Shudo
Shudo is the Japanese tradition of age-structured
homosexuality prevalent in
samurai society from the
medieval period until the end of the
19th century. The word is an abbreviation of
wakashudo , "the Way of the young" or more precisely, the Way of young men . The "do" is related to the Chinese word
tao, considered to be a path to awakening.
Encyclopedia
Shudo is the Japanese tradition of age-structured
homosexuality prevalent in
samurai society from the
medieval period until the end of the
19th century. The word is an abbreviation of
wakashudo , "the Way of the young" or more precisely, the Way of young men . The "do" is related to the Chinese word
tao, considered to be a path to awakening.
Origins
Though the term
shudo first appears in 1485, it is preceded in the Japanese homosexual tradition by the love relationships between Buddhist bonzes and their acolytes, who were known as
chigo. The legendary founder of male love in Japan is
Kukai, also known as
Kobo Daishi, the founder of the
Shingon school of
Buddhism, who is said to have brought over from China, together with the teachings of the
Buddha, the teachings of male love.
Mount Koya, where Kobo Daishi's monastery is still located, was a byword for male love up to the end of the pre-modern period.
Despite the attribution of male love to Kukai, the actual roots of male love in Japan can be traced to some of the earliest Japanese texts, such as the 8th century history "Kojiki" and the "Nihon Shoki" .
Cultural aspects
The teachings of shudo, "The Way of the Young", entered the literary tradition and can be found in such as works as Hagakure , "Hidden by Leaves", and other
samurai manuals. Shudo, in its pedagogic, martial, and aristocratic aspects, is closely analogous to the ancient Greek tradition of
pederasty.
The practice was held in high esteem, and was encouraged, especially within the samurai class. It was considered beneficial for the youth, teaching him virtue, honesty and the appreciation of beauty. Its value was contrasted with the love of women, which was blamed for feminizing men.
Much of the historical and fictional literature of the period praised the beauty and valor of boys faithful to shudo. The modern historian Jun'ichi Iwata drew up a list of 457 such titles from the 17th and 18th centuries alone, considered a "corpus of erotic pedagogy."
With the rise in power and influence of the merchant class, aspects of the practice of shudo were adopted by the middle classes, and homoerotic expression in Japan began to be more closely associated with travelling
kabuki actors known as
tobiko, "fly boys," who moonlighted as
prostitutes.
In the Edo period kabuki actors often worked as prostitutes off-stage. Kagema were male prostitutes who worked at specialist brothels called "kagemajaya" . Both kagema and kabuki actors were much sought after by the sophisticates of the day, who often practiced danshoku/nanshoku, or male love.
Beginning with the Meiji restoration and the rise of Western influence, Christian values began to influence the culture, leading to a rapid decline of sanctioned homoerotic practices in the late 1800s.
See also
References
- Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata, The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality GMP, London, 1989 ISBN 0-85449-115-5
External links
