Vita Sexualis: The Complete Reference Guide

Ogai Mori was a deeply respected figure in Meiji-era Japan. Best remembered today as an author, playwright and poet, he also the Japanese Surgeon General and an expert on Military Hygiene. Secure in his position, respected and wealthy, in 1909 Mori took an unexpected turn and published "Vita Sexualis," a controversial title that was banned three week after its publication. Perhaps the most shocking aspect of "Vita Sexualis" is is lack of sexuality. Ostensibly a record of burgeoning sexuality, written by a father to his son, so that his son would be better prepared for his own maturation, the main character is almost completely asexual, unable to understand the rampant behavior of his friends and contemporaries. He openly admits that he has never experienced the desires that seem to drive everyone around him. Women and men make themselves available to him, but he is defiant in his moral purity and never indulges. What is most shocking is also most interesting. Like Ihara Saikaku's "Life of an Amorous Man," "Vita Sexualis" is a guided tour through Meiji-era sexuality, such as the famed Yoshiwara pleasure district. However unlike Saikaku's bohemian protagonist, Mori's man is strictly a spectator, inwardly mussing on why those around him take such joy in such base activities. "Vita Sexualis" is sexual philosophy. It is an intellectual take, something which Mori excelled at. It stands out in a field full of devil-may-care exploitative literature in the same vein, and shows that one can write a serious and intelligent sex book.

This book is supposedly a guide to sex written by a philosopher for his son. Actually is a semi-auotobiographical novel in which the Meiji writer Mori Ogai is able to describe his sexual maturation from the time he was a child to his early adult hood. This book is a fascinating read that gives the reader a close look at the early life of Mori Ogai who not only was one of the best early Japanese novelists, but also excelled in the medical field, becoming Japan's Surgeon Genearl. By today's standards the sexual activities in this book might not seem very explicit, but at the time it was rare for sexuality at all to be mentioned in literature.