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Blending elements from indigenous traditions and recently imported
Western discourses of sexual identity,
Japan is
home to one of the most diverse and dynamic queer cultures in Asia. |
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Detail from The Actor Matsumoto Shigumaki
as a Woman by Torii Kiyumasu |
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Japanese Art,
from the prehistoric period onward, features images that can be given
queer readings as well as a wide range of representations that
contemporary viewers would understand to be homosexual. |
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Japanese Film
offers unique visions
of sexual transgression divorced from Western political correctness and
assimilationist civil rights ideals. |
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Japanese
Literature treats same-sex love radically differently from
Western literatures, but offers many interesting texts that include
male-male or female-female love. |
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Kabuki, a
classic Japanese theatrical form incorporating fantastical costumes,
stylized gestures, music, and dance, originally showcased female and
boy prostitutes, but now features all-male casts. |
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Manga--or comic
books--are an important medium of cultural expression in Japan and
frequently feature male and female homosexuality. Leading gay
organizations in Japan have criticized some manga for distorted
representations of homosexuality. |
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Yukio Mishima
(1925-1970) pursued a quest for masculinity in which he mythologized
himself both in his life and his writings. His quest culminated
in his ritual suicide in 1970. |
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Ihara
Saikaku's (1642-1693) primary appeal to modern GLBT readers is
his collection of forty short stories called The Great Mirror of
Male Love, which depicts male homosexual love as it was practiced in
seventeenth-century Japan. |
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Mutsuo
Takahashi (b. 1937) is an internationally recognized poet and
playwright who celebrates homosexual desire in his explicitly gay work. |
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Takarazuka,
all-female
musical and theater companies, are popular entertainment in Japan, but
they tellingly illustrate the construction of gender roles and inspire
intense--often homoerotic--fan response. |
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Tokyo
is home to a vast entertainment world that supports hundreds of venues
for individuals with diverse sexual and gender identities and
interests. |
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Photo
Credits: Kabuki image courtesy Northwestern University
Library Art Collection. |
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