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Okiku, Former Japanese Prostitute (Karayuki-san), Ipoh
This photograph was taken at I.Itoh's photo studio at Belfield Street, Ipoh and shows Okiku, a former Japanese prostitute (Karayuki-san) who worked in Ipoh.
She was born in 1899 near Hiroshima, Japan, and came to Klang in 1916. In Ipoh, she cohabitated with Furukawa, a photographer working with the Itoh photo studio. She had three children while with him, but only one survived.
In the 1930's, Furukawa moved to Singapore as Japanese businesses were adversely affected by Chinese boycotts of Japanese goods. Okiku remained behind, and at the age 36, she married Kosavalan, a 'depressed caste' Tamil migrant. After he passed away, she returned to Japan to see out her old age.
Japanese brothels were established in Kinta around 1893, along with the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants and by 1899 Ipoh had at least one Japanese dentist and a photographers studio, although there was no mention of Japanese ladies. In 1921 it is recorded that the estimate of Japanese residents in Kinta Valley that year had risen to 150 to 180 of which 50 were Karayuki-san.
To read more about Belfield Street, click here.
To read more about the book ‘Kinta Valley’, click here.