Vivian’s Reviews > Recreating Japanese Men (Volume 20) > Status Update

Expresses the transition of views on masculinity from the Warring States instability to the Great Peace of Edo period. The change in violence was not just a samurai phenomenon, but also noted in the lifelong diary of a successful merchant.

Although warriors enjoyed shooting guns at targets and in recreational hunts, to have the gun associated with one’s profession risked a loss of status, something that was always a source of anxiety during the long Edo peace.

--The umlaut fail in the author's name makes me sad :(

In addition, ours is a moment at which a number of analytical opposites—including sex/gender, human/cyborg, body/mind—seem to be more resistant to dichotomization than ever before in ways that challenge notions of hegemony and erode the iconic status of previously existing figures.

In contrast to a socially engaged masculinity, the modern boy of the interwar years sought individual fulfillment by getting in touch with his feminine side in a display of androgyny that horrified government officials and social critics.