The Noisy Second Floor
Kotaro is the heir to a drapery business named Ebisuya. He cannot restrain himself from visiting Yoshiwara, the former red-light district in Tokyo, every night. Though he is old enough to take over the family business, he continues to spend all of his time fooling around, and his father can no longer put up with him. Amid a tumult of threats to disown him, Kotaro is visited by the perplexed manager of the house. “If you’re so crazy about women, then find a mistress,” admonishes the manager. However, Kotaro replies, “It’s not the women I like. It’s Yoshiwara itself! If you won’t let me go to Yoshiwara, then you’ll have to bring it to me.” At first stunned by Kotaro’s insistence, the manager then decides to build an exact miniaturized replica of Yoshiwara on the second floor of Ebisuya in an attempt to stop Kotaro from going to the real Yoshiwara. Delighted by the faithfulness of the reproduction, Kotaro becomes absorbed in playing with his miniature Yoshiwara, even staging a fight with another young man (doll) as he pretends to be “just looking” at a courtesan (also a doll). He gets so wrapped up in his play, however, that he himself somehow shrinks to miniature size and becomes a part of the replica Yoshiwara world.
Yuseke Fujikawa