A Third Gender: Beautiful Youth in Japanese Edo-Period Prints (1600-1868)

Gender relations were complex in Edo-period Japan (1603-1868). Wakashu, male youths, were desired by men and women, constituting a "third gender" with their androgynous appearance and variable sexuality. For the first time outside Japan, A Third Gender examines the fascination with wakashu in Edo-period culture and their visual representation in art, demonstrating how they destabilize the conventionally held model of gender binarism.

The volume will reproduce, in colour, over a hundred works, mostly woodblock prints and illustrated books from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries produced by a number of designers ranging from such well-known artists as Okumura Masanobu, Suzuki Harunobu, Kitagawa Utamaro and Utagawa Kunisada, to lesser known artists such as Shigemasa, Eishi and Eiri. A Third Gender is based on the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, which houses the largest collection of Japanese art in Canada, including more than 2,500 woodblock prints.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ ROM; Illustrated edition (May 3 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 215 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0888545142
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0888545145
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 kg
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 24.38 x 1.78 x 29.46 cm