The Love of the Samurai

by Tsuneo Watanabe, Jun'ichi Iwata

Examines the deeply embedded culture of homosexuality in Japanese tradition, its formalised status, the philosophy of 'shudo', and interesting revelations about the way of the samurai themselves.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Japan, Queer Lit, Queer, Japanese Literature, LGBT

160 pages

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant and fascinating book about a culture that some they know something but which this book will help you see how little we know and how different it is. I don't feel I am either qualified or have a sufficiently deep or broad cultural knowledge of Japan to make comments on the book. It certainly should not be read in any casually way that allows for simplistic labels or appropriations. In a sense I am wary of 'gay' but that is not because I am trying to say that there were not physical relationships between samurai and their pages/pupils/attendants - of course there were and it was an essential and important part of the culture. But it needs to be approached as part of the history and culture of Japan. Context is everything and to glibly draw comparisons, lessons or find easy similarities between, for example a Japanese warrior and his page with the behavior of 20th century Western figures whether 'Uranran' poets or public school boys is fatuous.

This is a fascinating book and presents a fascinating glimpse into a time, place ,and culture which should be viewed not as a final word but the first word in trying to understand a period, way of life, culture, etc. richly different from our own but which deserves to be explored further.