No.04 (November 23, 1908)

Let me offer you brief accounts of Asami and Tanabe’s biographies here.

Toraji Asami, who currently disguises his business as a tea house in Edmonton, was once a sailor and his parents had a general store in Kure*. But 15 or 16 years ago a gambler and sailor, whose nickname was Ōtora, opened a Japanese devil cave in Victoria with four prostitutes, and Toraji back then used to visit Ōtora’s brothel every time he sailed by a sealer to Victoria with a group called Hakodatefuji. Since then Ōtora moved from Victoria to Nanaimo and again was involved in prostitution business, and Toraji, became involved with prostitute Otori and started living at Ōtora’s as a cook. Later Toraji and Otori’s relationship continued and the two flew to Portland. Toraji then left for Japan using the money Otori earned by prostitution, married a daughter of Shimada, a well-known boss in Yokohama, and had her have his child; at the same time he had the hots for a prostitute in Maganecho** area, pulled her out from the brothel and had her migrate to this country using his wife’s passport. Later he almost bought a schooner in Ōsaka for the explicit purpose of import of prostitutes, but this ended in failure. Then he traveled to Canada again and expanded his business with Otori across regions, and currently has his home castle in Edmonton. Otori broke up with him for some reason and currently does prostitution in Revelstoke. In devils society everyone knows Asami’s Otori; she is that influential.

Next, Tanabe, first name Saburō, is from Wakayama, Kishū, and has been in New York previously under his nickname Nankin Tanabe. Later, he came to a river and became a salmon fisher; borrowed all the money and other things from a page at the Gulf of Georgia 8, 9 years ago; escaped to the United States and ran a poolroom in Seattle; went to Japan and brought a woman from Kōbe; somehow managed to enter Victoria but was not able to cross the American border; he reluctantly decided to settle in the interior with this woman, which was April or May two years ago. This woman is a bitch, who used to be involved in prostitution in Nishidemachi of the city of Hyōgo. She is now a madam of a tea house in Winnipeg with two prostitutes. Apparently their business is going not so badly; the two of them must be happy counting easy money. A stupid thing.

The Oldest Place

As I briefly mentioned in the previous section, the devil cave run by Ōtora in Victoria is one of the oldest, but in the interior Revelstoke has one of the older ones.

In Revelstoke there is a Chinese person called Wong, who has been in this country over twenty years and in Revelstoke for seventeen years. According to Wong in the interior Revelstoke, Nelson and Kaslo are older ones while Cranbrook and Calgary are not.