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Nanshoku
Identifier
000334
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Although there was a branch of sexual spiritual practises based on homosexuality in Japan, [there was no religious opposition to homosexuality in Japan until the Meiji period] there was also a very specific branch of Shinto that was based on male to male LOVE but not sex. During the Tokugawa period, some of the Shinto gods, especially Hachiman, Myoshin, Shinmei and Tenjin, "came to be seen as guardian deities of nanshoku" (male–male love).
From religious circles, same-sex love spread to the warrior (samurai) class, where it was customary for a boy in the wakashū age category to undergo training in the martial arts by apprenticing to a more experienced adult man.
The man was permitted, if the boy agreed, to take the boy as his lover – meaning one he loves - until he came of age; this relationship, often formalized in a "brotherhood contract", was expected to be exclusive, with both partners swearing to take no other (male) lovers.
The older partner, in the role of nenja, would teach the wakashū martial skills, warrior etiquette, and the samurai code of honor, while his desire to be a good role model for his wakashū would lead him to behave more honorably himself; thus a shudō relationship was considered to have a "mutually ennobling effect". It was also key to spiritual experience.
Both parties were expected to be loyal unto death, and to assist the other both in feudal duties and in honor-driven obligations such as duels and vendettas. The relationship would, ideally, develop into a life-long bond of friendship.
Remember that this was love, the enobling of a loved partner, the raising of the loved boy to divine status. Similar if you like to the relationship between Obe Kenobi and Luke skywalker in Star wars.
A description of the experience
