Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

As I described before on this blog, I became a free walking tour guide of East Garden of Imperial Palace. Read this article.

Last week, I met an American woman who is a college professor. I guided her to the imperial palace and explained history of pre-modern Japan and the imperial palace.

Imperial Palace was in fact, Shogun's castle before modern times. Shogun literally means "General." He was a actual ruler of Japan. A lord that takes control of all the regional lords of Japan. The emperor has been the symbol of Japan although former constitution states he was divine and above all. He never actually took authorities. The emperor was relocated to the palace in Tokyo from Kyoto after Japan's modernisation around 1860's.

I talked with her about TV mini-series "Shogun." It was aired in US and Japan 1980. The drama was based on James Clavell's book.

She told me she watched the show and read the book, too. It was reall popular show.

I wonder why someone wants to remake it as movie. Recently Japanese famous film stories were being remade by foreign film maker like "HACHI" and "47 Ronins."    

Then why not remake this TV mini-series?

Can they make this long hour TV drama into 2-3 hour movie story? I think it may be possible. The film should be remade by Britain.

It is a story of British navigator cast away to Japan coast and saved by a lord who later became first leader of unified Japan in 17th century.

The British man, Miura Anjin was modeled after a real person named William Adams.

This time, I would advise the film maker to insert clearer description of homosexuality in that period. In TV mini-series, there was a scene that implied how tolerated homosexuality was in those days Japan. Now a generation passed. It should be featured more openly. Like Anjin has a sex with beautiful boy for pillowing following the advice from his interpreter, Mariko.

It was openly done that a samurai who had a wife or wives and even children had sex with boys for pleasure. They even had sex with their retainers or sworn brothers. It was very common and never considered abnormal like modern times.

Surely Shogun enjoyed gay love affair and sex not just with his 1000 wive in the castle. It is said that one of the reasons the Shogun could maintain good governance of Japan for centuries was he tolerated sexual life style of people. Japan was originally free-sex society unlike some Christian societies where sexual regulation was a key to maintain order of a society.

I am excited to see the remake version of "Shogun" and gay scenes in it.    

A new novel after 4 American Hostages in Baghdad

A story of Japanese woman who experienced Bauhaus art and love romance in Berlin, early 1930's when Nazis came to power.

Auschwitz Museum in Oswiecim, Poland November 2009

"Ladies and Gentleman. Thank you for gathering today. We are here to honor the biggest contributor to this museum in our history. Late Madam Masako Chikano."

 A man spoke in Polish and English in front of tens of people, mostly journalists gathered in the conference room. The speaker was the head of the museum. Auschwitz-Birkenau, The World Heritage, death camp built by Nazi-Germany.

Late Madam Masako Chikano was called "Hotel Queen".  She died of natural causes last month. She was 98 years old when she died. She established one of world's most biggest hotel chain, Chikano Hotels, which have franchises in most of major cities in Japan and the rest of the world. The chain ranges from high-class to cheap business purpose only style. But all the hotels she owned had one thing in common, every room, lobby, and some of the corridors placed interesting pipe chairs, usually called Wassily Chair. It is one of most symbolic Bauhaus furniture.

Some of the hotel buildings were designed in the way of Bauhaus concept. Modern, functional, minimumal ways.

It was one of the mysteries of the hotel queen, why she liked Bauhaus style. She was very mysterious woman.

Other mysteries are,

Although she had been known as most energetic business woman in Japan until her retired age 80, she had been single for her life. She dedicated her life to hotel business, but she was actually very beautiful woman that could attract any man. Indeed she was once married when she was 20 to 21. But she never was remarried after the divorce of first marriage.   

The will she left said that she wanted to donate all her fortune to the Auschwitz Museum. That may be a biggest mystery of her. What made her want to do such thing?

The speaker held the will in his hand and said,

"To begin with, we have to talk about her connection between this museum and her early life experience. This is the part rarely known about her life. She never wanted to talk about that part in her life. But that was most important part in her life as mentioned in the will. Now let us unveil one of the most important mysteries of this woman."

