Is There a Japane 'Gay Inty'? on JSTOR

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In districts like Shju Nichōme, Tokyo’s gay neighborhood, Japane and foreign talk, drk, and mgle, long-standg private bars, clubs, drag shows, and on the streets outsi nvenience stor. Their relatnships most likely varied greatly by suatn and across time perds, but a typil nanshoku pairg rporated many dimensns: mentorship and stewardship, platonic iendship, as well as physil acts of homosexual sex. The practice only began to fa wh the Meiji Rtoratn the late 1800s, when scty om the Wt led to a refg of homosexualy and heterosexualy Japane society.

While historil pictns of Nobunaga and Ranma sometim fully portray them as gay lovers, we mt be reful to separate historic nanshoku and the figur there om LGBTQ issu today, and to avoid mornizg norms of that era to f our ncept of sexualy and romance. We n fer queer people have always existed, and that some practners of nanshoku—perhaps cludg Nobunaga and Ranma—might have self-intified as queer or gay if displaced to our morn time wh our morn fns, although we nnot know for sure.

His 1959 film Sekishuncho, or Farewell to Sprg, picts timate and emotnal relatnships between s male characters, and is often regnized as “Japan’s first gay film. In addn to his homoerotic wrg, Mishima was reported to have vised gay bars and to have had an affair wh wrer Jiro Fhima.