Seme-ba 責め場
A kabuki term for a scene in which a leading character is tormented by a villain; such scenes date back to around 1690 and became more openly erotic in the late Edo period.
Seme-ba, “torment scene,” is a category of kabuki scene. The Japanese Britannica entry on Kotobank defines it as a scene in which principal male or female roles are tormented by a villain, often leading toward a killing, and finds traces of it from around the Genroku period (about 1690). Early examples, it says, stressed the victim’s pathos and the villain’s hatefulness; from the early nineteenth century into the late Edo period, sadistic eroticism was increasingly favored. Named types include snow, snake and koto torment.
The koto torment is less literal than the name suggests. Kabuki21 explains that in Dan no Ura Kabuto Gunki (1732) the courtesan Akoya is questioned by being made to play the koto, shamisen and kokyū, and is released when her playing shows she is telling the truth. English Wikipedia counts kabuki among Itō Seiu’s inspirations.