Kagema

Kagema (陰間) is a historical Japanese term for young male prostitutes

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of engaging in sex acts for hire. In most cultures, prostitution is viewed by many as a deviant profession, either illegal or socially discouraged...

. Kagema were often passed off as apprentice kabuki

Kabuki

is the highly stylized classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers....

 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; homosexual fellatio is almost unmentioned in Tokugawa-era

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868 and is the premodern era. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period ended with the Meiji Restoration, the...

 documents. Kagema who were not affiliated with an actual kabuki theatre could be hired through male brothel

Brothel

A brothel, also known as a bordello, cathouse, whorehouse, sporting house and various other euphemisms, is an establishment specifically dedicated to prostitution, providing the prostitutes a place to meet and to have sexual intercourse with clients.-Legality:Today, brothels are illegal in the vast...

s or those teahouses specializing in kagema. Kagema typically charged more than female prostitutes of equivalent status, and did a healthy trade into the mid-1800s despite increasing legal restrictions. Many such prostitutes, as well as many young kabuki actors, were indentured servant

Indentured servant

An indentured servant is a laborer under contract to an employer for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for their transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities...

s sold as children to the brothel or theatre, typically on a ten-year contract. Kagema could be presented as young men (yarō), wakashū (adolescent boys, about 10-18 years old) or as onnagata

Oyama (Japanese theatre)

Oyama , sometimes called Onnagata , are male actors which impersonate women in Japanese Kabuki theatre. The modern all-male kabuki is known as yarō kabuki...

(female impersonators).



This term also appears in modern Japanese homosexual slang.