Berlin, Germany, October, 1932

Masako Chikano arrived in Berlin. She came to capital of Germany, Deutcheland all the way from Yokohama, Japan. First by ship, almost 1 month travel to Marseille, France via Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and then  from Marseille to Berlin by train for a few days.

She was heart broken after the divorce. Because of the divorce just a year after marriage, she was treated as embarrasment of her family, Baron Chikano. Noble which succeeded highest rank of samurai. Her father, Baron Kozo Chikano was a member of House of Lords and ran business of finance and military equipments. Her family belonged to elite class in Japan.

The reason that she got divorce was she had an affair with her husband, Yoshio's best friend Takeshi. Actually Yoshio regarded him as his sworn brother. Both of them belong to Japanese Imperial Navy. Her affair with Takeshi made him angry and kick her out. After she came back to her home, her family had to kick her out because of biggest blunder in the family's history. She dishonored her family's name. They had to hide her until the bad reputation would fade away. Her father ordered her to leave Japan for several years. She had to stay in foreign country where no one knew her.

She had good command of English and Germany since she learned those languages from childhood as part of upper class education. She chose to go to Berlin, Germany. She did not have specific reason to choose it. She just prefers learning modern art. She heard good reputation of German born modern art, Bauhaus.

Here she was in Berlin. She opened a door to her new life. She believed she could forget about all the mess.

Continued to Chapter 1.

This novel is copywrighted by this blog's manager, Masagata.

I love this Commerical.

Great and creative!

Think about it. Things went too far. It usually takes so long for ordinary people to accept new idea.

They rushed and that resulted in the failure.

Why do they demand so much? They've had enough already. After all, marriage itself is discriminatory institution.

and this one, too. That partly represents my opinion.

I was surprised to know an American actor who is famous for acting British sailor who arrived in 17th century Japan in the famous TV mini-seires "Shogun" was gay. He came out 4 years ago on TV interview program. If you want to know more about it, please visit this site.

In the mini-series, he made very impressive line of dialog. A British sailor named John Blackthorne was saved by Samurai lord. A woman who took care of him was so worried about his health. She recommended him to do pillowing with a woman or women. But he declined. Then a woman said "how about boys?"

Blackthorne was upset and said "I am not God Cursed Sodomite. My intimate customs doesn't include boys."

But the actor who played that role was. Very strange.

 In the interview, he said that he was so enthusiastic about playing that role and worked so hard getting the job because at that time Sean Connery was a big candidate.

Why was he so enthusiastic? He said he read the novel of the "Shogun." Maybe he learned what was Samurai's sexual life was by the book. As I described in this post, Japanese men's sexuality in the medieval to pre-modern period was bi-sexual. Samurai lords had gay lovers very openly. Some of their love stories became legends. The head of Japan, Shogun did have gay love affairs with his retainers.

Maybe Mr. Chamberlain wanted to jump into the period and the country where his way of loving people was considered normal. 

His act in the mini-series was very realistic and convincing. He really wanted to be Samurai. Samurai was free sex lover.

By the way, there was also a famous actor who came out as gay and is related to our country. Mr. George Takei, who played an important role in "Star Trek." I am very surprised to know that, too. I've seen him more than 10 years ago in Japan Town, San Francisco. I remembered he made a speech about Japanese Americans rights and harsh history.

If you want to know about him, please visit this site.  

I was recently asked to give my novel to Hollywood script writer for free because he just wanted only the idea of the story. The novel was already made although it is short one. So I refused to give him unless he pays for the copyright of my novel. I, kind of regret that because my story may be a big motion picture in the near future.

 This time I want to present the below story idea for free of charge to Hollywood producers because it is just an idea of the story. Interestingly enough it is about the story of one big Hollywood producer, who is modeled after Aaron Spelling.

