Christianity is not the only religion with sexual taboos. I thought this was just a thinko or something, but after reading your elucidation, I’m even more bewildered.
But feudal/imperial japanese culture had very different attitudes on sexual matters than almost every religion with sexual taboos. Even the buddhism-branched traditions, religions and cultures didn’t have the same views, even though it still resulted in practical terms in “Monks (Priests) should abstain from sex and thoughts of sex”.
AFAIK throughout most of post-genpei japanese history up until slightly after the beginning of Meiji, it was perfectly acceptable (and sometimes recommended) for a woman who liked a man but could not “be with” (aka have a romantic relationship or sexual interactions) that man for social, status, etc. reasons to instead designate a “replacement”—in rude terms, a whore hired by the woman to have sex with the man as a sign of affection. This is portrayed in a very crude fashion at some point in the popular movie “Shogun”, IIRC.
However, the whole thing about how this is directly related to them not being a Christian nation somewhat baffles me still.
Modern Japan has heavy taboos of all sorts on portrayals of sex (see last year’s fiasco about the Tokyo ban on porn, or their stringent laws on censoring of all erotic content), but where sex is accepted, they’re apparently much more liberal in which kinds can be represented or even done.
But feudal/imperial japanese culture had very different attitudes on sexual matters than almost every religion with sexual taboos. Even the buddhism-branched traditions, religions and cultures didn’t have the same views, even though it still resulted in practical terms in “Monks (Priests) should abstain from sex and thoughts of sex”.
AFAIK throughout most of post-genpei japanese history up until slightly after the beginning of Meiji, it was perfectly acceptable (and sometimes recommended) for a woman who liked a man but could not “be with” (aka have a romantic relationship or sexual interactions) that man for social, status, etc. reasons to instead designate a “replacement”—in rude terms, a whore hired by the woman to have sex with the man as a sign of affection. This is portrayed in a very crude fashion at some point in the popular movie “Shogun”, IIRC.
However, the whole thing about how this is directly related to them not being a Christian nation somewhat baffles me still.
Modern Japan has heavy taboos of all sorts on portrayals of sex (see last year’s fiasco about the Tokyo ban on porn, or their stringent laws on censoring of all erotic content), but where sex is accepted, they’re apparently much more liberal in which kinds can be represented or even done.
Note that the censorship was something that the US Occupation enacted, and that the Japanese government simply never repealed.