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Records of men who have sex with men in Japan date back to ancient times. Western scholars have identified these as evidence of homosexuality in Japan. There were few laws restricting sexual behavior in Japan in the beginning of modern period. Anal sodomy was restricted by legal prohibition in 1872, but the provision was repealed only seven years later by the Penal Code of 1880 in accordance with the Napoleonic Code.〔Anne Walthall. ( Review of Pflugfelder, Gregory M., Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse 1600–1950. ) H-Japan, H-Net Reviews. May 2000.〕 Historical practices identified by scholars as homosexual include ''shudō'' (衆道), ''wakashudō'' (若衆道) and ''nanshoku'' (男色). Modern terms for homosexuals include , , , , , and . ==Ancient and medieval Japan== The Japanese term is the Japanese reading of the same characters in Chinese, which literally mean "male colors." The character (color) has the meaning of sexual pleasure in China and Japan. This term was widely used to refer to some kind of male–male sex in a pre-modern era of Japan. The term is also used, especially in older works. The Japanese ''nanshoku'' tradition drew heavily on that of China (see homosexuality in China). A variety of obscure literary references to same-sex love exist in ancient sources, but many of these are so subtle as to be unreliable; another consideration is that declarations of affection for friends of the same sex were common. Nevertheless, references do exist, and they become more numerous in the Heian Period, roughly the 11th century. In ''The Tale of Genji'', written in the early 11th century, men are frequently moved by the beauty of youths. In one scene the hero is rejected by a lady and instead sleeps with her young brother: : Genji pulled the boy down beside him ... Genji, for his part, or so one is informed, found the boy more attractive than his chilly sister.〔''The Tale of Genji''. Edward G. Seidensticker (trans.) p. 48.〕 ''The Tale of Genji'' is a novel, but there are several Heian-era diaries that contain references to homosexual acts. Some of these contain references to Emperors involved in homosexual relationships and to "handsome boys retained for sexual purposes" by emperors. There can be found references to what Leupp has called "problems of gender identity" in other literary works, such as the story of a youth falling in love with a girl who is actually a cross-dressing male. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Homosexuality in Japan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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