Name: 約會、婚姻、女性（古代日本）｜日本史 13 (Dating, Marriage, and Women (in Ancient Japan) | History of Japan 13)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T08:40:37.000Z
Duration: 6 min 48 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

If you think dating today is hard, imagine how it must have been back in the Kofun Period

We have all kinds of options today...dating apps, huge cities full of people, body pillows...but

What role did prostitution play in society?

There is a lot of evidence that Kofun Japan had a pretty matriarchal society, much more

At the very least, women's status in society were similar to that of men.

They had a lot of female clan leaders, even as late as the 6th century.

The main kami of Japan, Amaterasu, was female.

Shamans, who were religious leaders that revealed the will of the kami, were female.

Remember that Queen Himiko in the Yayoi Period was a shaman priestess.

There were a number of female empresses up until the end of the 8th century.

Early Japan had this pattern of dual male-female rule.

If they were not married, the female was usually the older one.

The female ruler usually handled the religious business, and the male ruler handled the secular

For example, in Shinto mythology, Izanagi and Izanami created the islands of Japan.

They were a husband and wife pair, also brother and sister.

Amaterasu is the kami of the Sun, and her counterpart, Tsukiyomi, is the kami of the

Queen Himiko had her brother, and later Empresses had a male relative (like a husband, brother,

or nephew) who shouldered the burden of the throne with them.

Some historians suggest that the Japanese imported this practice from the continent.

The Silla Dynasty in the Korean Peninsula also seemed to have this double male-female

We found a Korean tomb where a king and queen were buried, but it was the queen who wore

the crown and flaunted all kinds of shiny jewelry.

The Liao in China traced royal blood through both male and female lines.

Some of this matriarchal mindset lived on to the modern era, where if there were no

suitable male heir, the throne could be passed on to a female.

This practice only recently stopped during the Meiji Period, when women were forbidden

After marriage, the wife continued to live in her parents' home.

Hubby either visited once in a while, or lived a nightmare of a life by moving in with the

At this early stage, inheritance went through the female line.

A man who sought a career in the Imperial court moved to the capital, supported financially

by his wife's family in return for representing their interests in court.

She and her family took care of their children.

In later periods, as Japanese society became more patriarchal, men would demand to have

their own homes in the capital where they would live with their wives, separate from

You could see this as them gaining independence, except they demanded the wife's family pay

Marriage between pretty close family members was a thing in these days, like marriages

between aunt and nephew, stepsiblings, stepmother and stepson.

The reason may have been to maintain close relations within the family.

Early on, they had both kinds, men with many wives, and women with many husbands.

Eventually, only men were allowed to have multiple spouses.

Some rich women could indulge in extramarital hanky panky, but it became rude to take on

And now for what 90% of you are waiting for...

Prostitution was legal, and was common in major trading hubs.

Most sex workers did it to pay off debt, or their parents sold them to pay off their own

But there was a smaller number of high class prostitutes who chose the profession.

It does not seem like there was a stigma against prostitutes.

They could own and inherit property, and often lived a normal life or adopted a normal profession

These early Japanese prostitutes actually had more job opportunities after their careers

careers end, can only seem to find jobs in the lobbying field.

I couldn't help but wonder how these Japanese courtesans avoided STDs (or didn't avoid).

There did not seem to be a prohibition against sexual promiscuity like there was in Judeo-Christian

Youthful sexual experimentation and premarital sex was common, and expected.

They had a fun practice that I think you'll like, called “yobai,” or “night crawling.”

At night, a young unmarried man would sneak into a young unmarried woman's bedroom,

without alerting the rest of the household, and proposition her.

If she declines, the creeper slinks off with his tail, or something else, between his legs.

If she accepts, they bump, and he leaves before morning.

Even if the other family members know, they usually turn a blind eye towards it.

This practice was considered a normal part of the dating process.

There wasn't really a formal marriage ceremony.

After a woman sleeps with the same guy a few times, he can stay over for breakfast, making

it official, and there you go, a happily married couple.

In some places, older people could do it, or even married women could participate.

It seems fun and all, but as you can imagine, problematic things may have happened.

And how often did men continue even after being rejected?

Farmers would house many seasonal workers for their fields, knowing that their daughters