Yoshiwara

thumb|Cherry Blossom Time in Nakanochō of Yoshiwara by Utagawa Hiroshige, woodblock print, depicting the main street lined with tea houses, 1848-1849. thumb|Yoshiwara Night Scene, ukiyo-e painting by [[Katsushika Ōi]] thumb|Women of the Yoshiwara, photograph during the Meiji period is a red-light district in Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1617, Yoshiwara was one of three licensed and well-known famous created during the early 17th century by the Tokugawa shogunate, alongside Shimabara in Kyoto in 1640 and Shinmachi in Osaka.

Created by the shogunate to curtail the tastes of and sequester the nouveau riche (merchant) classes, the entertainment offered in Yoshiwara, alongside other licensed districts, would eventually originate geisha, who would become known as the fashionable companions of the classes and simultaneously cause the demise of , the upper-class courtesans of the red-light districts.