Takeshi Ishikawa: HIJRAS – The Third Gender of India

Japanese photographer Takeshi Ishikawa indian works,third gender of india.

THIS STORY CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT

In Indian society, it is said that when a hermaphrodite baby is born in an Indian family, Hijras come to the house to receive the child and the baby is brought up as a Hijra. Though it may be probable that such cases existed, it is now no more than a legend. Most become Hijras through castration. Whenever I asked a Hijra, “What is Hijra?” they answered, “We are neither female nor male, but Hijra is Hijra.” Yes, this answer explains everything about them.

This understanding means the transcending of genders, to recognize the special gender, which is not categorized as female nor male but as the third gender, and to exist as the third gender. They wear female costumes when they engage in traditional works, and they enjoy this transvestism cordially. They wear their hear long, various accessories and elaborated make-up. Their passion to become beautiful seems to be stronger than that of women.

 

Takeshi_Ishikawa_HIJRASPokaraji is standing on the front of the blue wall in a bathroom. The bulges on her breast are not made of silicon. If castrated before around 13 years old,  Hijra’s breast expands without any artificual work @ Takeshi Ishikawa

 

When I asked why some had become Hijras, I received the following answers: “Though I was born as a man, I felt a feeling of wrongness or of uneasiness in being a man”; “I could not cope with the masculine role which the society requires of me”; “I could not feel that I was a man because my masculine genital is too small and impotent”. Hijras express a facet of the world peculiar to India, which is very different from the West and Japan, where the dualism concept divides genders into male or female. Hindu tantric belief maintains that the hermaphrodite is the complete gender, comprising both male and female principles.
Photography

 

 

Related Posts

Prasiit Sthapit : Change of Course

Nepal – The first time I arrived in Susta, I had to walk around 3 minutes from the river across ...

Francois Hebel : The Arles Aesthetic

France –  Francois Hebel, one of the most influential man in photography today boasts of a prolific career, spanning 12 ...

Tine Guns: Amoureux Solitaire

Belgium –  Two actors perform one of the most iconographic acts in film history: the kiss. ‘Amoureux Solitaire’ is an ...

Black Gold Hotel – Michele Palazzi

Mongolia – The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management awarded Italian photographer Michele Palazzi, the Environmental Photographer of the Year Award, ...

Island in the Stream – Dorian Francois

India – Stretched out in the middle of the holy Brahmaputra river, which flows through the north-eastern Indian state of ...

Colin Pantall on Thomas Sauvin’s Quanshen

China –                                     ...

Olga Matveeva: “FEUD” – Winner of the Vienna PhotoBook Award

Russia –  (Crimea 12.2013- 03.2014) Photography feature – Olga Matveeva’s Feud is the fraternal war in which the opposition parties ...

Carolyn Drake Wild Pigeon

Douglas Stockdale on Carolyn Drake “Wild Pigeon” – Exploring China’s Western Province

China –  ‘Wild Pigeon’ by Carolyn Drake incorporates an allegory story of the same name, Wild Pigeon, written by Nurmuhemmet Yasin ...

Arko Datto: CYBER SEX

THIS STORY CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT India –  I had started working on my project CYBERSEX during the months of March ...