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Shudo (衆道) is the Japanese tradition of age-structured homosexuality prevalent in samurai society from the medieval period until the end of the 19th century. Its legendary founder is Kukai, also known as Kobo Daishi, the founder of the Shingon school of Buddhism, who is said to have brought over from China, together with the teachings of the Buddha, the teachings of male love.
A shudo-type relationship between a samurai and a kabuki actor; Painted hand-scroll (kakemono-e); Miyagawa Isshô, ca. 1750; Private collection. Mount Koya, where Kobo Daishi's monastery is still located, was a byword for male love up to the end of the pre-modern period. The teachings of shudo, "The Way of the Young," entered the literary tradition and can be found in such as works as Hagakure, "Hidden by Leaves," and other samurai manuals. Shudo, in its pedagogic, martial, and aristocratic aspects, is closely analogous to the ancient Greek tradition of pederasty.
With the decline in power and influence of the warrior class the practice of shudo also declined, and homoerotic expression in Japan began to be more closely associated with travelling kabuki actors known as tobiko, "fly boys," who moonlighted as prostitutes.
As Japan opened up to the west, Christian values began to infiltrate the culture, leading to a final decline of sanctioned homoerotic practices in the late 1800s.
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