''The Great Mirror of Male Love'' (男色大鏡 ''Nanshoku Ōkagami''), with the subtitle ''The Custom of Boy Love in Our Land'' (本朝若風俗 ''Honchō Waka Fūzoku'') is a collection of
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
stories by
Ihara Saikaku
was a Japanese poet and creator of the " floating world" genre of Japanese prose (''ukiyo-zōshi'').
Born as Hirayama Tōgo (平山藤五), the son of a wealthy merchant in Osaka, he first studied haikai poetry under Matsunaga Teitoku and later ...
, published in 1687. The collection belongs to Ihara's
floating world genre of
Japanese literature
Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...
(浮世草子 Ukiyo-zōshi), and contains eight sections; each section contains five chapters, making 40 chapters in total.
Contents
''The Great Mirror of Male Love'' has two parts: the first four sections (first 20 chapters) embody romantic relationships between
warrior
A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste.
History
Warriors seem to have been p ...
s and
monk
A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...
s; the next four sections center about the
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
-
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
theatres, dealing with male loving stories about the
kabuki
is a classical form of Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.
Kabuki is thought to ...
actors. The stories are usually about
homoerotic
Homoeroticism is sexual attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female. The concept differs from the concept of homosexuality: it refers specifically to the desire itself, which can be temporary, whereas "homose ...
relationships between an adult male and an adolescent youth; the ethical constraints are very much like that of a man and a woman. In the first four sections, the
samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
senior lovers are the image of manliness, supporter to the younger one, and the
dominant role in
sex
Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones (ova, oft ...
. The young beloved boys are portrayed as beautiful, good students of the older samurai, and assume a
submissive
Deference (also called submission or passivity) is the condition of submitting to the espoused, legitimate influence of one's superior or superiors. Deference implies a yielding or submitting to the judgment of a recognized superior, out of re ...
role in sex. From section 5 onward, the young kabuki actors are more like prostitutes to the older townsmen; however,
recreational sex
Casual sex is sexual activity that takes place outside a romantic relationship and implies an absence of commitment, emotional attachment, or familiarity between sexual partners. Examples are sexual activity while casually dating, one-night ...
was taken for granted in
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
Japan, therefore the relationship between the townsmen and the kabuki actors are still considered romantic accounts.
Preface
Saikaku claimed that heaven and earth in Japanese mythology are bound in the same way that two male lovers are bound. Women managed to capture the attention of men since the creation of the world, he added, but they were no more than an amusement to retired old men, and there was no way that women can be worthy enough to be compared to handsome youth.
Section One
#Love: The Contest Between Two Forces
#The ABCs of Boy Love
#Within the Fence: Pine, Maple, and a Willow Waist
#Love Letter Sent in a Sea Bass
#Implicated by His Diamond Crest
Section Two
#A Sword His Only Memento
#Though Bearing an Umbrella, he Was Rained Upon
#His Head Shaved on the Path of Dreams
#Aloeswood Boy of the East
#Nightingale in the Snow
Section Three
#Grudge Provoked by a Sedge Hat
#Tortured to Death with Snow on His Sleeve
#The Sword That Survived Love's Flames
#The Sickbed No Medicine Could Cure
#He Fell in Love When the Mountain Rose Was in Bloom
Section Four
#Drowned by Love in Winecups of Pearl Nautilus Shells
#The Boy who Sacrificed His Life in the Robes of His Lover
#They Waited Three Years to Die
#Two Old Cherry Trees Still in Bloom
#Handsome Youths having Fun Cause Trouble for a Temple
Section Five
#Tears in a Paper Shop
#He Pleaded for His Life at Mitsudera Hachiman
#Love's Flame Kindled by a Flint Seller
#Visiting from Edo, Suddenly a Monk
#Voting Picture of Kichiya Riding a Horse
Section Six
#A Huge Winecup Overflowing with Love
#Kozakura's Figure: Grafted Branches of a Cherry Tree
#The Man Who Resented Another's Shouts
#A Secret Visit Leads to the Wrong Bed
#A Terrible Shame He Never Performed in the Capital
Section Seven
#Fireflies Also Work Their Asses at Night
#An Onnagata's Tosa Diary
#An Unworn Robe to Remember Him by
#Bamboo Clappers Strike the Hateful Number
#Nails Hammered into an Amateur Painting
Section Eight
#A Verse Sung by a Goblin with a Beautiful Voice
#Siamese Roosters and the Reluctant Farewell
#Loved by a Man in a Box
#The Koyama Barrier Keeper
#Who Wears the Incense Graph Dyed in Her Heart?
Reception
The first release of ''The Great Mirror of Male Love'' was on the New Year Eve of 1687. The book was expected to be the best-seller of the year.
Translation
The first English translation of ''The Great Mirror of Male Love'' was by Paul Gordon Schalow. Schalow explained that there were two types of audiences for this collection:
connoisseur
A connoisseur ( French traditional, pre-1835, spelling of , from Middle-French , then meaning 'to be acquainted with' or 'to know somebody/something') is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts; who is a keen appreciator ...
s of boys (常人好き) and woman-haters (女嫌い). The former would be equivalent to ''
bisexual
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...
'' in modern conception, and the latter would be equivalent to ''
homosexual
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
''. Ihara structured the collection around the homosexual ethos of woman-hating, thus explaining the
misogynist
Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced fo ...
tone of the original work, which initially caused Schalow's translation to be offensive to women readers. Schalow purposely avoided using cultural phrases such as
heterosexual
Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to ...
,
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
, or
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
etc.
Notes
* Danly, Robert Lyons, The Journal of Asian Studies Vol.49 Issue 04, Cambridge.org. Retrieved 2012-10-24
* Ihara, Saikaku, ''The Great Mirror of Male Love''. Translation and introduction by Paul Gordon Schalow. Stanford University Press. 1990
{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Mirror of Male Love
1687 books
1687 short story collections
1687 in Japan
1680s LGBT literature
17th-century Japanese literature
17th century in LGBT history
Books about actors
Casual sex in fiction
Edo-period works
Erotic short stories
Gay male erotica
Japanese short story collections
Kyoto in fiction
LGBT short story collections
Male homosexuality
Osaka in fiction
Short stories set in Japan
Works by Ihara Saikaku
Works set in theatres
LGBT literature in Japan