Ok this is going to sound weird but stick with me, in college I read a short story/novella-ish length piece in a world literature class written by a Japanese author, and it was about a Japanese woman (during the Edo period? I think???) who slept with a lot of men. I don't remember if she did it as a professional thing or just because she felt like it. Anyway, at one point she goes to a shrine where there are a bunch of statues. Tons of them, and they were of uh, well, I don't remember what they were supposed to represent? Something like men who'd died and achieved enlightenment, some sort of thing like that? Maybe they'd become Buddhas? Listen, Japanese Buddhism isn't my specialty.
Anyway, the faces on all of them were the faces of guys she'd previously slept with. And she was really upset about it, and the text commentary explained that it was probably meant to be read as funny, although tbh I remember getting the impression that it was kinda shitty and misogynistic.
And that's like all I can remember from the story. I haven't thought about it in years, but now I want so badly to remember the context and what the hell the rest of the story was about. Does anyone have any goddamn clue whatsoever of what I'm talking about????? Because I low-key get the feeling I'm going to be laying awake in bed wondering what on earth it was about.
