Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan

by Gary P. Leupp

Tokugawa Japan ranks with ancient Athens as a society that not only tolerated, but celebrated, male homosexual behavior. Few scholars have seriously studied the subject, and until now none have satisfactorily explained the origins of the tradition or elucidated how its conventions reflected class structure and gender roles. Gary P. Leupp fills the gap with a dynamic examination of the origins and nature of the tradition. Based on a wealth of literary and historical documentation, this study places Tokugawa homosexuality in a global context, exploring its implications for contemporary debates on the historical construction of sexual desire.

Combing through popular fiction, law codes, religious works, medical treatises, biographical material, and artistic treatments, Leupp traces the origins of pre-Tokugawa homosexual traditions among monks and samurai, then describes the emergence of homosexual practices among commoners in Tokugawa cities. He argues that it was "nurture" rather than "nature" that accounted for such conspicuous male/male sexuality and that bisexuality was more prevalent than homosexuality. Detailed, thorough, and very readable, this study is the first in English or Japanese to address so comprehensively one of the most complex and intriguing aspects of Japanese history.

Genres: History, Japan, Nonfiction, LGBT, Japanese History, Sexuality, Asia

310 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting! There's this weird thing that no one seems to know why there's no evidence of man-on-man oral sex. We know men did it to women, women did it to men, women did it to women ... we know that when men were having sex with each other, one would often play a female role ... and since women did perform oral sex on men, it seems reasonable to assume that they would ... but, apparently, it never happened and we don't really know why.

Two old gays' advice to their young married neighbour:
"'Beat her to death, mister, and replace her with a sandal-boy!'"

