The Great Mirror of Male Love


The Great Mirror of Male Love, with the subtitle The Custom of Boy Love in Our Land is a collection of homosexuality stories by Ihara Saikaku, published in 1687. The collection belongs to Ihara's floating world genre of Japanese literature, and contains eight sections; each section contains five chapters, making 40 chapters in total.

Contents

The Great Mirror of Male Love has two parts: the first four sections embody romantic relationships between warriors and monks; the next four sections center about the Kyoto-Osaka theatres, dealing with male loving stories about the kabuki actors. The stories are usually about homoerotic relationships between an adult male and an adolescent youth; the ethical constraints are very much like that of a man and a woman. In the first four sections, the samurai senior lovers are the image of manliness, supporter to the younger one, and the dominant role in sex. The young beloved boys are portrayed as beautiful, good students of the older samurai, and assume a submissive role in sex. From section 5 onward, the young kabuki actors are more like prostitutes to the older townsmen; however, recreational sex was taken for granted in Edo period Japan, therefore the relationship between the townsmen and the kabuki actors are still considered romantic accounts.

Preface

Saikaku claimed that heaven and earth in Japanese mythology are bound in the same way that two male lovers are bound. Women managed to capture the attention of men since the creation of the world, he added, but they were no more than an amusement to retired old men, and there was no way that women can be worthy enough to be compared to handsome youth.

Section One

  1. Love: The Contest Between Two Forces
  2. The ABCs of Boy Love
  3. Within the Fence: Pine, Maple, and a Willow Waist
  4. Love Letter Sent in a Sea Bass
  5. Implicated by His Diamond Crest

    Section Two

  6. A Sword His Only Memento
  7. Though Bearing an Umbrella, he Was Rained Upon
  8. His Head Shaved on the Path of Dreams
  9. Aloeswood Boy of the East
  10. Nightingale in the Snow

    Section Three

  11. Grudge Provoked by a Sedge Hat
  12. Tortured to Death with Snow on His Sleeve
  13. The Sword That Survived Love's Flames
  14. The Sickbed No Medicine Could Cure
  15. He Fell in Love When the Mountain Rose Was in Bloom

    Section Four

  16. Drowned by Love in Winecups of Pearl Nautilus Shells
  17. The Boy who Sacrificed His Life in the Robes of His Lover
  18. They Waited Three Years to Die
  19. Two Old Cherry Trees Still in Bloom
  20. Handsome Youths having Fun Cause Trouble for a Temple

    Section Five

  21. Tears in a Paper Shop
  22. He Pleaded for His Life at Mitsudera Hachiman
  23. Love's Flame Kindled by a Flint Seller
  24. Visiting from Edo, Suddenly a Monk
  25. Voting Picture of Kichiya Riding a Horse

    Section Six

  26. A Huge Winecup Overflowing with Love
  27. Kozakura's Figure: Grafted Branches of a Cherry Tree
  28. The Man Who Resented Another's Shouts
  29. A Secret Visit Leads to the Wrong Bed
  30. A Terrible Shame He Never Performed in the Capital

    Section Seven

  31. Fireflies Also Work Their Asses at Night
  32. An Onnagata's Tosa Diary
  33. An Unworn Robe to Remember Him by
  34. Bamboo Clappers Strike the Hateful Number
  35. Nails Hammered into an Amateur Painting

    Section Eight

  36. A Verse Sung by a Goblin with a Beautiful Voice
  37. Siamese Roosters and the Reluctant Farewell
  38. Loved by a Man in a Box
  39. The Koyama Barrier Keeper
  40. Who Wears the Incense Graph Dyed in Her Heart?

    Reception

The first release of The Great Mirror of Male Love was on the New Year Eve of 1687. The book was expected to be the best-seller of the year.

Translation

The first English translation of The Great Mirror of Male Love was by Paul Gordon Schalow. Schalow explained that there were two types of audiences for this collection: connoisseurs of boys and woman-haters. The former would be equivalent to bisexual in modern conception, and the latter would be equivalent to homosexual. Ihara structured the collection around the homosexual ethos of woman-hating, thus explaining the misogynist tone of the original work, which initially caused Schalow's translation to be offensive to women readers. Schalow purposely avoided using cultural phrases such as heterosexual, gay, or lesbian etc.