Homosexuality in Japan
Homosexuality, or same-gender romantic love or sexual desire, has been recorded from ancient times in Japan; indeed, love between men was viewed as the purest form of love.
While homosexuality has never been viewed as a sin in Japanese society and religion, and there is no specific legal prohibition, western religious thought and a desire to appear "civilized" have historically influenced the way that homosexuality has been viewed both by the Japanese government and by the population at large.
Some Considerations
Historical Sources
Available sources on homosexual behaviour in ancient Japan, as in ancient China, are largely literary. Although a unified Japan existed from about the 4th century, Japan's written historical records really begin with the Kojiki (古事記), or Record of Ancient Matters, compiled in the early 7th century. While Chinese references from the 6th century B.C.E contain homosexual references, similar references in Japan begin to appear in about the 10th century. These references, at least initially, appear to follow the Chinese example.
The term gay] is almost never used in discussing ancient and historical sources because of the modern, western, political connotations of the word and because the term suggests a particular identity, one with which which homosexuals even in modern Japan may not identify.
Comparisons with the West
Unlike the west, in Japan sex was not viewed in terms of morality, but rather in terms of pleasure, social position and social responsibility. While modern attitudes to homosexuality have changed, this is largely true even today. Like the west, however, only sexual acts were seen as being homosexual or heterosexual, not the person him- or herself.
Ancient Japan
The Japanese term nanshoku (男色) is the Japanese reading of the same characters in Chinese, which literally mean "male colours." The character 色 still has the meaning of sexual pleasure in both China and Japan. This term was widely used to refer to male-male sex in ancient Japan.
According to Gary Leupp, the ancient Japanese associated nanshoku with China, a country from which borrowed ideas which became the basis for much of Japanese high culture, including their writing system (kanji, Chinese characters). The Japanese nanshoku tradition drew heavily on that of China (please see Homosexuality in China), and to a more limited extent, that of Korea.
A variety of obscure literary references to same-sex love exist in ancient sources, but many of these are so subtle as to be unreliable; another consideration is that declarations of affection for friends of the same sex were also common.
Nevertheless, references do exist, and they become more numerous in the Heian Period, roughly the 11th century. In Genji Monogatari (源氏物語, The Tale of Genji), written in the early 11th century, men are frequently moved by the beauty of other men. In one scene the hero is rejected by a lady and sleeps instead with her brother:
Genji pulled the boy down beside him . . . Genji, for his part, or so
one is informed, found the boy more attractive than his chilly
sister.
The Tale of Genji is a novel (often considered the world's first), but there exist several Heian diaries which contain references to homosexual acts as well. Some of these also contain references to Emperors involved in homosexual relationships and to "handsome boys retained for sexual purposes" by Emperors. In other literary works can be found references to what Leupp has called "problems of gender identity," such as the story of a youth falling in love with a girl who is actually a cross-dressing male.
Monastic Homosexuality
Buddhist monasteries appear to have been centers of homosexual activity in ancient Japan. It was popularly said that Kukai, the founder of the Shingon Buddhist sect, introduced nanshoku into Japan after returning from Tang China in the 9th century. Since there was no specific prohibition on male-male sex in Buddhism, enough monks seem to have felt their vows of chastity did not apply to same-sex relations that homosexuality among monks became the subject of jokes, and Jesuits reported aghast on the 'sodomy' that occurred among Buddhist clergy.
Homosexuality in Modern Japan
AIDS
Related Topics
History of Homosexuality, History of Homosexuality in China
Further Reading
- Gary Leupp, Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan.
- Nicholas Bornoff, Pink Samurai: Love, Marriage & Sex in Contemporary Japan
.
==External Links==
Sexuality in Ancient Japan
- The Way of the Samurai (English)
Sexuality in Modern Japan
- Gender and sexuality in Japanese Anime (English)
- Male Homosexuality and Popular Culture in Modern Japan
Other
- Homosexuality in the Japanese Buddhist Tradition
- Bibliography of Gay and Lesbian History
References
Leupp, Gary. Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan. Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1997.