Lesbianism in Japan

In ancient times, the neglected ladies of the o-oku, the shogun’s harem, were well known for taking consolation in lesbian relationships. Unlike the celebration of male homosexuality among the warriors and their pages, however, Japanese culture has preferred to ignore - neither condemning nor celebrating - lesbian relations. Shunga with a lesbian theme are relatively rare. There are resubian sho (lesbian shows) which are a staple in the modern striptease parlor frequented by heterosexual males, but more as a foreign import than indigenous expression. For a brief time in the early 1980s, Tokyo had a single lesbian bar, but given the contentedness of gay men in the closet and the pervasiveness of female submissiveness, there are even fewer lesbians anxious to come out in public. While most gay bars exclude all women, some are known to cater to lesbians on certain days, and then only for a couple of hours. In modern Japan, lesbianism is shrouded in comparative obscurity.
In Japan, as in most other cultures around the world, lesbians have been doubly stigmatized as homosexuals and as women. Lesbians have been typically viewed by Japanese society as a common element in the pornography targeted to men or as "gender-bending" and anti-social. A variety of colloquial terms are used for Japanese lesbians, all of them more or less derogatory. (Kaji)] Lesbians are sometimes known as onabe (stew-pot) in contrast with the male okama, or august pot, or more commonly by the "Japlish" resz. Rezubian (lesbian) is the most commonly used term. The otachi, or butch, the actress playing male roles, and the nenne or neko (cat), Çnue, or femme, mark the two ends of the lesbian spectrum.
One uniquely Japanese custom of gender bending is found in the joshi-puro (women professional wrestlers). Elsewhere in the world, women wrestlers are shapely Amazons in bikinis intently watched by males. In Japan, women wrestlers mimic their male sumo counterparts, with some interesting twists. Joshi-puro stars, such as Chigusa, with a boyish hairstyle and tacky, gaudy leotards, serenades her audience of teenage and preteen girls with popular songs before climbing into the ring to attack, gouge, pummel, and drag her mountainous opponent around the rings. Commenting on the adulation Japanese girls show for their heroes in the All-Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling Association, the director of AJWPWA has suggested that young girls see women pro wrestlers as very strong, ideal men, a substitute for boyfriends. They feel safe getting close to them because they are female. They provide vicarious thrills for the young girls, and models of aggressive champions of self-assertiveness