butterflies of the Night is an American woman's inside view of Japan's lively and powerful nightclub world. Includes interviews with women in both high-end clubs and the sleazy end of the business, as well as comments from customers of geisha houses as well as sex clubs.

Genres: Nonfiction, Japan, Memoir

226 pages, Paperback

First published August 17, 2004

Reviews

[Pat MacEwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look at the so-called 'water trade' in Japan, starting with the author's own experiences as a gaijin hostess in some of the higher-end nightclubs of Kyoto. These clubs specialize in hosting local businessmen, sometimes as a group indulgence or celebration of someone's promotion, and sometimes as the site of small to major business deals. Neither a brothel nor a karaoke hang-out, the clubs concentrate on pampering their guests by way of liquor, special attention and conversation. The author then interviews other women employed in the various divisions of the trade, including no-panty coffee shops, instant-service sex shops where the only contact between the hostess and guest occurs by way of a hole in the wall at crotch height, the aforementioned karaoke bars, the so-called 'Pink Salons,' soap-land bathhouses (just as slippery as you might think), and traditional Geisha, as well as other non-Japanese women who came on their own or were brought in from the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, and many other countries by traffickers. The book came out in 1992, so it's somewhat dated by now, but it provides a wealth of detail concerning the customers, the business operations involved, the mama-sans who run the clubs, the hostesses themselves, the terminology used, the prices charged and wages paid for this and that, and an especially enlightening chat with a retired yakuza member no longer directly involved in the trade. I'm sure many things have changed in the last 3 decades, but many more have not. How the pandemic has affected the water trade, however, is quite an intriguing question. And before you ask, there is no pornographic content. Recommended.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1992, and written by an American woman who worked a few months as a hostess in the boomtime 1980s, this book is now very out of date, but it's a fascinating exploration of the sex trade in Kyoto and Tokyo, from the high end down to the very lowest. It covers the author's hostess career fairly briefly and then moves on to the author's reasearch, featuring interviews with Japanese and non-Japanese women working as hostesses, prostitutes, geisha and bar owners as well as with some of their male customers and a retired yakuza who discusses yakuza involvement in clubland. The book is not very flattering to the Japanese, especially many of the male customers, but it seems even handed and honest, and I appreciated that it didn't just cover the relatively high status world the author experienced as an American in a hostess bar, but also explores the sex trafficking and exploitation of women from the Philippines and elsewhere. My main complaint about the book is that although they are mentioned in passing there are no interviews with men (or trans people) working in the sex trade, whether in host bars or as prostitutes.

The book is journalistic rather than academic, so it's a very easy read, even if the topic ranges from funny to extremely bleak.

[Elyndrical · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look at a section of the Japanese entertainment business. Only complaint is that the information is now a bit dated but still historically interesting.