japanese religion/history/gender studies e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e (Continued from front flap) linds account in this context the women’s relative positions e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e in the community and their options for ritual expression. He divides women’s ritual activities, which ey they employed both in accordance and in tension with as their ubiquitous presence in tokugawa the values of fertility and pleasure, into three broad FERTILITY artwork and literature suggests, images of bourgeois types: entrance, placement, and exit.“Entrance” for a “William R. Lindsay has written a creative and original study of wives and courtesans took on iconic status as bourgeois daughter was marriage into a virilocal Tokugawa heterosexuality from the perspective of religious representations of two opposing sets of female values. household; for the courtesan, entrance rites were the studies, drawing on iconographic and literary sources and FER AND Their differences, both real and idealized, indicate the vehicle for establishing a formal relationship with a focusing on the symbology of entry, placement and exit within full range of female roles and sexual values affirmed by client.“Placement” concerns ritual activity that not the parallel worlds of commercial pleasure-oriented sex and Tokugawa society, with Buddhist celibacy on the one only occurs within an institution and exemplifies a procreation-oriented marriage. He illuminates how Buddhist and TILITY end and the relatively free sexual associations of the woman’s position there, but also places a woman within PLEASURE Shinto concepts conditioned medical discourse on sexuality, urban and rural lower classes on the other.The roles of a range of gender-specific experiences cutting across pregnancy and childbirth; helped shape marriage practices from courtesan and bourgeois housewife were each tied to a social status and idealized roles.Activities around betrothal to divorce; and also helped to construct the rituals of set of value-based behaviors, the primary institution to pregnancy, both within marriage and the brothel, are the brothel district. It is a major contribution to the history of which a woman belonged, and rituals that sought to closely examined as examples of placement rituals. RITUAL sexuality and religion that should attract wide interest.” model a woman’s comportment in her interactions “Exit” describes a host of rituals meant to move a AND with men and figures of authority. For housewives, it woman from one institution and role to another. —gary p. leupp, tufts university AND was fertility values, promulgated by lifestyle guides and Betrothal and departure are ritually mediated actions moral texts, which embraced the ideals of female meant to facilitate both a bride’s move from her natal “By breathing new life into tired, old clichés about the dyad of PLEASURE SEXUAL VALUES obedience, loyalty to the husband’s household, and household and a courtesan’s retirement from her sex for recreation versus sex for procreation,William Lindsey has sexual activity aimed at producing an heir. Pleasure quarter. Divorce and escape are instances of other IN undertaken an audacious project: to examine institutions until values, by contrast, flourished in the prostitution quarters practices that wives and courtesans could employ to now largely unquestioned by historians and to present a novel and embraced playful relations and nonreproductive create unapproved exits from the marriage household way of juxtaposing marriage and prostitution by drawing on TOKUGAWA JAPAN sexual activity designed to increase the bordello’s and pleasure quarter. Lindsey shows further that women theories regarding ritual and religion. He both artfully uses bottom line.What William Lindsey reveals in this well- could use these rituals individually or communally, critical theory to reinterpret data regarding women in Tokugawa researched study is that, although the values that either in conjunction with or resistance to their Japan and uses this interpretation to critique critical theory. This idealized the role of wife and courtesan were highly institutions. is one of the most exciting and challenging works I’ve read in a disparate, the rituals, symbols, and popular practices Highly original in its theoretical approach and its long time.” both engaged in exhibited a degree of similitude and e e e e ee e e e ee william r. lindsey parallelism. Fertility and Pleasure examines the rituals juxtaposition of texts, Fertility and Pleasure constitutes an —anne walthall, university of california, irvine important addition to the fields of Japanese religion and available to young women in the household and history and the study of gender and sexuality in other pleasure quarters that could be employed to affirm, societies and cultures. e e e e ee e e e ee e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e transcend, or resist these sets of sexual values. In doing so it affords new views of Tokugawa society and Japanese religion. e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e william r. lindsey is assistant professor of religious The author begins by conceptualizing as “value studies at the University of Kansas. Jacket art:The courtesan Hana¯ogi dreams of her wedding procession. Detail from a Kitagawa Utamaro print. Courtesy models” the idealized behavioral and institutional of Les Museés royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels. Jacket design: Liz Demeter female attributes of fertility and pleasure, taking into (Continued on back flap) university of hawai‘i press honolulu, hawai‘i 96822–1888 www.uhpress.hawaii.edu 1Lin_i-x 9/30/06 5:24 PM Page i FERTILITY AND PLEASURE 1Lin_i-x 9/30/06 5:24 PM Page ii 1Lin_i-x 9/30/06 5:24 PM Page iii FERTILITY AND PLEASURE RITUAL AND SEXUAL VALUES IN TOKUGAWA JAPAN william r. lindsey university of hawai‘i press honolulu 1Lin_i-x 9/30/06 5:24 PM Page iv © 2007 University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 12 11 10 09 08 07 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lindsey, William R., 1964– Fertility and pleasure : ritual and sexual values in Tokugawa Japan / William R. Lindsey. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8248-3036-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8248-3036-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Sexual ethics—Japan—History. 2. Social values—Japan—History. 3. Women—Japan—Social conditions. 4. Sex role—Japan—History. 5. Japan—Social conditions—1600–1868. 6. Japan—Social life and customs—1600–1868. I. Title. HQ18.J3L56 2007 306.810952'09032—dc22 2006022269 University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources Designed by Liz Demeter Printed by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group 1Lin_i-x 9/30/06 5:24 PM Page v To Mom 1Lin_i-x 9/30/06 5:24 PM Page vi 1Lin_i-x 9/30/06 5:24 PM Page vii contents Acknowledgments ix 1 introduction 1 2 value models 27 3 entrance 49 4 placement 97 5 exit 137 6 conclusion 176 Appendices 181 Notes 187 Bibliography 217 Index 231 1Lin_i-x 9/30/06 5:24 PM Page viii 1Lin_i-x 9/30/06 5:24 PM Page ix acknowledgments THIS BOOK is not the work of one person. Many people and organiza- tions gave their support and advice, which transformed a raw idea into the book you now hold. Through the support of a postdoctoral fellow- ship for foreign researchers from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, I was able to put aside my teaching responsibilities and travel to Japan for research at the Institute for the Study of Japanese Folk Culture at Kanagawa University. I am deeply grateful to Sano Kenji for allow- ing me to participate at the institute and for encouraging me as both mentor and friend throughout my tenure there. I also wish to thank Takagi Tadashi of the Enkiridera Mantokuji Shiryökan for his kindness and openness in sharing his research and knowledge to a curious guy who dropped by his museum one day. Long before this, I conducted initial research at the University of Tokyo with the support of a Ful- bright Graduate Research Fellowship. Shimazono Susumu kindly made introductions for me, suggested ideas, and encouraged me to take full advantage of the school’s libraries and archives at a time when the proj- ect was still in its infancy. Many people read this manuscript at different stages and offered valuable suggestions and criticisms, no one more so than Linda Penkower, who, with much energy and encouragement, was instrumental in helping me put together the initial draft.