Eunuchs in Chisei

A eunuch is a man who has been castrated, typically to serve a particular social role. Eunuchs have existed in Chisei since at least the Taisei dynasty, though they may have also existed within the Yezo kingdom and earlier mainland tribal groups. Primarily associated with Shirakawa, eunuchs were also utilised in Geusyo, Kitahashi and other Yashimic states on the mainland, but for various reasons the practice was never adopted in Saramosir.

Chiseian eunuchs can be divided into court eunuchs (內侍 Nāji) and religious eunuchs (祝男 Nūdamu).
 * Nāji were a class of administrators and domestic servants utilised by the Royal household of pre-modern Shirakawa and early-modern Chisei between the late 12th and early 19th centuries; they often held considerable political influence and acted as a counterbalance against landed gentry and the scholar bureaucracy.
 * Nūdamu are a form of Jindo clergy; historically they underwent ritual castration and donned feminine dress and mannerisms to undertake the role of priestesses in ritual and ceremony, though the former is no longer a requirement in the present day, and thus most modern Nūdamu are not strictly defined as eunuchs.

Origin & early history
The earliest contemporary references to eunuchs in Royal service are from the mid-Yeishun period, but these same accounts imply the institution was at least as old as the Shirakawan state, beginning with the Taisei empire. Scholarly opinion is divided on whether the practice was imported from Huaxia, or if it originated in Chisei, as well as whether it was adopted by the Taisei first or if it was already an established practice among the mainland Yashiman colonies or the preceding Yezo kingdom and the Kojin.

The nāji class became well codified by the end of the Gejō dynasty, with a distinct hierarchy and ranking system, organised under the Ministry of Nāji (Nāji-shō), later reconstituted into the Ministry of the Royal Household.

The nūdamu are believed to have emerged later, sometime in the 14th or 15th century.

Nāji
Nāji (內侍) were eunuchs employed by the Shirakawan, and later Chiseian, royal household. Initially, court eunuchs were likely slaves or prisoners of war drawn from the common Yezo people that the Yashiman elite of early Shirakawa ruled over, and bordering nomadic peoples, though by the middle of the Gejō dynasty many noble families deliberately castrated sons they could not afford to enroll in the Royal examinations to offer as servants to the Court. Eunuchs were also a common currency of tribute, and a way for subject states of Shirakawa/Chisei to increase their standing with the suzerain; Shirakawa also offered tribute to powerful states such as Huaxia or the Grand Ejenate in the form of eunuch servants.

At the height of the Yeishun period, the Gejō court in Eito employed over 2,000 servants, who consisted entirely of women and some 700-900 nāji; these were the only classes allowed to reside overnight within the inner chambers of the Royal palace, and they were responsible for the day-to-day administration of palace affairs, including cooking, cleaning, guarding the gates and generally tending to the needs of the Royal family. As the closest persons to the monarchy and the Royal family, the household eunuchs often exerted significant amounts of influence on state policy far beyond their station - though many were also promoted to formal ministerial or military posts with real authority. The eunuchs were valued for their percieved political neutrality (usually lacking any direct ties to the major landed gentry, or to the scholar bureaucracy) and for their loyalty to the crown. They were also seen as relatively disposable compared to traditional courtiers, and could be executed at the whim of the monarch.

Eunuchs were also known to live 10 to 20 years longer than ordinary men of the same social standing - often outliving the kings they served. Based on traditional historical and literary accounts, the nāji had a reputation for being corrupt, conniving or power-hungry. Court eunuchs were indeed involved in many royal plots, and were not necessarily as loyal or neutral as traditionally envisioned. Takara Yuki was a court eunuch under the late Kyofu kings, who in 1424 helped overthrow the dynasty and secure the rule of the boy-king Kazahara Miyashihu, acting as one of the powers behind the throne alongside Regent Kazahara Tsuhako. Takara would later rebel against the Kazahara in 1451, establishing a shortlived dictatorship in Toshima, before being executed in 1459. Under the Yashiman empire and the Takeshima regency, eunuchs were viewed with suspicion. The Yamataian rulers forbade the practice from their courts entirely, considering it barbaric, while the Takeshima regents sought to limit the numbers of the nāji, and frequently used them as scapegoats when natural disasters or military failures occurred. Nonetheless, eunuchs were still generally percieved as valuable servants of the Royal family, and there are many contrasting accounts of exceptionally loyal or virtuous nāji, such as Atuha, a courtier of the semi-mythical Grand Queen Jinfō, and Sawaya Yoichiro, a minister and general of the late Kazahara who was in the Great Shinbi War against Yamatai, and subsequently deified. Sama Seimoto was an 18th century eunuch who served as an admiral and explorer; he is often cited as the father of the modern Chiseian Royal Navy, and was also the close friend/occasional lover of Grand Queen Kenzo.

