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" The Cosmology of Male-Male Love in Medieval Japan "
Or Porath
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AL
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| Record Number
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1073092
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| Doc. No
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LA116721
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| Call No
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10.1163/22118349-00402007
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Main Entry
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Or Porath
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| Title & Author
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The Cosmology of Male-Male Love in Medieval Japan [Article]\ Or Porath
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| Publication Statement
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Leiden: Brill
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| Title of Periodical
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Journal of Religion in Japan
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| Date
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2015
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4/2-3
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| Page No
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241–271
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| Abstract
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Scholars have investigated the Japanese tradition of male-male love that arose in the context of the secular and commercial culture of the early modern era. Less often noted is the role of male-male sexuality within a religious framework. This article sheds light on the unexplored religious dimension of medieval Japanese male-male sexuality through an analysis of Ijiri Matakurō Tadasuke’s Nyakudō no kanjinchō (1482) and its Muromachi variant. Both works glorify male-male sexual acts and endorse their proper practice. I suggest that Kanjinchō attempts to perpetuate power relations that maintain the superiority of adult monks over young acolytes. Kanjinchō achieves this through constructing its own cosmology, built on a Buddhist cosmogony, soteriology, a pantheon of divinities and ethical norms, which, in effect, endows homoeroticism with sacrality. My analysis of Kanjinchō provides a nuanced understanding of male-male sexuality in Japanese Buddhism and the ideological context in which the text is embedded. Scholars have investigated the Japanese tradition of male-male love that arose in the context of the secular and commercial culture of the early modern era. Less often noted is the role of male-male sexuality within a religious framework. This article sheds light on the unexplored religious dimension of medieval Japanese male-male sexuality through an analysis of Ijiri Matakurō Tadasuke’s Nyakudō no kanjinchō (1482) and its Muromachi variant. Both works glorify male-male sexual acts and endorse their proper practice. I suggest that Kanjinchō attempts to perpetuate power relations that maintain the superiority of adult monks over young acolytes. Kanjinchō achieves this through constructing its own cosmology, built on a Buddhist cosmogony, soteriology, a pantheon of divinities and ethical norms, which, in effect, endows homoeroticism with sacrality. My analysis of Kanjinchō provides a nuanced understanding of male-male sexuality in Japanese Buddhism and the ideological context in which the text is embedded.
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Buddhism
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chigo/dōji
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cosmology
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male-male sexuality
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medieval Japan
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| Location & Call number
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10.1163/22118349-00402007
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