%0 Journal Article
%T Writing the irogonomi: Sexual politics, Heian-style
%A April Sprague
%J New Voices : A Journal for Emerging Scholars of Japanese Studies in Australia and New Zealand
%D 2011
%I The Japan Foundation, Sydney
%X Promiscuous ¡°connoisseurs of love¡± (irogonomi) such as the fictional Genji and the semi-legendary Ariwara no Narihira have come to define popular perception of Heian period sexual politics; that is, their names have become shorthand for male privilege over women. In this article I will complicate established ideas regarding male promiscuity and privilege in the Heian period through an examination of Tales of Ise, Tale of Lady Ochikubo and Tale of Genji. I argue that, although women¡¯s status as linchpins in the practice of ¡°marriage politics¡± rarely translated into women¡¯s individual empowerment, men¡¯s reliance on marriage politics placed restrictions on men¡¯s sexuality in ways that are rarely acknowledged by modern scholarship.
%K Japan
%K Japanese literature
%K Heian period
%K male sexuality
%K literature
%K irogonomi
%K Genji
%U http://pdf.jpf-sydney.org/newvoices/5/chapter3.pdf