[Andre · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh boy, this book is from the late 1990s and when I read that it is apparently the first study of it's kind, I had a bad feeling about this. Also because the title suggested a big age difference. And that the author was arguing about what homosexuality means in historical contexts was another bad sign.
Early on, he mentioned the chinese examples. And naturally he doesn't tell the readers that the story of Emperor Ai and Dong Xian actually ended tragically and is a cautionary tale. In fact, the examples of the Great Book of Han that he mentions, sometimes could be considered the same respectively something derogatory as the two were said to have nothing except their looks to get ahead.
And if the Korean homosexual tradition is so similar to the chinese one, as the author claims, I question its homoerotic nature and assume that it discorages sexual attraction to adult men. Plus, it seems to me that the author is much more cautious when it comes to Japanese sources, unlike with Chinese and Korean. With the Japanese sources he states that certain things are to vague to be certain, but not prior to this.
I quickly had many gripes with this book early on, but I could give the author the benefit of doubt so far when he claims that e.g. in China being penetrated was not considered derogatory/feminization to the bottom. You see, that is definitely wrong, being the bottom was highly stigmatized. On the other hand, he openly calls this "monastic homosexuality" pederasty and gets to the conclusion that this is substitution for women based on the evidence. But he never points out the lack of consentual adult relationships so far. So, I assumed he might be arguing in good faith and simply has faulty sources.
Sadly, he does something that I found to be all too common. You see he talks about a story called The Treasury of Loyal Retainers, which is connected to the 47 ronin. It is a fictionalized account of the story and this author, and others, think this deep-seated loyalty and bond between lord and vassal is somehow homosexual. Earlier in the book, the author stated such stuff is too vague but then he does this crap. And the book was quickly back to the old problems, which I came across before: He assumes that there must have been a "myriad of tales about male-male love involving no scandal, murderous vendetta, or collosal misjudgement" and so became no stuff of historical chronicles, but would this explain the lack of positive stories? And even though he states that next to zero is known about popular view of nanshoku, he thinks records by literate strata represents the norm. But why?
And another old problem: He mixes homosexual desire with homosexual behavior. These cross-dressers/feminized boys and fucking of boys in environments lacking women would be expected with some people at least. And maybe some of the examples he listed before includes adult men/teenage boys on both sides, but it is suspicious that he never goes to the topic of gay sex between adult men or teenage boys.
Furthermore, what is it with this author that he never points out the lack of interest in adult men? He stated that men made passes at boys quite openly, not that I consider him reliable, but never at men. Why doesn't he point that out?
Naturally, he quotes the author of "The Great Mirror of Male Love" and his complaining about expensive boy prostitutes who visit female brothels. And that point I was very tempted to skip this chapter and go to the next, because this was becoming really painful.
When it comes to the decline of these male brothels the author first suspects that other forms of male prostitution might have been available, but based on his later numbers it is clear that his suggestion that they declined due to higher availability of women makes much more sense. And therefore I really question how he defines "desire"... in fact, he never mentioned the word sexual orientation.
And I don't think that it is coincidence that on these presented printings it is often difficult to tell apart the male and female prostitutes. In fact, something like the nakedness on the cover occurred only once. I would not be surprised to learn that those prostitutes would have been praised to be indistinguishable from women.
After a while the author was starting to become as confusing as all the other ones. Example: If homosexuality was so tolerated and accepted in Tokugawa Japan, why is it listed as a sin in hell anyway, why did the hell king punish the water sprite (a kappa apparently) to cause homosexuality by possessing young men? And what he writes about kabuki history only strengthens that the hypothesis that this is substitution for lack of women.
Also, he no longer calls it pederasty after a while, even with an example like this: "Hidetarö, a delicate boy of twelve or thirteen, enters to offer him tobacco. A delighted Danjirö compliments him on his beauty...Embracing the boy, he rocks him back and forth suggestively, ...Danjirö laughs, bows to the audience, and facetiously pronounces his own conduct "shameful.""
And keep in mind, this might not be 12-13 years, but 11-12 years, as this probably gives the age according to older japanese age counting. Also, so far there have been constant praises about the beauty of boys, never men, and primarily of women and only rarely girls. This is very, very telling if you ask me.
Ignoring the fact that the following example that the author gave could simply be someone who believes women to be dangerous rather than an actual homosexual, when the author writes "There is even some evidence for a popular stereotype linking nanshoku to effiminacy" I was only "Some evidence?" you mean all these cross-dressers and effeminate boys didn't give it away? Because he is clearly referring to the wakashu here. So saying there is "some evidence" is really stretching it here. And what he writes here about what he himself states to be a popular stereotype about nanshoku enthuciasts points to anything but what he defined as tolerance as that one included acceptance. At least he didn't claim that it was approved of, but I wondered whether that will come as well. And it is really odd how little reference to anything but anal sex there is. Well, at least they used lubricant.
Also, that on the only 2 pages with kissing adult men, two are referred to as gangsters and the other two have one with tattoos makes me wonder whether depiction of kisses between men was something vulgar and not proper, something he doesn't seem to consider.
Also, this book is sometimes hard to read and I don't mean in regards to writing style or word choice, but the topic istelf. The book makes it clear that 15 years is the right age, several terms definitely mean child and one source says that the right age of the homosexual sex partner for a male starts at seven, another states it starts at 11, and ends at 22. This is sometimes worse than reading about the cases from imperial China, at least no source there advocated fucking 7 year olds. And keep in mind, the author here himself states that the age counting is different, so 7 years back then means 6 years today, maybe even 5 years!
And what was also noticable is that the tales by Saikaku (the author of The Great Mirror of Male Love) are a primary source for him and that is so annoying as this is just that one book!!!!! So why does he rely on that tract so often? And btw. the term pederasty hadn't occurred so far as well.
And there are some exceptions here of teenagers being as "old" as 17 or 19 (so maybe 16-18 years of age), or performing in a masculine way and even a male role actor being a prostitute, but the majority are younger and feminized or female role actors. And the prostitutes come from destitute families and I wonder where the actors come from. After the Tempo reforms they were referred in official documents with the suffix -hiki, ususually applied to animals, suggesting something rather negative.
The end of the "chapter" on egalitarian relationships is so typical for this book. First the author acts as if these things were common, for some reason, and tolerated and all, but his last statements about how rare they were and beyond most men's imagination and so focus on boys, completely belies this assertion.
He wrote himself that "Similarly, most Japanese of the Tokugawa period probably viewed sexual desire (iro ) as a force that might become focused upon either women or men." What men? He barely mentioned any. And he stated earlier himself that popular attitudes are unknown, he simply assumes that what literati claim or do is true for the wider society. And only when he gets to the criticism of these practices does he use the term pederasty again.
The author states that Saikaku claims that "people easily accepted" the homosexual relationship of two young samurai, but this claim of tolerance is contradicted by Saikaku writing in the Nanshoku Ōkagami (The Great Mirror of Male Love) that so many of these relationships had to be kept secret and points it out when they are tolerated. Leupp himself stated examples to the contrary and how nanshoku wasn't considered exemplary behavior. What he writes here about the arguments against Nanshoku (nature, social and financial effects etc.) doesn't sound like such a tolerant society, even what he writes in the chapter on social tolerance doesn't sound that good either. It might be better to ask more why such brothels were tolerated officially after all instead of claiming Japan was so tolerant. It doesn't sound much different from Europe actually. And one of the critics of nanshoku confirmed what I suspected earlier: The kabuki actors come from the lowest families as well, not just the prostitutes, and I doubt that this is coincidence.
And fine, he states that the law doesn't say anything about unnaturalness of nanshoku... but why? Could it be that even very bad things were considered natural? And btw. with the intense association of nanshoku and violence in the Tokugawa era (and apparently before), especially among the samurai (including rape and parents not letting their boys out), the author can sugarcoat this as much as he wants, this sounds really really bad. And when he once more claims that there was no stigma attached to homosexual passivity, I don't believe him. There are too many contradictions in his argumentations, too many cases where he seems to ignore his own sources and too much double standard. In short, this is in my experience a very typical study of non-western "homosexual" behavior.
And it is really strange when the author once again mentions his astoundment when men who are the insertee role among the kabuki actors enjoy the inserter role when they have sex with women. Considered that most actors came from destitute families, most of them would be straight just by pure chance, so naturally they would prefer to fuck women instead of being fucked by men. Is this author really so dumb? Well, kind of, you will see what is going on here.
And when Confucian and Buddhist authors say something negative about women, he doesn't believe it, but when literati write something pro his own stance, he does belief it. Due to things like this, I can't believe this guy, absolutely not. He is just unreliable by this point.
His hypothesis on the lack of male on male blowjobs is basically: It has to be there to keep some seperation between the sexes and keep something exclusively heterosexual. But considered how much he got wrong before and how contradictory he is, I don't think there is much to it. After all, if it was basically about submission and dominance we should find it at least performed by male prostitutes.
Of course he ends this book with the claim that he is right about the social constructionist thesis. And he does that by claiming that Japan became homophobic because of adopting western ideas. Apparently he ignores all the examples from before that he himself had shown that were against nanshoku for various reasons, in fact these "New" reasons from the west sound pretty similar to the old Japanese ones.
So in the end, this book is basically unreliable, it might have good information, but the author omitted so much, contradicted himself so often and sometimes straight up lied, that there is no way I would ever recommend this book to anyone.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not many scholarly works read well, but this one does. Even if you are not a student of Japanese history and culture, "Male Colors" is a pleasure. Yes, there are sections with a lot of Japanese names (particularly when the author cites a string of sources), but by and large, this work is very accessible to us mere mortals who are interested in the history of same-sex love.
Initially, as the author describes, same-sex love in Japan was something practiced by elite groups: first the Zen Buddhist monks who are believed to have imported the practice from China (a curious notion because this also carries the connotation that homosexuality came from "some place else") and then the samuri elite. While factors such as the lack of eligible women may have contributed to the general acceptance of bisexuality, many, if not most, of the practitioners of nanshoku had deep emotional ties to their partners. But as urban life began to grow, nanshoku was popularized through a combination of the kabuki theater and the commercial sex enterprises that cropped up.

