A Third Gender: Beautiful Youths in Japanese Prints

May 7, 2016 to November 27, 2016
Royal Ontario Museum
Curated by Asato Ikeda, Bishop White Postdoctoral Fellow of Japanese Art and Assistant Professor of Art History, Fordhum University

The exhibition, A Third Gender, explores the complex system of sexual desire and social expectation from 1603 to 1868 in Edo Japan. Featuring stunning woodblock prints, paintings, illustrated books, kimono, and armour, it tells a pivotal story in the history of human sexuality. Unsettling contemporary North American values, A Third Gender invites you to think differently about gender and sexuality.

There is a related talk (Free with museum admission):

Japanese Visual Culture: Gender & Sexual Diversity, by Asato Ikeda
May 12, 2016, from 11 am to 12 noon (followed by tea and exhibit visit until 1:15 pm)

The curator of the exhibition, Dr. Ikeda will examine the role of male youths in Edo-period Japan (1601-1868), who attracted both older men and young/older women. She will also explore how the Edo-period gender and sexuality system can be understood from a contemporary North American perspective and further examine contemporary Japanese visual culture, especially girls' manga, some of which decidedly go beyond gender binarism and hetero-normative sexuality.

For more information visit http://www.rom.on.ca/en/exhibitions-galleries/exhibitions/a-third-gender-beautiful-youths-in-japanese