Information related to this story:
Before you start to read the first chapter, I would recommend you to read this information.
· The fan fiction will be placed exactly at the Bakumatsu (literally end of Shogunate "Bakufu" Tokugawa), at the Genji Era (1864) – middle June - summer. Kenshin is not living with Tomoe in Otsu. They're still at the Inn. Change of ages: Kenshin – 18; Tomoe – 19; Kaoru - 16.
· Concerning the brothel and the courtesans: I will work hard to make it realistic. So if you're uncomfortable with mild/moderate vulgar languages, sexual situation, violence, and - certainly -death, you MUST NOT read it.
· I have done a lot of research to write this fiction. I have the slightest idea of what a prostitute/courtesan has to endure, and what I know would be only useful if it was set on modern days. So, I had to go back to the past (actually back to Japan's past culture), so I could find out how and why they appeared, how they were treated, and how they used to treat and entertain their clients. And well, appeared to me some interesting facts. I can say I won't make it offensive or distasteful for you to read. There are a lot of rules and I'm planning to follow most of them.
Random Information:
The Tokugawa Shogunate or Tokugawa bakufu (also known as the Edo bakufu) was a feudal military dictatorship established in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family until 1868. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city of Edo, now Tokyo.
Following the Sengoku Period of "warring states", central government had been largely re-established by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the Azuchi-Momoyama period. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, central authority fell to Tokugawa Ieyasu who completed this process and received the title of shogun in 1603. His descendants were to hold the position, and the central authority that came with it, until the 19th century.
The Tokugawa period, unlike the Shogunate before it, was based on the strict class hierarchy established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The warrior-caste of samurai were at the top, followed by peasants, artisans, and traders. An additional class was filled by the burakumin (or eta), the lowest in status and socially despised for dealing in taboo trades connected with death. "Classless" persons such as entertainers also existed, having neither the restrictions nor the protections granted by the acknowledged castes.
Ironically, the very strictness of the caste system was to undermine these classes in the long run. Taxes on the peasantry were set to fixed amounts, which did not account for inflation or other changes in monetary value. As a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants. The autobiography of a late-period samurai, Msuii´s Story, documents some such confrontations.
Toward the end of the 19th century, an alliance of several of the more powerful daimyo with the titular Emperor finally succeeded in the overthrow of the Shogunate, culminating in the Meiji Restoration. The Tokugawa bakufu came to an official end in 1868 with the resignation of the 15th Tokugawa Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu and the "restoration" ('Taisei Houkan') of imperial rule.
The late Tokugawa Shogunate or last shogun (Bakumatsu) is the period between 1853 and 1867 during which Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy and modernized from a feudal Shogunate to the Meiji government. It is at end of Edo period and proceeded by Meiji era.