The Cosmology of Male-Male Love in Medieval Japan
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 dimensio...
| Published in: | Journal of Religion in Japan |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2015
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| In: |
Journal of Religion in Japan
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Japan
/ Buddhism
/ Homosexuality
/ Man
/ Moral conditions
/ Cosmology
/ Geschichte 1482
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| IxTheo Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism AG Religious life; material religion BL Buddhism KBM Asia KCA Monasticism; religious orders NBE Anthropology NCF Sexual ethics TH Late Middle Ages |
| Further subjects: | B
male-male sexuality
dōji / chigo
Buddhism
medieval Japan
cosmology
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | 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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| ISSN: | 2211-8349 |
| Contains: | In: Journal of Religion in Japan
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/22118349-00402007 |