Kimiwa Kenta

”But I still say - they’re flowers.”

Kenta was born in the year 1742 in Yoshiwara, Japan, historically a commercial red-light district. His mother was a prestigious tayū, one of the most influential courtesans of the district, and growing up Kenta was envied by friends and enemies alike because of his unique position and his skill at singing and dancing.

At first Kenta only performed alongside other oiran, but when he was 15 he started taking his own clients. While male courtesans were technically taboo, his mother had certain connections within the court who would overlook this, and Kenta served those eager to experience the novelty of a male lover alongside the closeted gay noblemen that would become his niche.

Kenta inherited his mother’s high rank after she retired when he was 18, having trained for it all his life. Many of his fellow courtesans understandably disliked him for this, and he gained many enemies without even knowing it — until one of the wives of his clients, furious that her husband was abandoning her for a male courtesan, hired an assassin to kill him.

Kenta is kind and nice to others, often reflexively presenting a shy and innocent demeanor because of his courtesan training, but he has a well-hidden egotistical side that comes out when he doesn’t get his way, e.g. “how dare you not listen to me — don’t you know who I am?” He looks down on rude or brash people as low-class.