Unlike nūdamu, nāji generally still presented as male and filled masculine social roles within the court. Contrary to certain interpretations by foreign historians, the sterility of the nāji did not exclude them from the sexual and romantic culture of the classical Shirakawan court; the eunuchs often served as concubines or lovers to both male and female monarchs, and were frequently entangled in Royal scandals. Nāji often exhibited ambiguous physical characteristics, including wider hips, androgynous features and higher pitched voices; they were often described in court poetry as 'beautiful', 'handsome' or 'fair'. To a degree, relationships with nāji were seen as a more acceptable form of homosexuality among the men of the Shiro-Chiseian elite, where otherwise same-sex attraction was typically seen as a passing phase of adolescence or indulgent fancy. Romantic poems (both hetero- and homosexual in nature) featuring eunuchs are a popular sub-genre of Shiroka (Shirakawan poetry).

The nāji reached the height of their importance during the Chiseian autocracy, from 1780 to 1802, during which political power in Chisei was intensely centered on the monarchy and the royal household, with political office largely determined by royal favour and all other state institutions strictly subordinate to the personal rule of the Grand Queen. Under Grand Queen Sensō the numbers of eunuchs swelled into the thousands, recruited both from Chiseian aristocracy and offered as tribute by subject nations and colonies across the vast Chiseian empire. Shortly before the Taihei revolution in 1802, the Ministry of the Royal Household alone employed over 10,000 nāji; their duties spanned far outside the palace itself. They were employed as provincial inspectors, colonial governors, military officers and diplomats, and were also kept as concubines or lovers by the Queen and other nobles - convenient as it avoided the issue of illegitimate children.

The ties of the eunuch system to the autocracy also proved to be its downfall however. The eunuchs were widely despised by the scholar bureaucracy, often seen as corrupt or tyrannical by common people, and were especially unpopular with Saramosiri elites; consequently a major platform of the Taihei revolutionaries was the complete abolition of the eunuch class, along with the monarchy and the rest of the hereditary nobility. However there were some nāji who served as leaders of revolutionary armies, such as Wohino Tsukasa and Nonnokur.

Though the revolutionaries failed to gain power in the subsequent civil war, many of their ideological principles would later be adopted by the postwar loyalists seeking to reform the country to preserve the kingdom. After her accession in 1805, Grand Queen Kisō ordered the mass arrests and executions of 7,802 eunuchs under dubious charges of 'treachery and conspiracy'. All eunuchs outside the Household ministry were released from Royal service, and eunuchs were explicitly barred from the highest offices of state. 402 nāji remained in palace service until 1825, when the class was formally abolished.

Though having lost their unique status in the Royal household, many eunuchs in practice returned to Royal and bureaucratic service through democratic election and the examination system. Kuroda Ayaha was a former court eunuch elected Prime Minister of Chisei in 1867. The last living nāji was Uyehara Yasukuru, who died in 1912 at the age of 102.

Nūdamu
Nūdamu (祝男) are a class of priests/priestesses within Jindo, the traditional folk religion of Yashiman Chisei. Historically, the Jindo priesthood was dominated by women (Nūkwo), who were considered naturally predisposed to sacred duties and were the only ones typically allowed to hold office in the state religious hierarchy. However the nūdamu were a subclass of nūkwo, considered male at birth, that were allowed to enter the priesthood after undergoing a ritual castration and donning traditionally feminine manners of dress and behaviour. Like other priestesses at the time, they were expected to be celibate and usually lived humbly - however many held high office with the Department of Divinities.

From the 18th century, along with the relaxation of celibacy rules, the requirement of castration was eased, and from 1831 the process was subject to greater medical scrutiny and made harder to access. Some early forms of arose in the 1920s from reformed clerical practices designed to abide with new laws. Nūdamu were excluded from the priesthood within the New Territories, the Yamataian-occupied territory in western Shirakawa, Kitahashi and Geusyo that existed from 1923 to 1943; they remain uncommon in modern Western Jindo sects as a result, but continue to play a large part in religious communities elsewhere.

Today the majority of nūdamu do not undergo any surgery, though many have made use of the growing availability of gender affirmation processes such as. Nūdamu in modern Chisei identify in various ways; as feminine men, as, as a , or as.