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Homosexuality in Japan
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=== Kabuki and male prostitution === Male prostitutes (''[[kagema]]''), who were often passed off as apprentice [[kabuki]] actors and catered to a mixed male and female clientele, did a healthy trade into the mid-19th century despite increasing restrictions. Many such prostitutes, as well as many young kabuki actors, were [[indentured servant]]s sold as children to the brothel or theatre, typically on a ten-year contract. Sexual relations between merchants and boys hired as shop staff or housekeepers were common enough, at least in the popular imagination, to be the subject of erotic stories and popular jokes. Young [[kabuki]] actors often worked as prostitutes off-stage, and were celebrated in much the same way as modern celebrities are, being much sought after by wealthy patrons, who would vie with each other to purchase the Kabuki actors' favors. ''[[Onnagata]]'' (female-role) and ''wakashū-gata'' (adolescent boy-role) actors in particular were the subject of much appreciation by both male and female patrons, and figured largely in ''nanshoku'' [[shunga]] prints and other works celebrating ''nanshoku'', which occasionally attained best-seller status.<ref name="Leupp"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.androphile.org/preview/Culture/Japan/japan.htm|title=Gay love in Japan – World History of Male Love|access-date=8 April 2018|archive-date=3 August 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060803183048/http://www.androphile.org/preview/Culture/Japan/japan.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Male prostitutes and actor-prostitutes serving male clientele were originally restricted to the ''[[wakashū]]'' age category, as adult men were not perceived as desirable or socially acceptable sexual partners for other men. During the 17th century, these men (or their employers) sought to maintain their desirability by deferring or concealing their coming-of-age and thus extending their "non-adult" status into their twenties or even thirties; this eventually led to an alternate, status-defined ''shudō'' relationship which allowed clients to hire "boys" who were, in reality, older than themselves. This evolution was hastened by mid-17th-century bans on the depiction of the ''wakashū''<nowiki/>'s long forelocks, their most salient age marker, in kabuki plays; intended to efface the sexual appeal of the young actors and thus reduce violent competition for their favors, this restriction eventually had the unintended effect of decoupling male sexual desirability from actual age, so long as a suitably "youthful" appearance could be maintained.<ref name=":3" /><ref name="Leupp"/> [[Image:Nishikawa-Sukenobu.jpg|right|thumb|A ''[[wakashū]]'' (wearing headscarf) sneaks a kiss from a female prostitute behind his patron's back. [[Nishikawa Sukenobu]], {{Circa|1716–1735}}. Hand-colored print.]]
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