There was an incident that happened in the
Edo Period of Japan where a samurai became obsessed with a popular kabuki actor, who
was also a male prostitute. This relationship was hard on the samurai’s
wallet because he had to pay every time he wanted to spend the night with his lover. He even bought lavish gifts. Eventually, he sold all of his belongings
to fund the relationship and had nothing left. Desperate, he stole the sword of another samurai
and sold it. Unfortunately, the theft was reported and
they caught the samurai. Both he and his prostitute were executed. This incident is a great example of how people
went crazy over kabuki seks workers, and a dire warning to Twitch viewers. Kabuki theatre started in 1603, and is still
popular in Japan today among total snobs. What you may not know about is its history
of prostitution. Kabuki and paid seks went together like balls
and milk tea. Kabuki actors were the celebrities of their
time and people squandered their life savings to share a bed with them. The art form was created by women at the very
beginning of the Edo Period. Theatre at the time catered to the upper class,
and left commoners with an aching need. Luckily, kabuki filled that hole. Women got together into troupes and started
performing in front of ordinary townspeople. It became a hit, and kabuki theatres spread across Japan’s entertainment districts faster than syphilis. Performances were done mostly by all-women
groups who played both men and women roles, and they made sure to thrust as much lewd
and seksually suggestive content into their performances as this channel does. Seks sells, especially when many of the women
were prostitutes themselves. Adult actresses who could act. The kabuki business always had issues with
the law. These actresses became super famous, but with
great fame comes great simpering fans. Fans obsessed over their goddesses and happily
engaged in violent arguments with other fans. It got so bad that in 1629, the law stepped
in and just banned female performers. Sucks for them, but it allowed men to shine
bright like a diamond. And thank the gods, I was beginning to worry
that there was a place in Edo society not entirely dominated by men. The law failed. Simps are relentless. Instead of dampening their kimonos over female
actors, they dampened them over male actors who played female roles, especially young
actors. Male youths who were usually around 15 to
18 years old had more feminine features, so they were better for female roles. I talk about these male youths in another
video, but the important thing is that they had this forelock of hair in front of their heads, which differentiated them from adult men, who didn’t have the forelock. People found these forelocks super seksy,
like a man with rock hard abs or a woman with two large overflowing bank accounts. Lawmakers saw that the same problem was happening
with these youth actors who played female roles and were like, “Oh my Buddha, these sumbitches horny” and in 1642, they banned all female roles,
hoping it would end the insanity. Did it work? Does a princess s--t in the woods?
Of course not. The thirst was strong with these ones. Kabuki theatre became dominated by youth actors
playing only male roles. They still made plays with seks themes, but
now it was male-male seks themes, and that got out of control. And so the ban hammer fell again on youth
actors, since it was mostly the youth actors that people soaked their pants over. Now only adult men could be actors. The government rejoiced at their success,
but it was a premature celebration. In 1644, either because of public outrage
or because there was an epidemic of balls turning blue and exploding in Japan, historians
are still debating this, the government ended the ban on female roles, meaning adult men
could play female roles again. In 1652, they loosened the condom further and allowed youth actors to return to the stage, on one condition. That forelock that all youths had, that sultry
symbol of seks, had to go. Male youth actors were forced to shave them
off to limit their beauty. The forelock was the hairstyle of youths,
shaving it made them adult men. I guess the reasoning was that no one would
be attracted to men, which is generally true. Actors regularly presented the tops of their
heads to inspectors, who made sure the hair up there stayed less than half an inch long. This worked for a little while, actors did
look uglier without their foxy forelocks, but seks finds a way. After shaving their forelocks, kabuki actors
wore these purple scarves on the top of their heads. Fans started finding these scarves seksy,
just like the forelocks they replaced, and the simping resumed in earnest. The bans not only backfired, they may have
even made things worse for the government by increasing male prostitution. How? Remember that many of these youth actors were
prostitutes, called kagema 陰間. Their forelocks lured in customers like an
anglerfish lures in BuzzFeed article writers. Adult men weren’t popular in the naughty
entertainment business, it was mostly youths, who were not yet considered adults. However, the forelock ban blurred the line
between youth and adulthood. Actors did look older without their forelock, but they still played the more beautiful younger roles and female roles. It changed the public’s seksual tastes. People started seeing adult men as younger
and hotter. This was good news for male prostitution. Kagema over 20 years old used to have a hard
time attracting customers. They just looked older and uglier. Older kagema often saw their client base shift
from mostly men to mostly women, because men were not attracted to other men. The new beauty standards embraced older entertainers
and they saw their most lucrative years extend into their 30s. Now unlike me, most people are not born with
natural artistic talent. Likewise, most people were not born kabuki
actors. Usually they started as kagema in these brothels
