Editing Homosexuality in Japan (section)

===Art of same-sex love===
These activities were the subject of countless literary works, most of which have yet to be translated. However, English translations are available for [[Ihara Saikaku]] who created a bisexual main character in ''The Life of An Amorous Man'' (1682), [[Jippensha Ikku]] who created an initial male-male relationship in the post-publication "Preface" to ''Shank's Mare'' (1802 et seq), and [[Ueda Akinari]] who had a homosexual Buddhist monk in ''Tales of Moonlight and Rain'' (1776). Likewise, many of the greatest artists of the period, such as [[Hokusai]] and [[Hiroshige]], prided themselves in documenting such loves in their prints, known as [[ukiyo-e]] "pictures of the floating world", and where they had an erotic tone, [[shunga]] "pictures of spring".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.androphile.org/preview/Museum/Japan/Japanindex.htm|title=Japanese Hall|access-date=8 April 2018|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303173940/http://www.androphile.org/preview/Museum/Japan/Japanindex.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

''Nanshoku'' was not considered incompatible with heterosexuality; books of erotic prints dedicated to ''nanshoku'' often presented erotic images of both young women (concubines, ''mekake'', or prostitutes, ''jōrō'') as well as attractive adolescent boys (''[[wakashū]]'') and cross-dressing youths (''[[onnagata]]''). Indeed, several works suggest that the most "enviable" situation would be to have both many ''jōrō'' and many ''wakashū''.<ref name=":4">Mostow, Joshua S. (2003), "The gender of ''wakashu'' and the grammar of desire", in Joshua S. Mostow; Norman Bryson; Maribeth Graybill, ''Gender and power in the Japanese visual field'', University of Hawaii Press, pp. 49–70</ref> Likewise, women were considered to be particularly attracted to both ''wakashū'' and ''onnagata'', and it was assumed that many of these young men would reciprocate that interest.<ref name=":4" /> Therefore, both many practitioners of ''nanshoku'' and the young men they desired would be considered [[Bisexuality|bisexual]] in modern terminology. Men and male youths (there are examples of both) who were purely homosexual might be called "woman-haters" (''onna-girai''); this term, however, carried the connotation of [[Misogyny|aggressive distaste of women]] in all social contexts, rather than simply a preference for male sexual partners. Not all exclusively homosexual men were referred to with this terminology.<ref name="Leupp"/>