Customer Reviews

Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950

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Pflugfelder's book, the product of 20 years of research, provides a necessary foundation for students of Japanese history and sexology. What is much more, he resists reinforcing the kinds of master narratives that this kind of history usually inforces. "Homosexual," for instance, becomes not an identity but a term situated in time and space with certain uses by and for certain people. His Foucauldian approach focuses mostly on shifts and resists any notion of progress. I think this book is important to students of History as a model for their own scholarship, not just as a substantial contribution to the more specific field of Japanese Studies.

It is very interesting to read a this kind of book for us Japanese. However, as far as I know, we don't have a religious prejudice to homosexuality at all, therefore it sounds a little bit strange that in Meiji-era the goverment of Japan made a "Sodomy Law" imitating the western countries (though directly from the Manchurian China/Qing)---- of course it was soon repealed.
I prefer to read a book on male/male love of pre-Tokugawa period, since in those days, especially in Muromachi/Azuchi-Momoyama-period, male homoeroticism was most flourished and prosperous.
And I also want to read about the history of male-love in Korea, Tibet and Southeastern Asia.