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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.
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.
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