There in Iwami
Near Mount Takatsunau, Between the thick trees, in the distance, Did my dear see
How did I wave my sleeve to her, saying goodbye?
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (late 7th century - early 8th century). Translated by A. Gluskina
Yes, for many, probably, this kind of "tolerance" that took place in medieval Japan, and even later, will seem strange. At first glance, this cannot but surprise, or simply shock. But everything is learned in comparison! And what in this respect is better than the “reverse medal” of attitudes towards sex in Russia, where the holy fathers of the church for a long time equated any form of intimate contact with fornication? At the same time, sex between spouses who were legally married, consecrated by the church sacrament, was no exception! Moreover, it is not clear why about 90 percent of the text in the 15th-century missal in the "Tale of How It Befits to Confess" was devoted to eliciting details of the intimate life of the confessing person. Well, the very beginning of the confessional rite was as follows: “How, child and brethren, for the first time he corrupted his virginity and defiled his bodily purity, with a lawful wife or with a stranger … any?" It was with such questions that confession began with us at that time, and the confessor did not just ask about sin in general, he demanded a detailed story about each of the types of sins, which included almost all perversions known to date and simply ways to diversify sexual life. All other sins fit into one short phrase: "And then ask everyone about murder, and about theft, and about the seizure of gold or kunas." And here is a later exemplary "Confession to Wives" from a missal of the 16th century: "I wore nauz (amulets that were considered a manifestation of paganism!) also commanded. And with her neighbor in the family in fornication and in adultery she fornicated with all sodomized fornication, she climbed up on them and let loose on herself, and gave her, and gave into the anus, and put her tongue into her mouth, and into her bosom she gave her tongue, and with them She did the same … She fornicated on girls and over wives, she climbed up on them and committed fornication on herself, and kissed them on the mouth, and on the breasts, and into secret ouds with lust until the expiration of lust, and with her own hand she herself into her own body”(Quoted from: D. Zankov. "Any fornication happens" // "Motherland №12 / 2004)
Lovers. Marunobu Hisikawa (1618 - 1694).
And what, really in all this there was more purity, morality and morality? And did the penances painted in detail for all this stop people from committing them, or, let's say: having learned about all these sins in confession, they immediately and forever turned away from them? By the way, during confession the same monks had to be asked about masturbation, and also asked, well, just an amazing question: "Did you not look with lust at the holy icons?" Comments to it, as they say, are superfluous in this case! But you can remember the parable of the log and the straw in the eye, which is very appropriate in this case.
Interestingly, the bride's clothes in Japan have long been white, and even before white became the bride's color in Europe (for example, in France in the 14th century, white was considered a symbol of widowhood!). Moreover, the white color in Japan had two interpretations at once - purity and purity on the one hand, and the color of death on the other. The ambiguous meaning in this case is explained by the fact that a girl, getting married, dies for her family and is reborn in her husband's family. At the same time, cranes and pine branches were often depicted on the kimono of the bride as a symbol of happiness and family well-being in memory of Teyo and Matsue. At the same time, the wedding itself was usually held according to the Shinto rite, since Shinto was considered the religion of life, but people were buried according to Buddhist, since it was believed that Buddhism was the "religion of death."
There were also wonderful legends of mutual and unrequited love in Japan, not inferior in intensity to the tragedies of Shakespeare. For example, there is a legend about the fisherman's daughter Matsue, who loved to sit on the shore under an old pine tree and look at the sea. One day, the waves carried a young man named Taeyo ashore. The girl saved the unfortunate man and did not let him die. He never left Matsue again. Their love grew stronger over the years, and every evening by the light of the moon they came to the pine tree, which helped to meet their hearts. And even after death, their souls remained inseparable. And here is another story, very similar to this story, connected with the story of the love of a Japanese woman and a foreign sailor, which is popular in the West (and in Russia as well!). The artist Torii Kienaga heard this beautiful story in Minami, the "gay neighborhood" in southern Edo. And this short story about his first love inspired the young and little-known artist so much that he painted a picture, calling it “In the Minami quarter”. The story itself sounds like this: Once the Portuguese sailors were in Minami. Among them was a cabin boy. He was introduced to the youngest geisha named Usuyuki, which means "Thin Snowball". Young people fell in love with each other at first sight. But they did not understand someone else's speech. Therefore, the lovers spent the whole night in contemplation, without uttering a word. In the morning they parted. However, the telescope of her beloved remained in Usuyuki's room and the naive girl thought that by this the young man wanted to say that someday he would definitely return to her. Since then, every morning she went out with her friends to the Sumida River, looking out for a Portuguese ship. Years passed, and a lot of water was carried away by the Sumida River, and Usuyuki continued to walk ashore. Residents of the city often saw her there and gradually began to notice that the years had not changed the girl at all. She remained as young and beautiful as when she met her lover.