Also interesting were all the examples of art depicting nanshoku, some of it quite ribald and most of it graphic. But that just lends more weight to the notion that there was no stigma attached to boy love during this period in Japan, at least not a universal stigma; it was quite nearly universally tolerated and any effort to control nanshoku usually was to control violent fights over popular boy prostitutes rather than a governmental decree against homosexual sex.

The book is heavy on male sexuality with little mention of lesbianism, but that's hardly a surprise considering most cultures tend to be strongly patriarchal and it is the men who record history. And as usual, it appears that it was through contact with the West, particularly with Christian missionaries, that the practice of nanshoku was eventually shunned into the crepuscular corners of Japanese culture. More evidence that if there is harm caused by same-sex activity, the harm is caused by a prudish societal mentality originating in a rigid Judeo-Christian ethic that thrives on domination and guilt.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book if you are interested in sex and society in Japan. It predominately looks at the acceptance of homosexuality in Japan throughout history, tracing its origins in earlier historical eras through the pre-modern through laws, literary sources, and art and explaining its patterns within different segments of society. I found it totally intriguing, since I already like the subject, and the frequent use of woodblock prints to support his argument is great, though possibly not for those prone to blushing at explicit pictures. There are a few minor areas in which I question his conclusions, but in general I felt his argument fits well into the wider scholarship, and his questions are insightful. He does do a little bit of comparison with other societies, but as he is a Japanese historian rather than a scholar of gender and sexuality, he limits those moments. He also uses Japanese terms when he feels an accurate translation is lacking, but not to an annoying extent, and overall I felt his writing style was quite readable rather than full of dense language.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, with a sense of humor and an ability to find the best quotes and passages in order to explain an era of bisexuality which far surpasses that of our own self-congratulatory time.

