Homosexuality in Japan
Records of men who have sex with men in Japan date back to ancient times. Western scholars have identified these as evidence of homosexuality in Japan. Though these relations had existed in Japan for millennia, they became most apparent to scholars during the Tokugawa period. Historical practices identified by scholars as homosexual include, and.
The Japanese term is the Japanese reading of the same characters in Chinese, which literally mean "male colors". The character 色 has the added meaning of "lust" in both China and Japan. This term was widely used to refer to some kind of male-to-male sex in a pre-modern era of Japan. The term is also used, especially in older works.
During the Meiji period nanshoku started to become discouraged due to the rise of sexology within Japan and the process of westernization. During the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II the Chinese mocked and insulted Puyi and the Japanese as homosexuals and presented it as proof of their perversion and being uncivilized. The only time homosexual sodomy has been banned in Japan was for a short time in 1872–1880 due to western influence.
Modern terms for homosexuals include,,, or,, / and.
Pre-Meiji Japan
Historically, the Shinto religion "had no special code of morals and seems to have regarded sex as a natural phenomenon to be enjoyed with few inhibitions." While Shinto beliefs are diverse, Japanese Shintoism historically did not condemn homosexuality, unlike bestiality and incest. A variety of obscure literary references to same-sex love exist in ancient sources, such as Japanese mythology, but many of these are so subtle as to be unreliable. Additionally, they could be conflated with profuse declarations of affection for friends of the same sex, which were common. Due to the Chinese influence of Confucianism and Buddhism, homosexuality was socially discouraged.Nevertheless, references do exist, and they become more numerous in the Heian period, roughly in the 11th century. For example, in The Tale of Genji, written in the early 11th century, men are frequently moved by the beauty of youths. At the conclusion of Chapter 2, the hero, having failed to win over a woman he desires, settles for her younger brother: "Ah well then," His Lordship sighed, as he brought him down to lie beside him, "at least you will not desert me." The lad was most delighted at finding himself embraced by one so youthful, charming, and distinguished. His Lordship, it is said, was likewise pleased at the warmth of this fraternal company, juding him to be far prferable to his ice-cold sister." The Tale of Genji is a novel, but there are several Heian-era diaries that contain references to homosexual acts and practices. Some of these contain references to Emperors involved in homosexual relationships with "handsome boys retained for sexual purposes".
Monastic homosexuality
Nanshoku relationships inside Buddhist monasteries were typically pederastic: an age-structured relationship where the younger partner is not considered an adult. The older partner, or nenja, would be a monk, priest or abbot, while the younger partner was assumed to be an acolyte, who would be a prepubescent or adolescent boy; the relationship would be dissolved once the boy reached adulthood. Both parties were encouraged to treat the relationship seriously and conduct the affair honorably, and the nenja might be required to write a formal vow of fidelity. Outside of the monasteries, monks were considered to have a particular predilection for male prostitutes, which was the subject of much ribald humor.There is no evidence so far of religious opposition to homosexuality within Japan in non-Buddhist traditions. Tokugawa commentators felt free to illustrate kami engaging in anal sex with each other. During the Tokugawa period, some of the Shinto gods, especially Hachiman, Myoshin, Shinmei and Tenjin, "came to be seen as guardian deities of nanshoku". Tokugawa-era writer Ihara Saikaku joked that since there are no women for the first three generations in the genealogy of the gods found in the Nihon Shoki, the gods must have enjoyed homosexual relationships—which Saikaku argued was the real origin of nanshoku. Nonetheless, during the Edo period, male-female relationships were highly valued as it ensured propagation of offspring and social status.