The story begins with one Jewish boy survived in holocaust immigrated to the United States.

He grew up and remebered his painful experience in the past and later analyzed why that happened. He studied how Nazis manipulated people to grow their popularity. He learned the propaganda methodology which Nazis used.

Then he became a famous Hollywood producer in 1970's. He was selling television dramas to network media. He got an idea of female detectives chasing criminals, with guns and martial arts. In those days that idea was too radical because action heroes were always men. Women fighting with bad guys by themselves were unrealistic.

One feminist actress joined his idea. But she did not agree with the detectives flirting with men to get what they want. She contends such flirting scenes insulted women and treated women as sex objects for men. But the producer said to her "You have to do that because the viewers want that and at the same time the drama can promote women's independent roles in the drama and even in the society. People are still conservative. You can't change their value and attitude so easily. Do it cleverly."

As the drama got popularity by the actress's beauty and flirting scenes, more and more actresses got independent and active roles in the drama with no need for male characters' supports. Women's social status generally got better.

After the success of the female detectives drama, the producer challenged another issue, homosexuality. In 1980's he produced a soapopera of a very rich family who ran an oil company in Colorado. The family got a problem, the oldest son was a gay. The family struggled with his homosexuality. At first the father, the head of the oil rich family rejected his son but later accepted him and his lifestyle.

This was very provocative but at the same time drama featured typical soapopera elements such as other characters' heterosexual love romances, conspiracies, lies and betrayals. The viewers enjoyed it and also learned gay issue.

The director of the drama, who was gay was so glad to make this sensational drama but unsatisfied with the producers' orders to cut gay love scenes. Gay characters and their love story appeared but not love scenes. Why? He argued with the producer. The producer said "It is too early to show such sensational scenes on television. That might give backlash to gay movement. You have to see how the world is moving. Don't go too far."

As a result, gay movement made progress by changes of public attitude. More and more gay people are coming out. General public became supportive. Some States legalized gay marriage.  

In the beginning of 21st century, the producer, who retired and became very old was seeing the movie "Brokeback Mountain." He confirmed he acomplished the missions. Using the media to educate foolish people but very cleverly.

He was truely a machiavellist.    

I hope some good Hollywood producer will make this story into the film.

Can you believe this is happening in our country? Most conservative among advanced nations.

The couple is not just lesbians that you can normally see in SOHO in NY or Castro Street in San Francisco.

A woman on the left is Ms. Kanako Otsuji, former member of Osaka prefectural assembly. Now she is running in upcoming nationwide election campaign as candidate for the second largest political party, Democratic Party of Japan.

 She came out as lesbian two years ago while she was a member of the assembly.

 On this wedding she received the congratulatory message from the party leader, Ichiro Ozawa, known as conservative type of politician. Wow, what is happening in Japan?

 Well, as I wrote on this blog, our society used to be very open-minded to gays. We were very free sex nation.

But since westerners came in late 19th century, our view of sexuality has drastically changed.

We may be moving backward.

I rent DVD of TV Mini Series "Shogun" aired in U.S., 1980. I remember when I first visited the U.S., American host family where I stayed played the video of this show to welcome me. It was a very popular show. So I just wanted to see it again.

The story takes place late 16th century in Japan, when Japan was not unified. An English shipper captain, John Blackthorne was saved by the Samurai Lord, Toranaga after his ship was wrecked by the heavy storm. Blackthorne then learned how to become Samurai. Later Toranaga became the shogun, the general who governs whole of Japan. Toranaga is actually named after Tokugawa Ieyasu, who founded Tokugawa dynasty that continued for 2 and half century just by his descendants.

It was almost 10 hour show. I enjoyed only first 2 hours. As for rest of the show, I fast forwarded just to see how Japan was depicted. More than half of the show was spoken in Japanese. I could not understand how American viewers could enjoy it although each Japanese conversation was interpreted by Japanese care taker woman for Blackthorne. Kind of frustrating to see for the English viewers, I wondered. But there are many new and exciting things introduced in the show especially for westerners such as Harakiri, a man and a woman taking bath together. Not common in modern Japan but typical and normal in that era.

