Portland Public Library

A third gender, beautiful youths in Japanese Edo-period prints and paintings (1600-1868), Joshua S. Mostow and Asato Ikeda ; with the assistance of Ryoko Matsuba

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

government publication of a state province territory dependency etc

platesillustrationsportraits

index present

non fiction

A third gender

catalogsbibliography

941433516

Joshua S. Mostow and Asato Ikeda ; with the assistance of Ryoko Matsuba

beautiful youths in Japanese Edo-period prints and paintings (1600-1868)

Gender relations were complex in Edo-period Japan (1603-1868). Wakashu, male youth, were desired by men and women, constituting a third gender; with their androgynous appearance and variable sexuality. For the first time outside Japan, A Third Gender examines the fascination with wakashu in Edo-period culture and their visual representation in art, demonstrating how they destabilize the conventionally held model of gender binarism. The volume will reproduce, in colour, over a hundred works, mostly woodblock prints and illustrated books from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries produced by a number of designers ranging from such well-known artists as Okumura Masanobu, Suzuki Harunobu, Kitagawa Utamaro and Utagawa Kunisada, to lesser known artists such as Shigemasa, Eishi and Eiri. A Third Gender is based on the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, which houses the largest collection of Japanese art in Canada, including more than 2,500 woodblock prints

3rd gender