JAPAN IN BOYS FOR SALE

Boys for Sale. A Sociological Study of Boy Prostitution by Dennis Drew & Jonathan Drake, New York, 1969, pp. 109-116.

JAPAN

Unlike his Chinese counterpart, the Japanese boy-lover is still reputed to be much more gentle in his sexual relations. He does not enjoy the sadism which the Chinese seem to find an indispensable and integral part of sexual intercourse.

In Japan, prostitution as a boyhood profession has never been a disgrace. At least it wasn’t until the arrival of stilted Western ideas and influence. If not quite as honorable as before, it is still an acceptable practice in some circles for a family with a beautiful, but unintelligent son, to place him in a brothel. There, he might meet a patron, or, at least earn enough money to establish himself in some sort of business after he grows to adulthood. Once again, we noted a vast difference between the futures of the Japanese and Chinese boy prostitutes. The Chinese, as previously mentioned, usually expired early in life whereas his Japanese counterpart lives on to become a businessman!

The Japanese brothel was not only a place where a man could come to find a boy, but it was also a place where a man could bring a young lover for an afternoon or evening of privacy. Indeed, at times, it was a sort of boarding school where a man could leave his young catamite for care and instruction, knowing that he would never be touched by another customer. Also, if a man found a boy prostitute especially attractive, he could reserve him exclusively for his own use. This was desirable for two reasons: one, there would be little danger of disease, and two, the boy’s total affection and erotic activity would be reserved for his master alone.

Perhaps because the Japanese followed more gentle and “natural” forms of lovemaking, it was not necessary for a boy to undertake such a long period of preparation and training, although in some eras, the feminization of boy prostitutes was practiced and the boy geisha of today (usually not very young) is an expert in passing as a woman.

Not long ago, boys, aged 8 or 9, were sometimes presented to brothel keepers by their parents or guardians. The keepers, in turn, would place the boys in the hands of “trainers” whose job it was to prepare the youngsters for their roles in prostitution. They had to be suitably indoctrinated into the life before they were of any value to a brothel.

Often, these trainers were former prostitutes themselves who now earned their living in business. Sometimes, a boy would be kept in the place of business, but if the trainer’s occupation demanded much of his time, a boy would be kept in the brothel during the day and returned to his trainer’s home in the evening hours.

At home, the boy would spend the evening hours naked with his trainer who would employ sexual play as an everynight form of entertainment. The boy was allowed to satisfy his natural curiosity about his trainer’s genitals, and was allowed and encouraged to touch and handle them at will. In the course of sex play, the boy was taught to use his tongue on the man’s penis prior to actual fellation. Once the boy became accustomed to tonguing and mouthing the organ, the transition to complete fellatio was simple.

Some editions of Japanese Sex Life by Kraus, contain pictures illustrating the way that fingers are used during indoctrination. Finger anal manipulation could be either mutual or solitary for trainers taught boys to use their own fingers to dilate their anuses in preparing themselves for passive sodomy.

Japanese trainers would have been shocked and scandalized at the brutal Chinese training just discussed. They felt that a boy is a delicate instrument to be handled carefully. They believed that a boy during training should always be encouraged to direct his erotic pleasure to his anus. The Japanese have evidently been very successful in doing this. There’s hardly ever a time when a patient little Japanese boy doesn’t enjoy a teasing wiggly finger stimulating his bottom.

The trainer always inserted his smallest finger in preliminary digital stimulation. This small finger was used until it moved about too freely when it was replaced by the next largest. Then, when the boy had progressed sufficiently to allow ingress of the trainer’s thumb, two fingers were used! Often boy and trainer would lie in bed for hours with the trainer’s two fingers carefully planted in the boy’s bottom, his fingers making scissoring motions to accustom the anal sphincter to accept insertions pleasurably. Conversation was always kept on the pleasant side so that the boy associated anal stimulation with pleasant thoughts. During the long training sessions as he was being gradually prepared for his future life, the boy was able to ask many vital sexual questions and get valid answers from the perfect source. At the same time, he was taught how to flirt with a customer, how to extract the most delicious pleasure from him and also to give free reign to his own sexual desires. The future Japanese brothel patron would expect his boy to respond erotically to his caresses and this was the time for practice.

When the trainer had decided that the digital preparation had been sufficient, he would introduce his own penis to the boy’s anus. They were gentle in this preparation. The Japanese are still not known to enjoy hasty sex and they have always wanted a boy for many continuous hours of lovemaking. In anal intercourse (as well as in oral) once the insertion is completed, much of the pleasure consists of lying absolutely still for long periods of time, only quivering or moving as little as possible. Penetration may, therefore, continue for hours — without climax but presumably with many near orgasms - intercourse might last ten hours and include half a dozen climaxes without removal of the penis. Such intercourse is considered to be highly restful by the Japanese who may actually spend much of the time sleeping or dozing.

