Yoshiwara was for centuries the famed pleasure center of Tokyo. There, behind moated walls, an erotic world unmatched in the West was created by beautiful courtesans, geishas, dancers, actors, and artists. To this "floating world" came the hedonists, the women-seekers, the sensual pleasure-hunters of old Japan. Stephen and Ethel Longstreet trace the rise and fall of this city within a city, a sanctioned preserve of teahouses and brothels that was not abolished until 1958, sketching a vivid portrait of social and sexual mores in Japan's capital.