Introduction: “Marriage… in the Japanese Way”

Summary

Surveys the history of contractual sexual arrangements between Westerners and Japanese women that emerged in the treaty ports of Japan after 1858, a practice that became known as “monthly,” “temporary,” or “Japanese” marriage. Contemporary accounts, diaries, and reminiscences suggest that the outlines of such liaisons and even their contractual terminology would eventually underlie Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton’s duplicitous relationship with Cio-Cio-san. Although this practice became widely known in the West largely through Pierre Loti’s Madame Chrysanthème (1888), its connection to John Luther Long’s “Madame Butterfly,” and by extension to Puccini’s opera, is substantially more complicated than generally assumed.