Once the boy had responded to the new role he was destined to play in life, the trainer informed the brothelkeeper and the boy was transferred permanently. In some cases, it was not unknown for a trainer to fall in love with a particular boy and to buy him from the brothelkeeper for his own. However, in most cases, the trainer derived great pleasure from giving boys their training indoctrination and he eagerly looked forward to the next trainee as the present one became adept in his role as a skilled catamite.

As in most brothels, a new boy would find many customers merely because he was “new.” Many of the regular clients would request his services to try him out and compare him with the boy or boys they had been regularly patronizing. In time, the newcomer would meld into the background of regulars as other novices arrived. By that time, if he was good enough, he would have already attracted a rich steady sponsor from among his patrons.

The Japanese held to strictest formality even in sexual relations. There was the usual bowing and smiling which are associated with Japanese ritualistic social conventions. As in China, the pet names for a boy prostitute were usually some form of ketsu, or boy’s anus. However, the expressions were more delicate. Where the Chinese might say to the boy, “I’m going to stick my poker into your oven”, the Japanese would say, “I am going to seek my peace in your heaven”. The most common word for anal intercourse meant “to spend the entire night”. In all Japanese erotic play, the usual formality and mutual respect were expressed in ritualized speech with many honorific titles. A man might compliment a boy on his skin texture while the boy, in turn, would express delight over the size of his patron’s penis. (Japanese female prostitutes make similar exclamations — always well received because the Japanese have the smallest male organs of all the world’s races.) This flattery had an erotic effect on the man, deserved or not.

The boy might sit upon the patron’s lap, facing the man, with his legs spread out and over the man’s thighs. This position, in erotic foreplay, enabled the boy to toy with the man’s penis as well as allow the man to caress the boy’s back and buttocks, at the same time inserting a finger or two into his anus. The Japanese patron believed in and enjoyed arousing his catamite. The more sensually aroused the boy became, the more pleased the patron became. Having developed a strong anal fixation, the boy would naturally react favorably to anal stimulation. Knowing this, the patron would make elaborate digital manipulation of the boy’s anus, even if his preference were for passive fellatio. As the boy fellated him, the position used would enable the man to insert his finger gently, keeping the boy aroused to fever pitch and enhancing his own pleasure in the bargain.

Although the Japanese greatly enjoy prolonging intercourse for several hours, there has been one exception to this rule. In the Middle Ages, in Japan, and possibly continuing into the 18th century, inns in rural sections of the country offered boy prostitutes to the traveller who might be staying for only an hour or two. Many such travellers enjoyed a hasty few moments of fellatio which, however brief, were considered refreshing nonetheless. When travellers arrived and sat for tea in the inn, young waiters and entertainers would crowd about them. Visitors became angry if there were not enough boys to go around. Guests could take a boy to a private room and after a few minutes of merry play, return to finish their tea and resume their journeys. These boys were also available to sleep an entire night with travellers, usually in small cabins in the woods around the teahouse. Entertainment was cheaper in rural sections than in the big city brothels where prices were fixed by law.

City prices of the 19th Century:

Six hours with young boy — $1.50
Over six hours — 25 cents each additional hour
Six hours with older boy (over l3) — 50 cents
Hasty fellatio at teahouse — 10 cents.

Foreigners were rarely welcomed in Japanese boy brothels and even today, it is almost impossible for a non-Japanese to find them without the connections of a Japanese friend. The poor man’s brothel has largely disappeared and the ones that remain (large numbers of them) are very expensive by Japanese standards. Much of the expense is caused by the luxurious appointments of the houses and the expensive adornment of the prostitutes. The Japanese man patronizes brothels for more than just sex — he expects entertainment, peace and rest.

In medieval and classical Japan, there was a great deal of lovemaking between men and boys in the theatre. It went on in the army, between nobles and their servants and in many other situations but, in this work, we are devoting ourselves to the lesser known field of boy prostitution. Young actors were evidently not prostitutes in the same way, or at least, not so often as in China. It is, however, not impossible to assert these things with absolute assurance for the Japanese have always hidden such matters from Westerners to some extent. It is becoming increasingly difficult today to learn facts about which the Japanese think Westerners might not approve. Yet, there are recent reports of Americans visiting boy brothels with Japanese friends and commenting on the presence in them of “unbelievably beautiful youngsters.”

The color of their skin, their warmth and shape, their docility and affection all combine to make the choice Japanese boys unusually attractive — probably more so than the most choice Chinese boys. The Chinese skin texture, some claim, is not so pleasant on the whole. Most attractive to Westerners, however, is the natural, unembarrassed, unrestrained behavior of boys in Japanese brothels. This seems to have remained the same since the Middle Ages.

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