I do not know what else to say about this.

[firstlight]

Hi Internet. Today I read a paper titled Kukai and the Tradition of Male Love in Japanese Buddhism. It provided me with many... gems.

There is a book attributed to Kobo Daishi (the monk who supposedly invented Japanese homosexuality -- yes, really). He didn't actually write it. But you know. The introduction talks about a man who prayed to Kobo Daishi so that he could learn "the mysteries of loving boys in Japan":

On the seventeenth day of the man's austerities, Kobo Daishi appears and agrees to present him with a one-volume book explaining the love of boys, the basics of which "even the monkeys of the hills and fields can comprehend."

Pez: Homosexuality for Dummies?
Val: ...I'd buy that book.**
Liz: Can we photoshop that onto a picture of Kobo Daishi...?

** but presumably not off amazon.

Then the body of the text. It talks about hand-gestures and what they mean. Then it talks about how to seduce acolytes:

If an acolyte practices martial arts, be sure to praise his swordsmanship. Then tell him some warrior tales. Things will proceed naturally from there.

Before snow accumulates,
it is shaken off the branches;
in a windy pine, snow breaks no limbs.

Right. (A lot of the descriptions have random poetry. It's great.)

You don't know what it tells you to do with an acolyte who is "very beautiful but insensitive to love." Anyway, I'd have to cut this entry if I included that bit, since it's completely not safe for work.

Also,

If an acolyte is too shy to show himself to you, delay by plucking the hairs of your nose and then try again.

Val: Are you meant to do this in the acolyte's presence?
Liz: It doesn't say...

Then the third part talks about what to do AFTER you've managed to seduce your acolyte of choice! Some of the options are... concerning. The less said about that the better, but one of them involves the word tearing. Not in relation to clothes. Others sound a lot less traumatic.

The paper also talks about a book called The Great Mirror of Male Love by Ihara Saikaku. In the introduction Saikaku says that Kobo Daishi did not preach the profound pleasure of this love [of boys] outside of monasteries because he feared the extinction of humankind.

Wow.

I feel enlightened.

Comments

[lechaco.livejournal.com]

That sounds really interesting! I'll try to find them in the library. XD

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

These are books the article talks about. I don't know if they're available in English, I haven't actually looked; I just read the summaries, basically. That article has fairly large extracts from both. (It's one chapter of a book, the name of which escapes me. I'm kind of half asleep. I don't know what I'm talking about. Help.)

[saintsavin.livejournal.com]

** but presumably not off amazon.

Reader, I LOLed XD.

Oh, Japan. LUBE USE IT.

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

*bows*

YES, THAT. OH GOD. *whimper*

[annotated_em]

You don't know what it tells you to do with an acolyte who is "very beautiful but insensitive to love." Anyway, I'd have to cut this entry if I included that bit, since it's completely not safe for work.

I wish to know. I wish to know desperately.

[branchandroot]

You, um, actually might not. Depending. There are a whole lot of non-con aspects to this book if it's the one I've read excerpts from.

[annotated_em]

...oh. *makes a face* Actually, that doesn't surprise me. Perhaps I'm better off not knowing, given the "tearing" referenced above. o_o;

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

Yeah, seriously. I actually do mean it, with the 'you do not want to know' bits.

[branchandroot]

Yeah, I've read parts of that one. It's really kind of disturbing. Extremely similar to the whole Roman set-up, really, in that "manly men stick it in" sort of way.

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much. It did have that kind of feel to it. But with, uh, more poetry...

[crystalusagi.livejournal.com]

XDDDD I love you.

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

♥?

[signifies.livejournal.com]

... I... don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

I laughed, but at times in extremely nervous horror...

[signifies.livejournal.com]

WELL...

There's really pretty poetry, at least? XD

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

...That is some random poetry. Also, wtf plucking the hairs of your nose?