Editing Bishōnen (section)

==Origin==
[[File:Kuniyoshi Ishiyakushi.jpg|left|thumb|Yoshitsune, the most famous historical ''bishōnen''<ref name="Yamazaki Yorifuji Yoshida Horn 2010 p. 202">{{cite book | last1=Yamazaki | first1=H. | last2=Yorifuji | first2=B. | last3=Yoshida | first3=T. | last4=Horn | first4=C.G. | title=The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service | publisher=Dark Horse | issue=v. 11 | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-59582-528-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7CYCDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA202 | access-date=2024-01-26 | page=202}}</ref> and his retainer Benkei view the falling cherry blossoms.]]

The prefix ''bi'' ([[wikt:美|美]]) more often than not refers to feminine beauty, and ''[[bijinga|bijin]]'', literally "beautiful person", is usually, though not always, used to refer to beautiful women.<ref name="encycle" /> {{nihongo||美中年|Bichūnen}} means "beautiful middle-aged man".<ref name="imageandnarrative">{{cite web |url=http://www.imageandnarrative.be/index.php/imagenarrative/article/viewFile/130/101 |title=On The Iconic Difference between Couple Characters in ''Boys Love'' Manga |author=Febriani Sihombing |access-date=25 March 2011 |archive-date=21 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721000737/http://www.imageandnarrative.be/index.php/imagenarrative/article/viewFile/130/101 |url-status=dead }}</ref> ''Biseinen'' is to be distinguished from ''bishōnen'' as {{nihongo||青年|seinen}} is used to describe men who are of age, including those who have entered or completed tertiary education. The term ''shōnen'' is used to describe boys of middle and high school age. Last, ''bishota'' can be used to refer to a beautiful, [[pre-pubescent]] male child or a childlike male.<ref name="encycle" /> Outside Japan, ''bishōnen'' is the most well-known of the three terms, and has become a generic term for all beautiful boys and young men.

The aesthetic of the ''bishōnen'' began as an ideal of a young lover, originally embodied in the {{nihongo||若衆|[[wakashū]]|extra=literally "young person", although only used for boys}}, or adolescent boy, and was influenced by the [[Oyama (Japanese theatre)|effeminate male actors]] who played female characters in [[kabuki|kabuki theater]]. The term arose in the [[Meiji era]], in part to replace the by then obsolete erotic meaning of the older term ''wakashū'', whose general meaning of "adolescent boy" had by this point been supplanted by the new term [[shōnen]].<ref name="mmsexuality" /> The ''bishōnen'' was conceived of as "aesthetically different from both women and men [...] both the antithesis and the antecedent of adult masculinity".<ref name="mmsexuality" />

The ''bishōnen'' typically has the same traits as idealized female beauties in Japan: lustrous black hair, opaque skin, red cheeks, etc., but simultaneously retains a male body, making them aesthetically different from both men and women.<ref name="mmsexuality" /> Western audiences may perceive bishonen as effeminate, but Japanese see them as something like angels, wholly male and female.<ref>{{cite web | title=Bishounen | website=Tofugu | date=26 September 2014 | url=https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bishounen/ | access-date=3 June 2023 |quote="Western readers may perceive bishounen ambiguity as effeminate, but that is a misreading. Bishounen as perceived by the Japanese audience are neither effeminate nor ambiguous; rather, they are seen as "something like angels, wholly male and female." Thus the character is sexually liberated, or is it the Japanese reader who is freed from their own traditional social restraints?"}}</ref>

[[Minamoto no Yoshitsune]] and [[Amakusa Shirō]] have been identified as historical ''bishōnen''.<ref>Drazen, Patrick (October 2002). '"A Very Pure Thing": Gay and Pseudo-Gay Themes' in ''[[Anime Explosion! The What, Why & Wow of Japanese Animation]]'' Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press pp.91-94. {{ISBN|1-880656-72-8}}.</ref> [[Ian Buruma]] notes that Yoshitsune was considered by contemporaries to be not physically prepossessing, but that his legend later grew and due to this, he became depicted with good looks.<ref>{{cite book|last=Buruma|first=Ian|author-link=Ian Buruma|title=A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Culture|publisher=Penguin Books|location=Great Britain|year=1985|orig-year=1984|isbn=978-0-14-007498-7|pages=132–135}}</ref> [[Abe no Seimei]] was depicted according to the standards of a Heian-era middle-aged man, but since 1989 he has been depicted as a modern-style ''bishōnen''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Miller|first=Laura|title=Extreme Makeover for a Heian-Era Wizard|journal=[[Mechademia]]|year=2008|volume=3|issue=1|pages=30–45|doi=10.1353/mec.0.0034|s2cid=121434600|url=https://umsl.academia.edu/LauraMiller/Papers/83064/Extreme_Makeover_for_a_Heian-Era_Wizard}}</ref>

[[Kyokutei Bakin]] wrote many works with ''[[nanshoku]]'' undertones featuring ''bishōnen'' characters,<ref>{{cite book|last=Reichert|first=James Robert|title=In the Company of Men: Representations of Male-male Sexuality in Meiji Literature |publisher=Stanford University Press|year=2006|pages=3–4|isbn=978-0-8047-5214-5}}</ref> and in 1848 he used the term ''bishōnen'' in the title of a work about the younger ''wakashu'' partner in the ''nanshoku'' relationship.<ref name=Orbaugh/>

The ''bishōnen'' aesthetic is continued today in [[anime]] and [[manga]], especially ''[[shōjo manga|shōjo]]'' and ''[[yaoi]]''.