1) Close enough to mini-thread. You have to realize that for the Japanese, and Asian cultures in general, 'face' was a HUGE part of their social interactions. Face was basically their outward emotional appearance, their ability to seem stoic, serious, professional, fearsome, etc.
2) The concept of 'face' was so important that they were extremely reluctant to their 'face' drop, to let any emotional vulnerabilities show. It wasn't so much that they saw sex as emmasculating, but that they saw dropping their face and letting raw emotions show as humiliating.
3) This is why geisha are a large part of ancient Japanese culture. You see, geisha were almost invariably slaves. They occupied the lowest rung of society to the point that they were essentially considered not even people. Basically just fancy dress-up dolls that looked pretty.
4) Because geisha weren't considered people, in private the samurai, the nobles (samurai were not all sword-wielding sociopaths. The term Samurai was effectively landed noble. Many of them just happened to ALSO be sword-wielding sociopaths), felt safe in letting their face drop.
5) Samurai letting their emotions show to their family, which would also mean showing their emotions to all the surrounding servants and such, where spies may leak it or rumors may spread? Unthinkable. They'd produce heirs, and that was the most many would risk.
6) Otherwise, they'd be humiliated, they'd lose face!
So, because they needed an emotional outlet, they'd go to the non-people, the dress up dolls that were geisha. Sometimes this did involve sex for pleasure, but for the most part, it was an emotional outlet for samurai.
/end
So, because they needed an emotional outlet, they'd go to the non-people, the dress up dolls that were geisha. Sometimes this did involve sex for pleasure, but for the most part, it was an emotional outlet for samurai.
/end
