Shimabara was established in 1640 for a brothel owned by Hara Saburoemon and was closed (as a prostitution district) in 1958, when prostitution was outlawed in Japan, though it continued as a geisha district into the 1970s. There are many explanations for the name "Shimabara"; it may refer to the large gate ("Ōmon") that resembled the gate of Shimabara Castle in Hizen, or may be a reference to the then-recent Shimabara Rebellion (1637–38) (which was provoked by the construction of the castle), due to the chaotic founding of Shimabara. In the Tokugawa period, it was also called "the licensed quarter" ("go-men no ocho") or simply "the quarter" to distinguish the higher-class residents within from the unlicensed women who operated throughout the cities.