The act of covertly peeping or kaimami acts as a precursor to the blossoming of a romantic relationship.
It's good to keep in mind that many of these aristocratic women lived their lives largely shielded from public eye. Supposedly the men who laid eyes on them were their fathers, male family members or their husbands.
However we know that polyamorous affairs were rife in palatial life and Murasaki (author of the Tale of Genji) wrote about these many liaisons (whether imagined or dramatised) , providing much literary drama and excitement for readers of the time.
For further reading, see Mapping Courtship and Kinship in Classical Japan, by Doris G. Bargen,
University of Hawaii Press

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