 There was a very interesting thing even for Japanese. That proves that sometimes foreigners know better of our country's history. In the scene, Japanese care taker woman named Mariko told Blackthorne that he should choose a woman to sleep with for his health. Blackthorne declined. Then Mariko said "Do you prefer a boy?"

He was so shocked and got angry and then said "I am not God Cursed Sodomite! My intimate customs doesn't include boys." I was surprised, too. But the truth is in that era, Sodomite was considered normal in Japan.

If you want to know more about that, please read this post.  

Male Colors: The construction of homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan

by Gary P. Leupp, Professor of Japanese History at Tufts University, USA,

I happenned to buy this book almost ten years ago in America.

Before reading this book,  I had thought it unlikely that there was any homosexuality in Japan . I also took a negative view of homosexuality, seeing it as a result of the decadence of Western culture. When I came across this book, while in the USA , I was therefore astonished to learn about an aspect of Japanese history about which I, a Japanese, knew nothing.

The book is primarily concerned with male homosexuality in Japan during the Edo Era. However, the Introduction also mentions nanshoku (literally, “male colors”), as the practices of homosexuality and pederasty were then known, as it was prevalent at earlier times. It is said that Kūkai a monk who introduced Buddhism to Japan from China brought the practice of nanshoku, and it was at first mainly among monks that the practice spread. However, during the Age of Warring States (16th century), nanshoku became extremely common among men of the samurai caste. Historical records show that famous samurai lords such as Oda Nobunaga and Takeda Shingen, for example, had sexual relations with their retainers, and there still exist documents showing that Takeda Shingen and his vassal Kosaka Masanobu wrote pledges of sexual love to each other.

After the years of war and chaos, the Edo Era (1603-1867) began with the Tokugawa Shogunate establishing its rule over Japan . However, the Nanshoku Culture continued, and records show that 7 of the 15 Tokugawa shoguns engaged in homosexual activities. Homosexuality was not restricted to the samurai, but was prevalent among the ordinary townsfolk as well. At that time, nanshoku was classified as two main types. In the first type, a couple of men with a marked age difference were seen as having a relationship modeled after older and younger brothers. The second type, on the other hand, was influenced by the male-chauvinist perspective of contempt for women, and one partner took the female role, enabling two men to imitate a heterosexual relationship without having to lower themselves to sexual contact with impure females.

Ihara Saikaku famous novelist in that era, wrote Kōshoku Ichidai Otoko (The Life of an Amorous Man) which is representative of the practice of nanshoku among the common people. The principal character, Yonosuke, the son of a rich merchant, has sexual intercourse with 3,275 women and 725 men during the course of his life. That is a ratio of 5:1, but it probably reflects the general male sexual orientation at the time. To summarize, homosexuality was not a minority concern in society during that era, and the typical male sexual orientation was what would now be termed “bisexual”.

The above information raises the question of why Japan changed so drastically to a society in which homosexuality is regarded with loathing. Leupp indicates the process of modernization during and after late 19th century known as Meiji Era as the cause of this. After Japan opened up to the rest of the world, many Westerners visited Japan and transmitted aspects of Western culture, one of which was severe criticism of the Japanese nanshoku Culture. The ruling and influential classes at that time had great concern about such hostility, and started to insist that nanshoku was morally wrong, in order to bring Japan into line with the Western system of values.

However, a great change can now be seen to have taken place in Western society. In Europe, the USA, and some other countries, the Gay Liberation Movement has been successful in recent years, and in some European countries and some US states even homosexual marriage is now accepted. In other words, Westerners, who introduced loathing of homosexuality to Japan , as part of “modern culture”, have now reconsidered their own value systems. These are certainly curious times in which we live!

