During the research for the Universal Love Time Line that is exhibited together with the artworks I have found the most interesting, thrilling and sweet love stories. Tales and biographies about samurai homosexuality confirm for me, that sex is one of the greatest expressions of affection, courage and partnership. Something very far from just the oversold pleasure or guilt promises we daily consume in the western world.
Known also as wakashudo, “the way of the youth”, was a practice engaged in by all members of the samurai class, from lowliest warrior to highest lord. It has been said that it would never have been asked of a daimyo, “lord”, why he took boys as lovers, but why he didn’t. This last is not a question that would have troubled, for example, the three great shoguns who unified Japan, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, or Tokugawa Ieyasu, nor for that matter Miyamoto Musashi, the author of “The Book of Five Rings.” All about it at
http://www.gay-art-history.org/gay-history/gay-customs/japan-samurai-male-love/japan-samurai-homosexual-shudo.html
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