Apr
17
2010
美人局
つつもたせ [tsutsumotase] – This word refers to a kind of con in which a man’s wife or lover seduces another man, whom is then coerced into giving up his money.
The word originated as a gambler’s term, from 筒持たせ (reading: tsutsumotase. Literally, “to make someone hold the dice cup”).
As for the kanji, the characters are borrowed from a Yuan-Dynasty Chinese term referring to a similar crime; one in which prostitutes were paid to pretend to be a man’s wife in order to con young men out of their money.