Former sex worker records Tokyo's red-light history in photos

It is late morning and steam is rising from water tanks atop the colourful but opaque-windowed "soapland" sex parlours in a historic Tokyo red-light district.

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TOKYO -

Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, is Beniko - a former sex worker who is now trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography.

"People often talk about this neighbourhood having a 'bad history,'" says Beniko, who goes by her nickname. "But the truth is that through the years, people have lived here, made a life here and sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality."

In its mid-17th- to 19th-century heyday, Yoshiwara was home to high-class courtesans who sold a world of luxurious closed-door entertainment and fantasy.

The sole entrance to the lively walled pleasure quarters was a huge golden gateway topped with a figurine of Benten, the goddess of music, art, wealth and femininity.

In contrast, today, the same point is marked by two plain pillars, and the brothels of the area in eastern Tokyo are often run under the guise of bathhouses.

Beniko, now 52, spent a decade working in one of these so-called soaplands after a difficult childhood during which she was bullied at school.