Amusements in a Mansion

At first glance, this screen appears to show a familiar scene of merrymaking in the pleasure quarters; in fact, it depicts a scene in a male brothel called a kagema tea house (kagema chaya). Kagema traditionally referred to young understudies in Kabuki theater who trained to play women’s roles. In these brothels, young adolescent boys often served older male clients. The boys are identifiable by their distinctive hairstyle: a shaven head covered with forelock. Such youths, called wakashū (literally, “young people”), were considered the objects of sexual desire to both men and women.