To Love Like the West: Analyzing Sociohistorical Trends in Marriage, Westernization, and Male Homosexuality in Meiji, Japan
Loading...
Links to Files
Permanent Link
Collections
Author/Creator
Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2019
Department
History
Program
theses
Citation of Original Publication
Rights
Abstract
My research intends to introduce the topic of studying the Meiji period and analyzing the rise of European influence and occupation on the trends in homosexuality and marriage and the accompanying power dynamics. The field of gender studies and sexual history is a fairly recent one, therefore the research in this topic encourages a greater analysis of the LGBT history outside of the United States and Europe and within East Asia. Throughout the research, the topics discussed will include but not be limited to: homosexual practices in Tokugawa Japan, homosexuality and religion, the sexuality of samurais, male prostitution, and American and European perspectives of Japanese marriage and concubine culture. The primary sources will include numerous pieces of artwork from the time period depicting homosexual relationships between men, as well as journals from an American living in Japan, and the Japanese work, The Tale of Genji, which gives an accurate depiction of the time. For secondary sources, various pieces pertaining to East Asian sexual culture and samurai homosexuality will be used in the research. Further research was found in the databases of University of California and Harvard University. From this research, a greater understanding of the rise of imperialism and European thought throughout Meiji Japan (1858-1912) and how it has cultivated a modem perspective of male homosexuality and early modern LGBT ideals can be reached, in addition to the complex relationship between European sexology and Japanese "sex politics."