A01=Gary Leupp
academic
artistic treatments
asia
asian history
Author_Gary Leupp
biographical material
bisexuality
Category=JBSF
Category=JBSJ
Category=JHM
class structure
commoners
cultural history
early modern jaan
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
gay
gay studies
gender roles
global context
historical documentation
homosexual traditions
japanese history
law codes
lgbt history
literary documentation
male homosexual behavior
medical treatises
monks
politics
popular fiction
queer history
religious works
samurai
sexual desire
sexual expression
sexual relations
sexuality
tokugawa bakufu
tokugawa japan
Product details
- ISBN 9780520209008
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 15 May 1997
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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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.
Gary P. Leupp is Associate Professor of History at Tufts University and the author of Servants, Shophands, and Laborers in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan (1992).
