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Paul S. Atkins (
) is Associate Professor of Japanese in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington.
Some Buddhist temples and aristocratic households in medieval Japan included among their members one or more chigo (literally, "children"), adolescent males who were given room, board, and education in exchange for their companionship and sexual services, which they were obliged to provide to high-ranking clerics or elite courtiers. In literary and dramatic texts and in pictures such as those included in illustrated handscrolls (emaki ), the chigo are often portrayed as the center of attention at banquets--seated in the place of honor and drinking from the host's cup, the chigo sings, dances, plays music, or composes poetry while the other guests watch in rapt delight. In the handful of extant short stories from the medieval period featuring chigo (a subgenre known as chigo monogatari ), the chigo typically meets a tragic death by suicide, murder, or illness. In some cases, the chigo is posthumously revealed to have been an avatar of a bodhisattva, usually Kannon (Avalokites-vara). Around the figure of this "divine boy" accreted a great deal of lore, ritual, and literature whose contradictions pose intriguing and troubling questions. How does the portrayal of chigo in cultural discourse compare to the historical record? Why are these sexual playthings simultaneously deified and repeatedly subjected to violence? What does the plight of the chigo reveal about the inner workings of medieval Japanese politics, religion, and culture? These questions lead us to a deeper understanding of the intersecting histories of sexuality, violence, kingship, and the sacred in East Asia and beyond.
The Historical Realities of Chigo
This study is principally concerned with depiction, which is to say, with the necessary distortions, intentional and otherwise, that writers, painters, and other artists introduce in the process of pretending to represent reality. Yet before discussing how chigo were depicted in short fiction, handscrolls, and noh plays, it is first necessary to understand how chigo actually functioned in medieval Japanese society (by consulting historical records) and to develop a basis for comparison.
Tsuchiya Megumi has written about the function and role that chigo played in the private quarters (in and