“The Teahouse of The August Moon,” the film adaptation of the novel by Vern Sneider, was released in 1956. The teahouse was modeled after “Matsu no Shita (Under the Pine Tree),” a teahouse built after WWII in Tsuji, a red-light district in Naha, Okinawa. The female character Lotus Blossom too, is thought to be based on a real person who worked as a prostitute at the teahouse.