Most people think of Basho and haiku when they think about Japanese poems. Japanese poetry encompasses more than lovely nature images. The word literature conjures, at least for me, feelings of stuffiness and boredom. It’s easy to forget that what we deem literature, that is, writing representative of a time period, was the love poems…
Category: History
Prostitution in Japan: Soaplands, Slavery, and Family Obligation
Japan’s sex industry exists because of the narrow definition of prostitution found in the 1956 law that ended licensed prostitution in Japan. Namely, the law defines sex as penile-vaginal intercourse which allows the legal offering of most other sexual services (Koch, 2016). In turn, the existence of the sex industry encourages human trafficking of children…
Slavery and Japan
Japan, like nearly all nations. has a history of slavery. Many Western historians in the past believed the concept of freedom was imported to Japan from the West. This misplaced, Western-centric view states the West wrestled with its heritage of slavery and awoke to human rights and freedom before showing the rest of the world….
Server Problems and Writing Update
As you may have noticed, JP was down for few days. My webhost migrated to a new, faster server and broke a bunch of things. I think they are fixed. If you see anything odd, please let me know! I haven’t given you a writing update in awhile: I finished the first draft of a…
To Understand Japanese History, Study China
One aspect of Japanology I’ve neglected so far is the role of China. I’ve only touched on it here and there throughout JP’s articles. But if you are serious about studying Japanese culture, you must also study Chinese culture. China has influenced most of the nations and cultures surrounding it. You find elements of Chinese…
Heian Period Sexual Politics, Marriage, and Sex
The Heian period (794 to 1185) imported many ideas and conventions from China. This marked the flowering of Japanese ideals of beauty, from Cherry Blossom Viewing Festivals to poetic conventions. It imported Confucian ideals, Chinese writing conventions, Chinese literature, and many other cultural imports that would take on a distinct Japanese flavor. Buddhism also spread…