yuna 湯女

A low class of prostitutes during the Genna 元和 and Kan'ei 寛永 eras (1615-44). Typically, after meeting customers by washing their backs at a large bathhouse, yuna would attend them at dinner before accompanying them to bed. With the establishment of licensed pleasure quarters the free-lance yuna were officially prohibited. The brazenly wanton lifestyle of these women made them a favorite painting theme in early 17th-century genre painting *fūzokuga 風俗画. The Yuna zu 湯女図 (MOA Museum, Shizuoka Prefecture) is the most well-known.