Sex is an anarchic current running through society. Love? That too. If the two coincide, so much the better 〞 but they rarely do, with social and psychological consequences ranging from unsettling to tragic. Autocrats distrust love. They fear it. Sometimes they hate it. It*s ungovernable. Or is it? Maybe not, if contained. Japan*s rulers in times past made a crime 〞 sometimes a capital one 〞 of love outside the container.

※Persons such as those who have engaged in illicit intercourse with their master*s daughter, or who have attempted such: Death,§ reads a law in force through the Edo Period (1603-1867).

※Persons such as those who commit adultery with their master*s wife, or with their teacher*s wife: Death for both the man and the woman.§