Kagema
Kagema (陰間) is a historical Japanese term for young male prostitutes. Kagema were often passed off as apprentice kabuki actors (who were themselves often prostitutes on the side) and catered to a mixed male and female clientele. For male clients, the preferred service was anal sex, with the client taking the penetrative role;[1](p109) homosexual fellatio is almost unmentioned in Tokugawa-era documents.[1](pp121–122) The belief that the anus is a center of sexual energy that could be absorbed by the penetrative partner most likely originates within Chinese texts.[1] Kagema who were not affiliated with an actual kabuki theatre could be hired through male brothels or those teahouses specializing in kagema.[1](pp69–72) Such institutions were known as Kagemajaya (ja). Kagema typically charged more than female prostitutes of equivalent status,[1](p111 and associated notes) and did a healthy trade into the mid-19th century, despite increasing legal restrictions that attempted to contain prostitution (both male and female) in specified urban areas and to dissuade class-spanning relationships, which were viewed as potentially disruptive to traditional social organization.[1](pp70–78, 132–134)
Many such prostitutes, as well as many young kabuki actors, were indentured servants sold as children to the brothel or theatre, typically on a ten-year contract.[1](pp69, 134–135) Kagema could be presented as young men (yarō), wakashū (adolescent boys, about 10–18 years old) or as onnagata (female impersonators).[1](pp90–92)
This term also appears in modern Japanese homosexual slang.
See also
- Homosexuality in Ancient Japan
- Kagemajaya (ja)
References
- Leupp, Gary P. (1997). Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-20900-8.
- Bernard Faure "The Red Thread" 1998.