Station #35: Inn maids were expected to "market" their inn to passing travelers. These maids use physical tactics. However, many inns employed prostitutes, a favorite pastime of travelers. Social constraints were looser along the highway. The shogunate tried to ban them, many times, starting in 1659. It was ineffective and the bakufu, the shogun's government, sent out another proclamation in 1662. More edicts followed and the government gave up in 1718. It declared that each inn could keep two "waitresses" resigning itself to a violation of that limitation by setting a scale of fines which was simply a tax on each additional girl. The girls could be rather bold in their attempts to coerce travelers to their inn.

Image Copyright: Minneapolis Institute of Art