Customer Rating: 
Summary: Bumpy translation makes for a bumpy read.
Comment: I've seen references in non-fiction books to some of these stories, so I *can* say they are indeed Japanese in origin. The publisher, however, should've gotten a better translator.
This book's first European translation and publication was in French. The collection was then entitled: "Comrade-Loves of the Samurai," a title I really think they should have kept.
Secondly, this English translation makes the same horrid error, over and over again. It uses 'hari-kiri' in place of 'seppuku'. This may have been done because the so-called general audience might not have been familiar with the formal term.
Still, if you're going to call something 'Gay Loves of the Samurai," it ought to be a bit more obvious that 1) the book is targeted for gay readers, or readers with an interest in the genre of GLBT fiction. 2)Someone who buys a book with "Samurai" in the title very likely already knows a thing or two.
Such as, 'hari-kiri' is a vulgar term, and 'seppuku'is the proper name for this act. It gets very frustrating to read otherwise beautiful stories, then trip over that term. It's jarring and disruptive to the flow of the stories.
This book isn't graphic erotica. The love expressed by the men in these stories, though suggestive--or plainly stated--is never graphic. In fact, it's pretty low key, with the focus being more on how a samurai balances these attractions and loves against his obligations to his lord.
There are some illustrations, which resemble woodblock prints, but I can't say with any certainty if they're reproductions of well-known prints. They take some adjusting to, as the style is very distinctive, and perhaps a bit odd viewed from a Westerner's point of few. Again, these prints are not graphic. (Purely my opinion, but I thought the cover art was the most attractive piece--though it's not a woodblock print.)
The stories are short, as are many other Japanese folktales. ('The Dragon King's Palace, etc.) If you're interested in Japanese literature, this small book might make a good addition to your collection.
Customer Rating:
Summary: not gay and not a translation from Japanese
Comment: Mathers translated these tales, not from Japanese, but from the French translation of Mardrus, and they appeared originally in a three-volume collection called Eastern Love (1930). Hency this is more correctly called the Mardrus-Mathers translation. Mathers never used the word "gay", this is anachronistic and it is the publisher who created the title. The men and boys of old Japan who had love affairs were not gay, not queer, but pederastic or pedophile. This was a whole different situation from modern Japan. It had more in common with ancient Greece. They moved in a world that had nothing in common with the modern world, their values were entirely different.
Customer Rating:
Summary: less good than bad
Comment: I was a bit disappointed at the selection of stories... but I can't blame the publishers. Blame the original medieval author, Saikaku, for writing tales that are somewhat predictable and... repetitive? Samurai falls in love with a beautiful boy. Samurai pledges undying love to the beautiful boy in a prose-filled letter or Samurai follows the beautiful boy to the ends of the earth. Beautiful boy eventually notices samurai. They either die for honor or live happily ever after. The books is 110 pages long, with size 12 font and 1-1/2 inch margins. o_o In other words, painfully short. The book is separated into three sections: samurai love failed, stalemated, and victorious. All of them pretty much follow the guideline above.
However, there were a few gems in all the mediocre (and sometimes exceedingly corny) stories. The first in the book tells the tale of two lovers, fated to die. One of the later stories is a monk's letter to his friend about the beautiful youth he saw one day, filled with lovely prose. One of them cracked me up with the tale of two aged men who are the "greatest women-haters on the earth."
However, other than those few, many other stories are corny and others, others pathetically funny (when they're not intended to be). If I'm going to pay ten dollars for this book, there could be at LEAST some more substance, or more selections from Saikaku's works.
