(no subject)
Jan. 23rd, 2005 12:51 pmThings I've learned this weekend:
Parties are good. Rasberry vodka with Coke is also good. Learning that you remember how to swing-dance while drinking rasberry vodka at a party? Priceless.
*grins* Made me flashback to Animemazment dances with you,
bejinn!
I also learned that weeks-old stollen is still edible and that sleeping in til almost noon is an unparalleled joy. *nod nod*
Parties are good. Rasberry vodka with Coke is also good. Learning that you remember how to swing-dance while drinking rasberry vodka at a party? Priceless.
*grins* Made me flashback to Animemazment dances with you,
I also learned that weeks-old stollen is still edible and that sleeping in til almost noon is an unparalleled joy. *nod nod*
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Date: 2005-01-23 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-01-24 04:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-24 04:09 am (UTC)from gacktisgod
So I've been doing alot of reading up on the practice of nanshoku (male love, ie: homosexuality) in Japan during the 1600s. It's been very enlightening to see how acceptable it once was to have bi-sexual or homosexual feelings/relationships -- not only "acceptable" in society at the time but *expected*. A wakashu (young man) was expected to take an older male samurai as a lover and sort-of father-figure or role-model to teach him the ways of samurai life and honor. This practice was carried over into the lives of kabuki actors, as well as (less commonly) townsfolk.
What's really interesting to me is to see that it was so common that there were just as many social rules and laws governing male-male relationships as there were male-female ones, even if they were sometimes only considered as guidelines rather than strictly adhered to as laws. For example, the two involved should never be of equal standing (in rank or age), one was expected to be younger (before the coming of age ceremony) and the other older (usually post-coming of age ceremony). After the Coming Of Age ceremony, a boy was considered off-limits, sexually, although this doesn't seem to have beed observed much either. A page/guard in direct service to his daimyou (regional lord) was forbidden to engage in any sexual relations with others (because of his closeness to the lord, who would usually engage his "favors". This is the one rule that seems to have been MOSTLY obeyed, or disobeyed, hence all the tragic stories that end in seppuku). In order for a relationship to be recognized socially, the two had to engage in some sort of verbal and/or physical (by wounding or marking) vow, that was considered a serious and sacred as a marriage vow.
Currently, I'm reading a book entitled "Nanshoku Oukagami" ("The Great Mirror Of Male Love") by Ihara Saikaku, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's interested. A complete English translation (with a great intro and end notes) can be found under the English title above on Amazon.com. It's a collection of 40 short stories, some happy, most tragic, dealing with different pairs of samurai or kabuki lovers.
((Cough, MAYBE A STORY...:D *pokes the Ekat*))
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Date: 2005-01-24 04:19 am (UTC)http://www.androphile.org/preview/Culture/Japan/japan.htm#lovesamurai
Seems like samurai had all the fun.
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Berkeley/3508/japanesehistory.html
Gay male love in all the periods of Japanese history.
Also, in modern Japan there is no legal codes pertaining to homosexuality. Yet most of it seems to remain hidden.
That's enough for now. :P
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Date: 2005-01-24 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-01-24 07:34 pm (UTC)