If you are one of those people (like me) who considers the Feast of Saint Valentine (a very Catholic attempt to quash lingering observances of Lupercalia—a celebration honoring the capriciously phallic god Pan—throughout the Roman Empire) to have been co-opted into the maws of relentless capitalism, you might be relieved to know that observations in Japan are not quite as consumerist.
Guilt and Chocolate
Valentine’s Day cards are a blip on the radar there (and more people send postcards than cards anyway, regardless of the season), and although chocolate purchases are hyped, the majority of chocolate gifts are referred to as 義理チョコ (giri choco, strictly translated as obligation chocolate but I prefer to call it guilt chocolate). And chocolate is typically not purchased as a romantic gift—homosexually-challenged Japanese men prefer to give the women they date sexy underwear.
Who is chocolate given to?
Do you remember back in kindergarten when you had to give a valentine to all of your classmates? (Or is that a Gen X thing?)
Women working in businesses in Japan buy small packages of chocolates for the men they work with. And men are obligated to return the favor. Just not on February 14th.
There’s a separate holiday for that. White Day originated in Japan (although it is now observed in other countries in East Asia, including South Korea and Taiwan, as well as the PRC) and the recipients of guilt chocolate are encouraged to buy white-colored candy, marshmallows, or white chocolate (which reminds me of one of Hari Kondabolu’s stand-up routines: “White chocolate, by the people who brought you White Jesus!”).
And although there have been recent trends to incorporate chocolate as a gift for friends on both of those holidays, in Japan the observance is very much a part of heterosexuality.
Fear not, my queer peers.
Fundoshi Day
Do you remember when I wrote about the Japanese love of word play based on numbers? That word play now notes that 2/14 is Fundoshi Day. Fu for the two. To for then ten. Shi for the four. Run ‘em together a little quickly and fundoshi can be imagined.
What are fundoshi? To say that they are traditional Japanese underwear misses the mark.
There are two main types. One type, known as 袴褌 (hakamabundoshi), resemble boxer briefs in that they are legged. The type you might already know about goes simply by fundoshi and follows a belted appearance. Both types have existed within Japanese for more than two millennia and are mentioned in ancient chronicles such as the Kojiki.
Contrary to popular opinion, women can (and do) wear fundoshi. During the Edo period they were popular as a menstruation garment (because they can be quickly and easily washed).
Sumo wrestlers have worn a type of fundoshi for two thousand years, too. Although the belts they wear today are known as mawashi, the sport began with the lighter weight fundoshi (which were also worn by women wrestlers through to the end of the Edo period).
Aside: I highly recommend Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t (original title: シコふんじゃった (shiko funjatta), a 1992 comedy about rescuing a college sumo club from extinction starring two of my favorite actors, Masahiro Motoki (the star of the incredibly moving 2008 film, Departures, and the son of brilliant actress Kiki Kirin, born in Okegawa, Saitama, where I began my ten years in Japan) and Naoto Takenaka.
More Than Just a Strip of Fabric
There are several types of these simple fundoshi (and I apologize for not posting photos—this isn’t the Sears Catalog.)
六尺 (rokushaku, a shaku is a unit of measure that is almost exactly one foot in length) is a strip of cloth about two meters in length and anywhere from sixteen to thirty-four centimeters in width. It takes a little bit of practice to learn to tie one on (and a shout out to the staff of Big Gym, a gay adult book store in Ueno, who patiently helped me figure it out back in the early 1990s).
越中 (etchū), 畚 (mokko), and 黒猫 (kuroneko) are similar in format and use a string or thin rope attached to a shorter length of cloth to belt the garment around your waist. Both mokko and kuroneko were traditionally used as bathing suits, too, for swimmers, fishermen, and pearl divers. In fact, Japan’s first gold medalist for Olympic swimming, Yoshiyuki Tsuruta (who took gold at both the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics and the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics) is said to have competed in a mokko fundoshi.
Fundoshi Day is a great day to be on gay Japanese Twitter because numerous artists share their inspirations and work.
What Else is New?
There’s a new post on my website about platform and engagement.
Two pages from my memoir have been included in the fourth issue of the Messy Misfits zine. You can order a free copy (of Volume 4) here.
Hiro and I have passed the four-week mark before our departure for Japan on March 19th.
And I’ve started a new series of designs on my Threadless site based on a traditional May decoration in Japan, the carp kite.
More colors will be added but there are t-shirts, skateboards, phone cases, yoga mats, notebooks, greeting cards, and beach towels with a black pattern here, with a rainbow gradient pattern here, and just t-shirts with a white pattern here. More colors are coming, too!
I really love rainbow gradients.
And these yoga mats are hot!
Have a favorite color? Respond to this email and let me know!