"In the Minami quarter." Woodcut by Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815).
The Japanese say that Great Love stopped the fleeting time for her … In Japan, everything was exactly the same as in other places! Although, yes, where traditions and upbringing were mixed up in the affairs of two, exactly what surprises us most of all today was exactly present! As for the Japanese "visible erotica", it was also much easier with it than in European countries. For example, in pictures with images of gods, the heads of many of them are drawn so that they look like "something masculine" … With a satisfied expression on their faces in beautiful clothes, they sit surrounded by many courtesans and geishas, that is, they all approve of it with their presence. And in one of the old drawings, several gods and a courtesan are depicted washing in a bath. Well, and, of course, we simply cannot fail to mention the shung scrolls - "spring pictures" or the brides' scrolls. In them, by pictorial means, everything that was to be useful to a young girl on the first and subsequent wedding nights was described. In Japan, doctors were even trained on the shung scrolls, since their plots were performed with the utmost anatomical accuracy. The Japanese have always emphasized and emphasize that in their country not everything that is obvious is exactly what it seems, that more than in other places, and semitones are more important than complete clarity. This is why images of completely naked lovers are very rare in shunga.
Kesai Eisen (1790 - 1848). Typical shunga, which does not even show a piece of naked flesh. Art Museum in Honolulu.
It is much more often in the picture to distinguish, especially for a European, where a man is and where a woman is, it is not easy - the clothes and hairstyles are very similar, and it is possible to determine the location of lovers relative to each other only by their genitals (sometimes you find with surprise that the lovers are of the same sex). However, even a half-open kimono or a dressing gown with raised floors had to show in detail and anatomically accurately - with all vessels, folds of skin, hair and other physiological details - and the genitals of the main shung characters, as a rule, exaggerating their size to grandiose proportions. If the final phase of the date was depicted, in the foreground a phallus that did not reach the size of its owner could rise, from which sperm poured out in a powerful stream - the more, the more courageous the hero of the fresco was. The same factor could be emphasized by the numerous sheets of special absorbent paper scattered around the lovers in many. Already in the era of the first shogunate, the Kamakura shunga were very popular among the samurai. Warriors carried small books of "pocket" format under their helmets. Not only for entertainment during leisure hours, but also as amulets that protect against evil spirits and bring good luck. Around the same time, the tradition of depicting the genitals in an enlarged form was entrenched. On small pictures of a pocket format, otherwise it would simply be impossible to see them. In addition, even then there was a persistent belief that the male and female bodies differ very little from each other, especially without clothes. And the main difference between them is precisely the genitals. That is why genitals were usually depicted in shung's paintings of a disproportionately large, emphatically affected size.
