Magnus Hirschfeld’s Interpretation of the Japanese Onnagata as Transvestites

In 1913 Magnus Hirschfeld created what he referred to as the “Wall of Sexual Transitions” for the International Physicians’ Congress in London. The first hint of Hirschfeld’s intention to internationally communicate his evolving theories of sex and gender, the wall contained images of individuals structured into four quadrants that reflected categories central to Hirschfeld’s theories: hermaphrodites, forms of androgyny, homosexuals, and transvestites. Today, this wall has survived only in several photographs that make it difficult to reconstruct all of its original images. This difficulty is exacerbated by the fact that Hirschfeld took his images from a range of sources and contexts: erotica, works of anthropology and medicine, depictions of works of art, and popular publications such as newspapers and magazines. Among the images that can be distinguished, however, are four photos of Japanese onnagata: male actors who played women’s roles in Japanese Kabuki theater.