[R E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filled with with intriguing, illuminating stories from history, literature, and art, this is an astonishing work that is both broad in scope and exhaustively detailed

Covering roughly 1,500 years of Japanese history, from its Shinto prehistory to the end of the Shogun era, Male Colors is a monumental, exhaustive achievement that can be easily read by a reader with a casual interest in sex and affection between men in Japanese culture. Other reviewers here have pointed out many of its virtues. I'd like to indicate a few of its possible long-term contributions to scholarship and intellectual history that I have not seen highlighted.

First, this book contextualizes and thereby limits the applicability of Foucault's otherwise omnipresent theories of sexuality, history and the construction of desire - which is a good thing. Given that Male Colors was published in 1995, it doesn't provide the thorough, critical reappraisal of Foucault and his influence that is desperately needed in gender and visual culture studies and also in the history of sexuality; this would require an extended critique of post-structuralism and it's epistemological weaknesses, and would also need to factor in recent empirical and experimental findings from the cognitive sciences and related fields (e.g. neuro-aesthetics, neuro-linguistics). But Leupp does a remarkable job of using insights from Foucault et. Al. without allowing these theoretical constructs to distort the historical evidence. Too often these theories are used as axiomatic truths rather than analytic tools. Leupp's exhaustive consideration of this evidence leads him to point out areas where the Japanese experience of sexuality and sexual desire don't easily map onto a Foucauldian worldview. It's noteworthy that he accomplishes this because it's a rare example of crystal clear and transparent critical thinking in a field sometimes mired in it's own self-indulgent jargon. He lays out the evidence, shows his methodologies, and states his conclusions in ways that will allow others to productively build on his work without first having to clean up an excess of ideological quick sand. (For instance, compare this book to Kazumi Nagaike's "Fantasies of cross-dressing: Japanese women write male-male erotica." Nagaike makes a valuable contribution by bringing Mara Mori and other writers to the attention of English speakers, and connecting this older literary tradition to Yaoi manga. But her analysis is so steeped in Foucault-inflected Freudian theory (and there is no experimental evidence for any of Freud's ideas) as to make it useless. Leupp's model of clear, careful thinking would have gone a lot further had Nagaike followed it).

Then, there is also a valuable, if short, section that offers a critique of John Boswell's social tolerance theory. As it turns out, the Japanese experience provides an exemplary case study and counter example to Boswell's thesis.

Throughout, Leupp provides lucid, solidly researched comparisons that shed light on both scholarly and popular assumptions about sexuality, desire, culture and identity. His scope is astonishingly broad yet also precise. He draws on the Judeo-Christian tradition, Ancient Greece and Rome, Mesopotamia, Oceanic tribal cultures, and, of course, Chinese and Korean exemplars, weighing similarities and highlighting differences and what they might mean. Other scholars could do worse than follow his example.

While I have a handful of questions regarding some of Leupp's assumptions, this is a compelling work of scholarship, both in terms of depth and scope. But it's also a good read. The worst you'll encounter in these pages are, literally, a couple of paragraphs that have a few too many Japanese names. Mostly, the author fills the pages with intriguing, illuminating stories and anecdotes from history, literature, and art.

[Juliana Midori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Livro é muito bom, mas é um pouco confuso. Confesso que me perdi na temporalidade, em qual momento da história se passa cada coisa; além de utilizar muitos termos japoneses.

Mas, num geral, a leitura é bem gostosa e foi algo extremamente prazeroso pra mim, pois realmente me senti vivendo no Japão do período Edo. O que mais gostei foram os contos que mostram a sensibilidade e o nível de abertura que o Japão dessa época tinha com relações homossexuais (malditos ocidentais que impuseram seus valores em cima dos japoneses).

Quotes marcantes:
"[Para pessoas da época] Caminho dos homens, caminho das mulheres, há diferença?"

"Os quarteirões de prazer constituíam ilhas de democracia em uma sociedade obcecada com a hierarquia."

"A alma humana é delicada, como a das mulheres e das crianças. A única diferença entre a alma destas e dos homens é que os últimos se envergonham de exibi-la."

"Os registros sugerem que a sociedade da época não questionava por que um homem tomava homens por amantes, e sim por que não o fazia."

