Wakashu and Lover Holding Hands Anonymous (1643) Illustration from the anonymous seventeenth century work Shin-yu-ki, “Book for the Friends of the Soul”. A wakashu and his lover (nenja) hold hands. From Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun’ichi Iwata, The Love of the Samurai, A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality, Gay Men’s Press, London, 1989.