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SAMURAI and CHUGEN GETTING READY FOR TRAVEL in OLD JAPAN -- or, Good Times Living the GAY LIFE
Image by Okinawa Soba
Except for the sword worn by the younger fellow on the left, this photo seems immediately related to these other images on my photostream : www.flickr.com/search/?w=24443965@N08&q=Samurai+Serva...
However, rather than being a servant, he appears to be a CHUGEN. Flickr poster HisuiJADE's poster comment #5 below pointed me in the right direction to dig up the goods on the web.....
".......CHUGEN - Literally, the "in-between." The purpose of the Chugen in medieval Japan was to assist with physical tasks given by their officers, such as bearing spare weaponry and armor. Personal attendants to the samurai, they are best equated to squires in medieval Europe (minus the necessary social status); like squires, they would fight when the need arose. Technically, a Chugen in the Samurai era could be further along the path to rising in status and social standing than an ashigaru......" www.ikkotaizen.com/Structure.html
And this "........QUESTION: Can anyone explain the status of a vassel as Chugen? This is below a Samurai? But, not [a member of] any of the other classes?....." ANSWER : Chugen were usually from farmer family. But they were ALLOWED TO CARRY ONE SWORD. Beyond farmer, below samurai......." forums.samurai-archives.com/viewtopic.php?t=3050&sid=...
Thanks again, HisuiJADE, for helping bring these captions into line for all of us, and helping the history of these pictures come alive.
There is something else you should know to keep your history balanced and complete :
THE GAY LIFE
These days, when we talk about or visualize the Glorious Samurai, our mention of them is usually devoid of something important. The world's social and religious aversion to homosexuality has worked to separate and sweep under the rug this once-understood and accepted facet of the Samurai.
In its place, we are left with a group of men who have been "cleansed and sanctified" in the minds of Westerners who have been raised in a nominally monotheistic religious culture, giving us a conservative republican Samurai Warrior with Western, Judeo-Christian family values, living with a so-called "honorable" code of ethics that makes for the stuff of macho dreams found in testosterone-fueled Hollywood movies.
Time to set the record straight :
CONSERVATIVE STATEMENT from the WEB :
www.gay-art-history.org/gay-history/gay-customs/japan-sam...
Samurai --- Virile, Strong, Warriors among Men, and Fighters after the Spirit of Bushido --- The Last Samurai of Hollywood fiction --- ALSO CARRIED THE BANNER OF HOMOSEXUAL LOVE INTO BATTLE WITH THEM, AND PRACTICED HOMOSEXUAL LOVE AS AN HONORED AND TRADITIONAL WAY OF LIFE.
Therefore, if you are a fan of "all things Samurai", you better not be anti-homosexual, and you better not be a GAY BASHER. The real Samurai held GAY LOVE in high esteem, and encouraged it. Gay love and relationships were considered beneficial for the youth, teaching him virtue, honesty and the appreciation of beauty.
WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE on the WEB :
"........Shudō is the Japanese tradition of age-structured homosexuality prevalent in samurai society from the medieval period until the end of the 19th century. The word is an abbreviation of wakashudō (若衆道), "the way of the young" or more precisely, "the way of young (若 waka) men (衆 shū)". The "dō" (道) is related to the Chinese word tao, considered to be a structured discipline and body of knowledge, as well as a path to awakening.
The older partner in the relationship was known as the nenja (念者), and the younger as the wakashū (若衆).
The practice was held in high esteem, and was encouraged, especially within the samurai class. Their homosexual lifestyle was considered beneficial for the youth, teaching him virtue, honesty and the appreciation of beauty. Its value was contrasted with the love of women, which was blamed for feminizing men.
With the rise in power and influence of the merchant class, aspects of the practice of shudo were adopted by the middle classes, and homoerotic expression in Japan began to be more closely associated with traveling kabuki actors known as tobiko ( 飛子) , "fly boys," who moonlighted as prostitutes......."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shud%c5%8d
Yes, the Samurai could marry, and (some) did marry --- under carefully observed social rules. However, this was not for mutual love and family relationships as Westerners would normally define marriage between a male and female. For the Samurai, sexual relations with a woman was more along the lines of a "necessary evil" to procreate for the purpose of making more little Samurai to keep things going.
However, even while "makin' babies" in this manner, they continued to hold the sexual love and bonding with males as the preferred and highest highest love, and the "necessary evils" of being "joined to a woman" as an obligatorily social headache.
As we all know, there are plenty of Gay men living in many countries of the world today who, for various social reasons, emotionally and sexually live in the same situation --- some resolving it better than others.
******************************************
Now that we've cleared that up about Man-Boy love in old Japan (and I am not sure at what age the "Boy" part of the equation was socially understood to begin), let us return to the photograph itself....
The photo is remarkable for showing a special cloak used by the Samurai on the road -- perhaps for disguise or inclement weather, with it's opening for the all-important swords to be ready for the draw at a moment's notice. It is certainly a rare thing to be seen in any old document or photograph.
I can only speculate on what is rolled up and hanging on the shoulder pole. See poster comments #3 and #4 below for some thoughts on this.
Lastly, I have an odd suspicion that the mustachioed "Samurai" under the hat might be a foreigner friend of the photographer. This series was presumably photographed in Yokohama, and the photographer of attribution was SHINICHI SUZUKI.
He shot this series of images in part at the request of foreigners who wanted to show the "real Japan" to the readers of THE FAR EAST, a photographically-illustrated periodical that was published in Yokohama during that time (and almost impossible to find copies of today).
If it is one of the staff members of THE FAR EAST, it simply makes the photograph just that much more intriguing and historical.
PHOTO CREDIT : The Tom Burnett Collection. Used with Permission.
Travelling by telephone...
Image by LucaDeravignone.com
A.K.A. Torture room / La camera di tortura
Homemade matchbox pinhole camera
Alone in the clouds all blue
lying on an eiderdown
yippie, you can't see me
but I can you
Lazing in the foggy dew
sitting on a unicorn
no fear, you can't hear me
but I can you
Watching buttercups cuff the light
sleeping on a dandelion
too much, I won't touch you
but then I might
Screaming through the scarlet sky
travelling by telephone
hey, ho here we go
ever so high...
Flaming (Pink Floyd)
Tribute to Syd Barrett
Orignal From: Nice Travel photos
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