著者

SAEKI Junko

出版者

International Research Center for Japanese Studies

雑誌

Nichibunken Japan review : bulletin of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies

巻号頁・発行日

vol.8, pp.127-142, 1997

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This article analyzes Mishima Yukio's Confession of a Mask (1949), focusing on the sexuality of the male protagonist "I". Although "I" confesses his sexual desire to the same sex, it is not appropriate to apply the term "homosexual" to him, because his sexual inclination is not exactly equal to the "homosexuality" in the modern Western sense. The fact that he is attracted to men of a different age group from his own is related to the traditional make-up of the same sex couple in nanshoku (the Japanese tradition of male-love), which typically consisted of an older man and a younger boy. There were two different nanshoku traditions; monastic and military, and "I" possesses the features of both: the idolization of the love object of the former, and the educational function of the latter.