Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900

Much has been written about the relationships between European men and local women in Asia, Africa, and Latin America during the heyday of western imperialism. But scholars have given only minor attention to "interracial" relationships in a non-western country that avoided colonization, was regarded by Europeans as "white," and was able to generally maintain control over resident foreign male communities. Leupp analyzes the intimate relationships between western men and Japanese women, for the most part in Japan, throughout the entire early modern period, and into the first several decades of western residence in the Treaty Ports. He discusses marriage between Japanese Catholic converts and Iberian adventurers; Europeans participation in sexual slavery; the provision of courtesans services to the Dutch on Deshima; and the "temporary marriages" in the Treaty Ports after 1859, noting continuities in Japanese officials attitudes and policies towards foreigner men and the Japanese women who came to associate with them.