Samurai and Sexuality

Male, female, man, woman, straight, gay, bisexual, or you name it, we surely have many ways to label fellow human beings. Perhaps, labeling oneself or others is what we always do. Surprisingly, in her Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality, Gayle S. Rubin explains that human sexuality is, however, a new concept to us. Even though the essay was both informational and insightful, since the focus of Rubin's historical narrative on such a concept is on the US and to some extent Europe, I would like to bring an example of a foreign country that helps us understand that labeling someone straight, gay, or bisexual in fact was not common. The example comes from Japan.

From what I know, some persons with high social status indeed engaged in sexual activities with people of their same sex without being labeled as gay or publicly condemned about it. Some teenage students from samurai family in the south west part of Japan, until the mid 19th century, enjoyed the company with fellow students, for it was considered as a way of building more connection and togetherness among their colleagues. It is not to say that all samurai were fond of homosexual activities, but, certainly, it was a custom for some samurai while growing up. In addition, some samurai, while being married to their wives, visited male companions during the night for similar sexual intimacy. These practices were nothing, but customary. Of course, the government did not strip off their samurai status because the concept of sexuality, I think, did not exist and is a product of our modern society.