There’s reasonably frequent second and third hand mention of this as a practice of the Edo period, and earlier . . but . . .
Is there evidence for this as a real practice? There are plenty of shunga prints illustrating this, but I’m always a bit skeptical about lurid stories. It shows up in all sorts of places, including Lapham’s
>The practice of *yobai*, “night crawling,” was common in rural communities in medieval Japan, and continued into the twentieth century. A young man would visit a young woman’s house after dark, disguising his features with a cloth to avoid embarrassment should his advances be rejected. These premarital liaisons could become formal if a child were conceived.
. . . but never with a solid reference.
I know yobai is sometimes used to refer to more general contemporary night couplings, but here I’m asking about this particular historic practice
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/wzk949/was_yobai_夜這い_night_crawling_a_reality_or_just_a/
3 comments
Yes. It’s a huge undercurrent in the Tale of Genji, the oldest Japanese novel, which simply takes it as a given.
[Here](https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E5%A4%9C%E9%80%99%E3%81%84%E3%81%AE%E6%B0%91%E4%BF%97%E5%AD%A6%E3%83%BB%E5%A4%9C%E9%80%99%E3%81%84%E3%81%AE%E6%80%A7%E6%84%9B%E8%AB%96-%E8%B5%A4%E6%9D%BE-%E5%95%93%E4%BB%8B/dp/4480088644) you go for a (serious) book about the practice. The Japanese wikipedia also has several references (and btw it seems it was anterior to Edo period).
I believe it used to be the standard way of marrying; a man routinely visits a girl’s home and woo her (not necessarily involving sexual intercourse), like 1500 years ago or so, when the society used to be totally matrilineal. Maybe, some variations of this custom could have lasted until much later into Meiji Period or so, in some rural areas.
Etymologically *yobai* is 呼ばひ *yobafi* (gerund of *yobafu*; *yobu* “to call (someone’s name)” + *afu* auxiliary verb denoting continuity), in ancient Japanese. A beautiful name, having nothing to do with night or crawling.