Samurai ''shudō''
In contrast to the norms in religious circles, in the warrior class it was customary for a boy in the wakashū age category to undergo training in the martial arts by apprenticing to a more experienced adult man. According to Furukawa, the relationship was based on the model of a typically older nenja, paired with a typically younger chigo. The man was permitted, if the boy agreed, to take the boy as his lover until he came of age; this relationship, often formalized in a "brotherhood contract", was expected to be exclusive, with both partners swearing to take no other lovers.This practice, along with clerical pederasty, developed into the codified system of age-structured homosexuality known as shudō, abbreviated from wakashūdō, the "way of wakashū". The older partner, in the role of nenja, would teach the chigo martial skills, warrior etiquette, and the samurai code of honor, while his desire to be a good role model for his chigo would lead him to behave more honorably himself; thus a shudō relationship was considered to have a "mutually ennobling effect". In addition, both parties were expected to be loyal unto death, and to assist the other both in feudal duties and in honor-driven obligations such as duels and vendettas. Although sex between the couple was expected to end when the boy came of age, the relationship would, ideally, develop into a lifelong bond of friendship. At the same time, sexual activity with women was not barred, and once the boy came of age, both were free to seek other wakashū lovers.
Like later Edo same-sex practices, samurai shudō was strictly role-defined; the nenja was seen as the active, desiring, penetrative partner, while the younger, sexually receptive wakashū was considered to submit to the nenja
Image:Samurai kiss.jpg|right|thumb|Man and youth, Miyagawa Isshō, ca. 1750; Panel from a series of ten on a shunga-style painted hand scroll ; sumi, color and gofun on silk. Private collection. Note that the youth on the left is wearing a kimono whose style and color was considered appropriate for adolescents of both sexes but not adult men, which along with the partially shaved pate denotes the boy's wakashū age status while the exposed bare feet indicates the purely sexual demeanor.
Kabuki and male prostitution
Male prostitutes, who were often passed off as apprentice kabuki actors and catered to a mixed male and female clientele, did a healthy trade into the mid-19th century despite increasing restrictions. Many such prostitutes, as well as many young kabuki actors, were indentured servants sold as children to the brothel or theatre, typically on a ten-year contract. Sexual relations between merchants and boys hired as shop staff or housekeepers were common enough, at least in the popular imagination, to be the subject of erotic stories and popular jokes. Young kabuki actors often worked as prostitutes off-stage, and were celebrated in much the same way as modern celebrities are, being much sought after by wealthy patrons, who would vie with each other to purchase the Kabuki actors' favors. Onnagata and wakashū-gata actors in particular were the subject of much appreciation by both male and female patrons, and figured largely in nanshoku shunga prints and other works celebrating nanshoku, which occasionally attained best-seller status.Male prostitutes and actor-prostitutes serving male clientele were originally restricted to the wakashū age category, as adult men were not perceived as desirable or socially acceptable sexual partners for other men. During the 17th century, these men sought to maintain their desirability by deferring or concealing their coming-of-age and thus extending their "non-adult" status into their twenties or even thirties; this eventually led to an alternate, status-defined shudō relationship which allowed clients to hire "boys" who were, in reality, older than themselves. This evolution was hastened by mid-17th-century bans on the depiction of the wakashū
Art of same-sex love
These activities were the subject of countless literary works, most of which have yet to be translated. However, English translations are available for Ihara Saikaku who created a bisexual main character in The Life of An Amorous Man, Jippensha Ikku who created an initial male-male relationship in the post-publication "Preface" to Shank's Mare, and Ueda Akinari who had a homosexual Buddhist monk in Tales of Moonlight and Rain. Likewise, many of the greatest artists of the period, such as Hokusai and Hiroshige, prided themselves in documenting such loves in their prints, known as ukiyo-e "pictures of the floating world", and where they had an erotic tone, shunga "pictures of spring".Nanshoku was not considered incompatible with heterosexuality; Edo books of erotic prints dedicated to nanshoku often presented erotic images of both young women as well as attractive adolescent boys and cross-dressing youths. Indeed, several works printed in Edo suggest that the most "enviable" situation would be to have both many jōrō and many wakashū. Women were also considered to be particularly attracted to both wakashū and onnagata, and it was assumed that many of these young men would reciprocate that interest. Therefore, both many practitioners of nanshoku and the young men they desired would be considered bisexual in modern terminology. Men and male youths who were purely homosexual might be called "woman-haters" ; this term, however, carried the connotation of aggressive distaste of women in all social contexts, rather than simply a preference for male sexual partners. Not all exclusively homosexual men were referred to with this terminology.