[Janejanejane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this for a paper on History of homosexuality in Japan. What a book! How have I never heard any mentions of how gay pre-Meiji Japan was in any of the history books?! This book analyzes historical sources (diaries,literature, art, newspapers etc.) in great detail to show the nuances of homosexual tradition of the Tokugawa period. Well structured, really well researched and well written book. Quite graphic at times. After reading it I feel like I learned and understood both the historical processes and a lot of little fun facts, that I can't wait to casually bring up in random conversations. Did you know 7 of the Tokugawa shōguns were bisexual? Did you know Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideoyoshi had male lovers? Did you know there are queer depictions of Kappa, that green water yōkai? Queer icon Kappa, who would have thought. This was a very informative read! I hope queer history is taught along the mainstream heteronormative history in the future, and this book, should be on the curriculum.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly detailed and thorough investigation about how homosexuality was expressed in Edo Japan. This book included pictures along with translations of the texts written on them which I really appreciated. There is also a selection of poetry included in the book in romaji translated into english. I think it would've been nice to also have these poems written in the original Japanese kanji and kana, but still a fabulous reference.

[Jenna-Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took me a moment to read, but only because I had limited access to the book itself. I've been wanting to read more on queer history and my current interest in pre-modern Japanese history, this was a good overlap.
It was a really interesting discussion and open to multiple readings and interpretations without fetishizing or undermining any experience. Overall, a great book to have come across.

[Beatriz Dota · Rating 4 out of 5]

um trabalho historiográfico muito bonito e cuidadoso. só me incomoda a repetição de argumentos, mas penso que pode ser proposital, para alcançar o público não especializado/não historiador.
adorei saber mais sobre a relação do japão com sexo, sexualidade e gênero antes da era meiji.

[Virgowriter (Brad Windhauser) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lot of interesting history.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite interesting, but extremely dry.

[Mrs. Fujiwara · Rating 5 out of 5]

And so today I finished reading carefully yet another thesis for my MA. It had been quite a while since I've done that to a book on Japanese studies because I was dedicating myself into analyzing works about the Jesuits in Brazil. But things happened in the meantime and probably up until the end of the year I'll be able to do what I like the most: to study about Japan's culture alone and deeply. By reading these studies I always find something new that raises up my researcher spirit. It was the case with this book, of course. I remember telling my Mentor a couple of years ago that it would be important for my theme to understand Japan's sexuality during medieval times because of the impression it let upon Christian missionaries in the XVI century. This work just proves it. With amazing writing skills the author unfolds to the reader the importance on nanshoku - male-male sexual relationships - in Japan during the Tokugawa rule without forgetting to trace it's older origins. To those familiar with the theme or with Dover's works on the subject, he compares the importance of it to Japan's society with that of paiderastia in Ancient Greece. Based on Japanese sources as well as great western studies and literary narratives, the scholar details intimate preferences - like their love for youths and effeminate kabuki actors - proving that it was not only common among monks and warriors but also a widely accepted practice, tolerated by authorities and exalted by famous figures such as the poet Basho. The greatest surprise to me, however, was his proving a point I've though about in the beginning of my own studies, many years ago. When I read "Ugetsu Monogatari" by Ueda Akinari (thank you dear Duda!) for the first time, I saw in the story called "Kikura Chigiri" (The Chrysanthemum Vow) not only a perfect example of the partnership idealized by Japanese men in medieval times, but also the importance of intimate and sexual relationships amongst them. What was my surprise, then, when I saw Mr. Leupp analyzing this particular tale and informing us that the word "kiku", Chrysanthemum, was not only a representation of the imperial family, but also an important symbol of nanshoku itself. Of course I was delighted to see that my ideas were going the right way even back when I was still at the University! With this satisfied feeling all over now I'll put aside for a while these readings about male relationships (because too much of the same thing is boring) and read something else, probably reread the first volume of one of the greatest western works on Japanese culture while savoring a nice cup of jasmine flavored green tea.

[Li Ya 🪷 · Rating 5 out of 5]

SLAYED THE HOUSE BOOTS DOWN HOUSTON IM DECEASED

[shuya · Rating 4 out of 5]

well written, the reading is easy. Interesting, but to be read with a knowledge of Edo-period Japan because some details are not exactly true or are vague. But as a student of japanese culture and history I did learn many things and the bibliography is also very interesting.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating look at a very seemingly recent controversial subject. The history in this book is at times unbelievable but always revelatory. Just incredible.