called teahouses. Teahouses that specialized in serving up kagema were called kagemajaya 陰間茶屋, or kagema teahouse. I have a video about these too if you wanna
check it out. Teahouses were everywhere, especially near
kabuki theaters, and they were very popular, especially among samurai and Buddhist monks. A common saying went, “The only thing that all Buddhist sects agree on is the fun to be had at male teahouses.” They weren’t talking about tea. Teahouses had an intimate relationship with
kabuki theaters. They supplied kagema to theater patrons, and
acted as love hotels for kabuki actors and their paying fans. All this male prostitution was technically illegal by the way, the government never licensed these places. Just to keep up appearances, kabuki theaters
didn’t flaunt the fact that you could sleep with their actors, and teahouses had signs
saying they sold kabuki costumes or trained kabuki apprentices. It was better than having a giant penis on
the window. The authorities knew what was really going
on of course, everyone did. But they ignored it the way a man would ignore
his girlfriend’s cheating because it’d be too much trouble to confront her and at
the end of the day, he just wants to go home to his wife and kids. At teahouses, some kagema were trained in
kabuki. Life at the teahouse was generally miserable. The lucky ones got to apprentice at kabuki
theaters. Luckier ones became real kabuki actors after
their contracts ended. And even luckier ones had their contracts
bought out by a sponsor so they could pursue an acting slash seks work career. That’s also my goal by the way, so please
remember to sponsor me so I can finally escape this hell of creating videos for random strangers
on the internet while the CEO of YouTube Susan Wojcicki is behind me in a leather suit cracking
her whip. Please help. For those teahouse kagema who finally became
real licensed kabuki actors, life was better. They usually still did seks work, kabuki actors
were assumed to be kagema. They were huge celebrities. Think of a hot celebrity, then think of sharing
the bed with them. You can see how fans back then jumped at the
opportunity, up and down, again and again. Youth actors captured the hearts of millions,
along with their other body parts. There were fan clubs devoted to their favorite
actors, and members would gather and attend plays together, it was cute. Then they paid to sleep with the actors, which
was less cute. Youth actors made way more money than their
older peers. Many enjoyed the fame. Young actors walking the town received enough
thirsty stares and declarations of love to adequately fill the empty hole in their hearts
that their absent parents created. Popular actors bedded any man or woman they
wanted. It was raining bishes and they didn’t have
an umbrella. They spent their days drowning in love letters. Nothing made an actor happier than that wonderful
feeling of reading a heartfelt love letter and throwing it in the trash. People would spend their life savings buying
gifts for actors and buying time with them. A man’s relationship with a kagema was seen
as more pure and affectionate than his relationship with his wife, or even his relationship with
a youth who’s not a prostitute. Seks with a kagema was supposed to be better
than seks with your other loved ones, like your wife or a youth. Those people got too emotional, ruining the
seks. Kagema, however, were more professional and
focused on giving you pleasure. Male seks workers were not as common as female
ones, but they often charged more than their female peers. Like how we have movie critics today, there
were kabuki theatre critics, and they were just as unbearable. Critics wrote reviews not only of an actor’s
performance on stage, but also his performance in the bedchamber. The top kabuki actors lived pretty great lives. If you wanted their intimate services, you
had to reserve days in advance. Leaders of kabuki troupes, who might have
been too old themselves, frequently offered the bodies of the younger actors under them
for prostitution. There were downsides to the life of a kabuki
actor. Sometimes they had fans who took it too far. The plural of love is harassment. Some fans became obsessed and stalked their idols, even sneaking into their dressing rooms during shows. Fans fought in the streets over their idols. The violence got bad enough that the city
of Edo had to issue a law saying stop fighting over youths you maniacs. There were laws to limit how much monetary
seksytime was going on, especially for the samurai class. It was undignified for samurai to attend kabuki
plays because those miserable places were supposed to be for commoners. Samurai were only supposed to enjoy Nō theatre. But the pull of kabuki on their pp was too
strong. Kabuki plays were all about naughty stuff,
all about fun. Samurai became one of the main consumers of
kabuki plays and kagema flesh. The government wasn’t exactly happy, but
they didn’t crack down on what was happening. Maybe they thought it was a good outlet for
people’s desires, maybe they thought they couldn’t stop it anyways, or maybe the lawmakers were connoisseurs of the kabuki kink themselves. The government just passed laws to keep people
from going too wild. They tried to limit the amount of sleeping
around that went on in theaters, so kagema often had to see customers outside of the
theater, like at a teahouse. In the capital city of Edo, actors had to
live their lives inside the theatre district. They couldn’t take one step outside. Although that didn’t stop rich actors from
secretly buying extra houses outside of the district, becoming hoes in different area
codes. Alright for more seks talk, check out these
videos. We have some new Patreon patrons Ashley Cook a most wonderful chef, Tina Nguyen hey fellow Vietnamese person, Maebeenot is anyone as cool as her? Maybe not, and eva a classic anime. Alright I love you and spread the knowledge!
