A life in Technicolor

Nanshoku 男色 this Japanese (chinese) term that means literally "male colors", used to refer male-male- sex in the ancient Japan, but still in use these days to refer sexual pleasure.Today the words: Dōseiaisha 同性愛者 (same-sex loving person) and Gei ゲイ (gay) are more common.

In the history of Japan there are records showing that male-male love was considered as the purest way of love, The well known stories about of same-sex love between samurais give us an idea about the conception they had about this king of love in the taditional Japan .

The poet Saikaku Ihara(Ibara) dedicated a whole collection of poems about gay love called. "Nanshoku Okagami"(The great mirror of male love or Gay love between samurais)

Here is a fragment of a poem from the book . "Nanshoku Okagami"

He´s name was Itjikuro Banm and was guard of the province of Tsugaru and immensely rich. He was an enthusiastic of the viril love, and he did not waste a thought in women. At that precise moment he was on the road to Yedo to see a celebrated young actor called Dekeijima, whose beauty attracted the admiration of many men. His servant had received a letter from a friend in Yedo in which he praised the beauty of Dekijima, and Itjikuro had been put immediately on the way to see him.

In the poetry of Ihara we can discovered the recurrent tells about the daily life in Japan , showing us how men saw the male-male love (very different from today) in the XVII century.

The crest at the center of this graphic is my family crest (Kamon), it means "The cherry blossom beyond the sea"