Keisuke Kinoshita and sexuality

[Alexander Jacoby]

Dear All,

First, Merry Christmas to everyone on the list.

I don't normally pose queries about dead directors' personal lives, but I wonder if anyone can answer the following. While watching the 1948 Kinoshita version of Hakai / The Outcast / The Sin / The Broken Commandment, I was struck by the sexual undercurrents between the burakumin hero and his friend. For instance, they walk hand in hand to the school when the hero has to confront the hostile staff. These undercurrents did not surprise me, since from various Japanese cinephile friends I understood it to be a matter of record in Japan that Kinoshita was gay.

However, some people who ought to know have cast doubt on that and suggested that it was only supposition. I know Kinoshita was never "out", but I'd like to know whether it's a generally accepted fact in Japan that he was actually homosexual, or just an assumption that people have derived from the mere fact that he never married, say, or from the slightly "feminine" qualities of his films.

The reason I ask is because, writing on Kinoshita, I wanted to comment that his sexuality may have stimulated a general sympathy with outsiders. Burakumin status, being an invisible deviation from the norm, would seem to be particularly akin to homosexuality in the sense of being easy to conceal from those one doesn't wish to know. However, I don't want to make this comment unless it's definitely a matter of record, not an assumption, that Kinoshita was gay. Therefore, can anyone confirm the situation?

ALEX

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