History Of Maid Cafes

The above image is from this eBay page.

The earliest “maid cafes” in recorded history first started operations in ancient Egypt, during the Twenty-Second Dynasty (c. 945–715 BC) when the cat goddess Bast was revered as a protector deity.

Historians and archaeologists now believe that, based on evidence found in mural paintings, the priestesses of Bast adorned themselves with “cat ears” and “cat tails” fashioned from reeds during temple ceremonies. Cats, believed by ancient Egyptians to be guardians of the underworld, were thought to possess semi-divine authority over malignant spirits. And Egyptologists believe that, in donning “cat ears” and “cat tails”, the priestesses were trying to assume the mantle and authority of cats during rituals to exorcise evil influence and spirits.

“And if you look closely at the priestesses, in their cat ears and tails, you see the remarkable resemblance to modern cat girl maids plying their trade in Akihabara,” said Dr. Otaku from Todai (Tokyo University) Department of History and Social Sciences.

In Japan, Schoolgirls Kick Ass

Martial arts training is actually compulsory once you enter middle school in Japan. So it comes as no surprise to me when I find video clips of real live Japanese schoolgirls fighting against organized crime and other threats to society.

Here are the top five examples.

Here we see an average Japanese school girl fighting against a group of Yakuza thugs. They probably ambushed her on her way to school because she’s still wearing her school uniform in this clip.

The Heian-kyo Tea Party Incident

On December 16, 1773, in the court of Emperor Go-Momozono, the 118th emperor of Japan, a high-class ojou-sama spilt green tea on her silk kimono during an important tea ceremony. The pure white fabric embossed with chrysanthemum motifs was stained beyond repair.

This mishap caused an uproar amongst the court nobles and repercussions were felt throughout the Empire of the Rising Sun. It was then referred to as the Heian-kyo Tea Party Incident by nobles and commoners alike.

However, due to America’s importance on the world stage in latter years, history and modern school children will only remember another “Tea Party” which took place on the same date in Boston, America.

Teck Y. Loh

Author’s Note: By the way, a factoid is NOT a real fact. So don’t take this too seriously, okay?

Black Ships & Pink-haired Girls

In 1852, Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy led a fleet of black-hulled warships into the Uraga Harbor near Edo.

Ostentatiously, this was a military operation to force Japan to open its ports and resume trading with the West.

However, what most historians did not know was, in his teenage years, Matthew Perry was a transfer student at the same Japanese high school as Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the 15th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan at that time. Using the military cum trade expedition as an excuse, Commodore Perry had come to Japan to ask a favour of his former high school seito kaicho (i.e. student council president).