district, Kuramae. Kuramae was a district of storehouses for rice, which was then used as payment for servants of the feudal government. The keepers of these storage houses initially stored the rice for a small fee, but over the years began exchanging the rice for money or selling it to local shopkeepers at a margin. Through such trading, many came to have a considerable amount of disposable income and as result theaters and geisha houses began to spring up in nearby Asakusa.

For most of the 20th century,