Leupp also points out that, in terms of the main currents of society, nanshoku in pre-modern Japan offers a good historic example for discussion about homosexuality. Homosexuals are now generally considered to be a minority of the population, making up 2% to 5%, or perhaps 10%, of the total. However, at least with respect to Japan during the Edo Era, it is difficult to see this as being the case. At that time, Japanese men seem generally to have been bisexual. To conclude, this book suggests that human sexuality is neither innate nor created by a particular family environment, but is a product of the wider society.

It is not just a history of Japan but whole humanity, isn't it? 

When it comes to homosexuality, the entire American society is softening up in recent years evidence of which can be seen in the revisions in the legal systems of several states that have made possible the union of gays in matrimony or some other partnership arrangement. Also, movies like “ Brokeback Mountain ”, which brings homosexuality to the fore for all to see, are getting rave reviews thus demonstrating a trend that sees the lessening of bias and prejudice.

　I had lived in San Francisco, a city known to be one of the US’s most liberal cities, during a popular movement that would brand it as the Gay Capital . With most inhabitants of that city tolerating homosexuality, when I spoke harshly about gays usually they shunned me .
　I met with some gay liberation activists in that city and asked the following questions.

－Children cannot be born from gay sex, therefore, it is against the laws of nature and accepting it would imperil the humanity. What do you think of this?

Humans engage in sexual activity not for procreation but for pleasure. Sex without the intent of making children is practiced equally by heterosexuals as it is by people who have lost their ability to reproduce as well as those practicing birth control. Also, with the explosion of worldwide population in recent years threatening the very survival of humankind, all those “pro-lifers” now have it wrong.

－Isn’t homosexuality forbidden by Christianity?
Christianity is but one of many religions and there are many followers of Jesus that are gay. In the Old Testament, it is written that sex between same-gender individuals is behavior punishable by death. However, in the very same book, it also says that those who work on the Sabbath Day and those who wear clothes made with a mix of different fabric are to be condemned. There are many “Commandments” that just make no sense in this day and age. The Bible in its present form was compiled in the Middle Ages and, since we know that Jesus Christ himself never said anything homosexuality, it cannot be definitely asserted that Christianity forbids it.

－Isn't homosexuality mental disorder that ought to be cured?

In the US, psychiatrists and psychologists have agreed back in the 1970s that homosexuality is not an illness. The behavior itself is between consenting individuals and does not pose a threat on others. It is not scientific to brand perfectly sane individuals as neurotic only with respect to sexuality and nothing else.

－Why do people become homosexual?

Many say that it is a product of the environment in which one is born, however, in actual fact, no one really knows why. This can also be said of heterosexuality. It is not scientifically proven why men love women and women love men. It is in the quest for a reason for this that one encounters the belief that homosexuality is abnormal behavior.

－So, why is society regarding gays as outcasts?

A major factor is the fact that statistically gays are a minority. But aside from this, it is the general repulsion of the sexual act itself by society. Sex is regarded as impure not just between gays but also between straights. This is why virginity is revered as a virtue. However, if no sex occurs between members of the opposite gender, humanity will be extinct. This is where the notion that only heterosexual love for the intent of reproduction is accepted as holy and sex for the purpose of sheer pleasure becomes regarded as sinful. And, not only homosexual love but all sex performed with, for example, a condom or some other form contraceptive is also seen as a sin.

What do you think?

I've been moved by the film for more than a week since I saw the DVD of it. I playback it over and over.

 The story is that two young cowboys met in Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming and fell in love with each other. Even after they were apart and married to women, their love had never faded. Then they got into a big trouble.

The theme is not about homosexuality. It is about love and agony in life.

Besides love story element of the film, I could learn so much about American country life including what cowboys are doing for living. Cowboys are tough guys. They can live in a tent on the prairie. They have to be very strong to take care of livestocks.  

Country music played in the film were so great.

 I never experienced such wonderful feeling by other films. The feeling remained for more than a week. This can even change my way of living.