Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

The paper examines the reasons why a few gender-variant men in the Tokugawa and Meiji periods worked as onnagata, arguing that: - they derived bodily pleasure from wearing women’s clothes and having sex with men; - the job as onnagata allowed them to satisfy those interests.

Paper long abstract

As is well known, the onnagata is an actor in Kabuki theatre who specialises in female roles. Numerous researchers have studied this category of actors to understand how gender was conceptualised during the Tokugawa period (1603-1868). What is less known is that in the second half of the Tokugawa period and in the early Meiji period (1868-1912) a few men pursued a career as onnagata to facilitate their adoption of a feminine gender performance. This paper will explore the reasons why said men assumed a feminine gender performance and why they used Kabuki as a cultural resource to reach this end. To answer the first point, the paper will argue that these men derived bodily pleasure from wearing women’s clothes and hairstyles and from having sex with men. To answer the second point, the paper will suggest that reciting as an onnagata involved cross-dressing as a technique that allowed men to impersonate female characters and onnagata often doubled as prostitutes for men. Since working as an onnagata included cross-dressing and having sex with men, the subjects under study saw the job as a viable way to satisfy their interests. As primary sources, to address the first point the paper will use the zuihitsu Kumo no itomaki (ca. 1846-1850) by Santō Kyōzan (1769-1858), the Kokugaku treatise Waka no hokakushō (ca. 1850) by Motoori Uchitō (1792-1885), and newspaper articles in Osaka nishikiga shinwa 5/ca. 1872, Yomiuri shinbun 30/04/1881, and Yūbin hōchi shinbun 2470/1881, while to address the second point Ayamegusa (ca. 1776) about the famed onnagata Yoshizawa Ayame I (1673-1729). The paper will adopt the approaches of cultural history, gender history, and sexuality history as well as Sherry Ortner’s practice theory. To interpret the sources, the paper will use the life history methodology and historical discourse analysis. The paper will fill an important gap in the state of the art as it will advance our knowledge about the lived experiences of gender-variant individuals in Tokugawa and Meiji Japan and how they used available cultural customs to express their genders.