Nanshoku - Sodomy Among Shoguns
- Juju Kurihara
- Aug 22, 2025
- 3 min read
Nanshoku (男色) means male homosexuality and historically it has a long history in Japan. It was quite common among aristocrat and noblemen in Nara period (710-794) and this custom extended to the Samurai society during Kamakura (1185-1333) and Muromachi periods (1336-1573), then it become almost normalised in the early Edo period, early 17th century.
Nanshoku was also called Shuudo (衆道) and the main reason of this became common among Samurai was unable to take their wives to the battle fields. Other reason was the pageboys who took care of Shoguns and became very close to their masters... too close sometimes. As you can see, most of the cases Nanshoku happened between the master and the servant. But once they went back home, they also enjoyed sexual relationships with their wives. Then what happened to modern Japanese society? Since when Japan has become so behind when it comes to acceptance of LGBTQ?
So who are the famous Shoguns for homosexuality? Too many to mention, probably majority of them. But here, let's see some of shoguns who were famous for their "manliness".
Fujiwara no Yorimichi was known as the evil Chancellor of left. He left a diary, "Taiki" which is an important document for us to understand the political scene in that time. Yorimichi also wrote about his nanshoku experiences and feelings towards those young boys. It is believed that he had about 7 lovers including aristocrats.
Oda Nobunaga is one of the well known Shogun in Japan and yet he wasn't an exception. He had his favourite boy, Ranmaru Mori (森蘭丸). Although there is no real evidence, Ranmaru is often pictured as a very handsome boy.
This scary-looking tough man is Shingen Takeda (武田信玄). He was a Shogun in the land of Kai (甲斐), now Yamanashi prefecture and was known as "the tiger of Kai". Shingen also had a pretty "helper" to take care of him. It seems like he was very much into this younger boy and this is proved by a letter that was send to the boy. The letter is filled with explanations and excuses to clear doubts of the "incident". It could easily be read as Shingen's love letter to this boy. Unfortunately or fortunately, the letter has been preserved to this present time to prove Nanshoku was happening back then.
Despite of sodomy among shoguns being common, there was one who never wanted boys around. It was Hideyoshi Toyotomi (豊臣秀吉) who was known as Saru (monkey).
Hideyoshi was famous for his love for women, almost any women, including other shoguns's wives. As his nickname, "monkey", he wasn't a good-looking man. Hideyoshi's love for women is written in "Historia de Japam" by a Portuguese Catholic missionary, Luís Fróis:
This extremely evil sexual desire is possessing his entire body
Hideyoshi's love for women was so profound that people considered him peculiar. In fact, one of his vassals even brought a beautiful young boy and offered him to Hideyoshi. However, the boy came back shortly. The vassel asked him how it went and the boy answered, "His Highness asked me if I have any sisters..." And like this, Hideyoshi was considered as a strange Shogun.
Comparing the modern Japanese society, the ancient Japanese seem to have more flexible way of thinking or rather, more practical. I just wonder what the wives felt about their husband who fell for those young boy helpers more than their wives.
This was such a fascinating read - I had no idea nanshoku was so widespread among the samurai class, especially the master-servant dynamics with pageboys. It's wild to think how openly these relationships were documented in diaries like Yorimichi's, compared to how much stigma surrounds LGBTQ topics in Japan today. Speaking of hidden worlds and impossible geometry, it reminds me of how monumentvalley 3 online plays with perspective and perception - sometimes you have to look at things from a completely different angle to understand them, much like re-examining historical norms we thought we knew.
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