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Mizu-shōbai (Japanese: 水商売), literally the water trade, is the euphemism for jobs that do not provide a contractually fixed salary, but instead, rely on the popularity of the performer among their fans or clientele. Broadly, it includes the television, theater, and movie industries, but more narrowly, it can refer to those who work in businesses that serve alcohol or sex work. Bars, cabarets, health, hostess bars, image clubs, pink salons and soaplands are all part of the mizu shōbai; though they are not sex workers, geisha and kabuki actors are traditionally considered part of the mizu shōbai as well.

Etymology

While the actual origin of the term mizu-shōbai  is debatable, it is likely the term came into use during the Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868). The Tokugawa period saw the development of large bathhouses and an expansive network of roadside inns offering "hot baths and sexual release", as well as the expansion of geisha districts and courtesan quarters in cities and towns throughout the country.

According to one theory proposed by the Nihon Gogen Daijiten, the term comes from the Japanese expression shōbu wa mizumono da (勝負は水物だ, "gain or loss is a matter of chance"), where the literal meaning of the phrase "matter of chance", mizumono (水物), is "a matter of water". In the entertainment business, income depends on a large number of fickle factors like popularity among customers, the weather, and the state of the economy; success and failure change as rapidly as the flow of water. The Nihon Zokugo Daijiten, on the other hand, notes that the term may derive from the expression doromizu-kagyō (泥水稼業, lit. 'muddy water earning business'), for earning a living in the red-light districts, or from the Edo-period expression mizuchaya (水茶屋) for a public teahouse.

See also

• Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Act
• Host and hostess clubs
• Kyabakura Union
• Prostitution in Japan
• Sexuality in Japan

References

1. Dalby, Liza (2008). Geisha: 25th Anniversary Edition. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520257894. OCLC 260152400.
2. Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary. Tokyo. 1991. ISBN 4-7674-2015-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
3. ^ De Mente, Boyé Lafayette. "Selling sex in a glass! — Japan's pleasure trades". Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2006.
4. 前田, 富祺, ed. (April 2005). 『日本語源大辞典』 [Japan Source Dictionary] (in Japanese). 小学館. ISBN 4095011815.
5. 米川, 明彦, ed. (November 2003). 『日本俗語大辞典』 [Japanese Folklore Dictionary] (in Japanese). 東京堂出版. ISBN 4490106386.

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