Attention to minor details is another hallmark of the shunga. At first glance, shocking pictures pretty soon convince in a small selection of main subjects, although there are also quite unusual ones that lovingly capture, for example, the act of defecation, but the details and background of what is happening are unmatched in terms of the richness of choice. Here are romantic landscapes, which traditionally admire sad lovers at the moment of unhurried intercourse, and classic scenes from the life of Yoshiwara (brothel quarter) - from an ordinary date to sudden passion during a drunken brawl. And also numerous variants of voyeurism, starting with the immodest gaze of a child turned at the protruding toe of an adult woman (in Japan it is a symbol of female eroticism!), And ending with the observation of orgasmic partners having intercourse of a feline pair in front of their eyes. There are scenes filled with humor when, for example, a man enters the womb of a masseuse who is doing moxibustion on the client's back at this time, or when a peasant family is discussing a rape taking place in front of their eyes. In general, several characters are usually present in the engraving, although scenes of group sex are extremely rare - this is another feature of the Japanese attitude to love. Among the plots of the shung there are pictures from different eras, including those that in the Edo era showed the connection between Japanese women and foreigners, there are almost medical manuals for teaching girls showing the development of the female body until old age - often a doctor with an appropriate gynecological instrument is present in action, who enters after observation in connection with the patient. A lot of engravings are devoted to the use of substitutes for men by girls from Yoshiwara - various dildos - harigata, including such an original thing as the mask of a long-nosed and red-faced demon tengu, which was often used by samurai as a somen battle mask, and then found applications not only in the theater. but also … in bed! It is interesting that with all such obvious licentiousness in medieval Japan, the same bestiality did not spread at all!
And the reason here is not at all in some special Japanese morality, but in … the natural-geographical features of this region, the main agricultural crop of which was rice. Rice farming and fishing, not hunting - these are the main occupations of the Japanese, but the samurai, if they hunted, they used birds of prey! Therefore, the same dog in Japan was never considered, and even now is not considered a "man's friend." She could not become a friend to the Japanese peasant, just as horses and goats did not become the creatures he needed - animals that are very characteristic of the "animal" zoophilia of the Central Asian entnos, and, by the way, the same shunga are direct evidence of this! At the same time, the girls used the figurine of a dog twisted from paper in the houses of Yesiwara for strange witchcraft. She was laid on a closet or shelf and asked, turning her face to the client who was in the next room - will he leave or stay? After that, it was necessary to look at the strings of kosi-maki (belts) and if it turned out that they were tied in a knot, then that was the answer - the guest would have to leave! Interestingly, the government, which had nothing against Yoshiwara, forbade shung pictures, that's how! But they did not succeed in this at all, since about half of all printed production in medieval Japan (!) Was of an openly sexual nature, and how was it possible to keep track of all the printers? The first shunga appeared at the beginning of the 17th century and were black and white, but then they began to be printed in color, the most famous masters of their craft worked on them and, of course, it was impossible to stop the release of more and more "spring pictures" by any prohibitions! But during the Second World War, Japanese propagandists quickly realized that high moral motives did not interfere with sex, and began to print patriotic leaflets on … the reverse side of pornographic postcards for soldiers. The calculation was that the soldier would look at the postcard, then read the text. Reads the text - looks at the postcard. At the same time, adrenaline will be released into his blood, which will raise his fighting spirit!
Husband and wife. Illustration by Suzuki Harunobu for the poem Kyohara no Motosuke. Woodcut 18th century Tokyo National Museum.
Well, for Europeans such a calm attitude to nudity and sex (including on the side, in the Yesiwara quarter) was absolutely incomprehensible, while for the Japanese any sexual relations were completely normal - an "act that harmonized the universe" that helped preserve bodily health and vigorous spirit!
In Europe, there was a hypocritical attitude towards sex. For example, in accordance with the English views on sexual relations in the family, "the lady in bed does not move," therefore, for something "livelier" one could and should have turned to public women. But there was no need to talk about it. And even more so it was impossible to return home with two prostitutes, whom you hadn’t paid yet, and who should have been paid for their work … your wife! Moreover, not only Japanese samurai allowed themselves this in the past, but even today, it happens, Japanese managers allow. It is interesting that the most unenviable position in samurai society was occupied by Japanese women not in the era of wars, but in the peaceful times of the Edo period, which fully corresponded to Confucian teachings. Despite their intelligence and worldly wisdom, they recognized only the right to be a servant and … everything. Likewise, the heyday of homosexuality in Japan did not fall on the "age of war", but at the very end of the 18th century, that is, again, in peacetime. What to do is boring! Well, the Japanese adhered to the principles that assigned women a secondary role in society in the second half of the 19th century, after the Meiji restoration, and partly adhere even now.
Woman in a summer kimono. Hasiguchi Geyo (1880 - 1921). Art Museum in Honolulu.
