Class readings: LGBTQ issues in Japan (pre-Meiji Japan)
Cut for length. Introductory article on homosexuality in Pre-Meiji Japan. The head of the temple where we're staying is an LGBTQ activist (I believe a straight ally), and we're meeting with Kyoto LGBTQ activists in a coffee shop while we're there.
"Homosexuality in Pre-Meiji Japan," by Louis Crompton. (Meiji Restoration: 1868.)
St. Francis Xavier, whose embalmed body is preserved in Goa, India, and was on display until a woman bit off both his big toes, visited Japan in the 1540, and wrote of his horror at seeing that for the Zen monks at Hakata (in Kyushu), "the abominable vice against nature is so popular that they practice it without any feeling of shame." He proceeded to rant about the sin of Sodom at the previously welcoming local daimyo, who chucked him out.
Nanshoku: love of men. Influenced by Chinese cultural and literary traditions. 17th century Japanese sources cite the love of of the duke of Wei for Mizi Xia, of Han emperors for favorites like Jiri and the musician Li Yannian, etc. Also associated with Bodhisattva Monjushiri and with Shingon founder Kobo Daishi.
Lovely poems quoted, by Ikkyu and Shinga Sozu, from Kitamura Kigen's 1676 male love anthology, Wild Azaleas.
Heian courtier diaries note gay relationships. Fujiwara Yoringa (1120-1156): "Today I took Yoshimasa to bed and really went wild. It was especially satisfying. He had been ill for a while and was resting, so tonight was the first night [since his illness.]"
Chigo: Formalized affairs between adult monks and teenage acolytes, sometimes with written oaths of devotion. "Chigo monogatari" = "acolyte tales." "Chigo no soshi" is a shunga scroll depicting monk-acolyte anal sex, now housed at the Daigoji Treasure House at Samboin Temple south of Kyoto. (Maybe I could make a special trip!)
Wakashudo or shudo: Love between warriors. Gomotsu: same-sex lover. Anonymous treatise "Shinyu-ki" (Records of Soulmates) extols this on Buddhist grounds. Discussion of kabuki and failed government attempts to make it less sexy.
Boy prostitutes in Edo period. 1768 guidebook has a list of them!
Tokugawa period: tons of gay literature. Saikaku: Mirror of Male Love. Stories of shoguns and their boy lovers. (Dangerous for boy lovers! Cross-class affairs often politically volatile.)
Due to Western influence, in 1873 homosexuality was briefly (for 10 years) criminalized in Japan. Penalty: 90 days in jail. (At the same time, the penalty in England was life imprisonment.)
Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1021667.html. Comment here or there.
"Homosexuality in Pre-Meiji Japan," by Louis Crompton. (Meiji Restoration: 1868.)
St. Francis Xavier, whose embalmed body is preserved in Goa, India, and was on display until a woman bit off both his big toes, visited Japan in the 1540, and wrote of his horror at seeing that for the Zen monks at Hakata (in Kyushu), "the abominable vice against nature is so popular that they practice it without any feeling of shame." He proceeded to rant about the sin of Sodom at the previously welcoming local daimyo, who chucked him out.
Nanshoku: love of men. Influenced by Chinese cultural and literary traditions. 17th century Japanese sources cite the love of of the duke of Wei for Mizi Xia, of Han emperors for favorites like Jiri and the musician Li Yannian, etc. Also associated with Bodhisattva Monjushiri and with Shingon founder Kobo Daishi.
Lovely poems quoted, by Ikkyu and Shinga Sozu, from Kitamura Kigen's 1676 male love anthology, Wild Azaleas.
Heian courtier diaries note gay relationships. Fujiwara Yoringa (1120-1156): "Today I took Yoshimasa to bed and really went wild. It was especially satisfying. He had been ill for a while and was resting, so tonight was the first night [since his illness.]"
Chigo: Formalized affairs between adult monks and teenage acolytes, sometimes with written oaths of devotion. "Chigo monogatari" = "acolyte tales." "Chigo no soshi" is a shunga scroll depicting monk-acolyte anal sex, now housed at the Daigoji Treasure House at Samboin Temple south of Kyoto. (Maybe I could make a special trip!)
Wakashudo or shudo: Love between warriors. Gomotsu: same-sex lover. Anonymous treatise "Shinyu-ki" (Records of Soulmates) extols this on Buddhist grounds. Discussion of kabuki and failed government attempts to make it less sexy.
Boy prostitutes in Edo period. 1768 guidebook has a list of them!
Tokugawa period: tons of gay literature. Saikaku: Mirror of Male Love. Stories of shoguns and their boy lovers. (Dangerous for boy lovers! Cross-class affairs often politically volatile.)
Due to Western influence, in 1873 homosexuality was briefly (for 10 years) criminalized in Japan. Penalty: 90 days in jail. (At the same time, the penalty in England was life imprisonment.)
Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1021667.html. Comment here or there.