Love

===Japanese===
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Ohatsu and Tokube statue at Tsuyunoten Shrine.jpg|right|thumb|Ohatsu and Tokubei, characters of ''[[Sonezaki Shinjū]]'']] -->
The [[Japanese language]] uses three words to convey the English equivalent of "love". Because "love" covers a wide range of emotions and behavioral phenomena, there are nuances distinguishing the three terms.<ref name="Ryang2006">{{cite book | last1 = Ryang | first1 = Sonia | title = Love in Modern Japan: Its Estrangement from Self, Sex and Society | year = 2006 | publisher = Routledge | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tkOUAgAAQBAJ | pages = [https://books.google.com/books?id=tkOUAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA13 13]–14 | isbn = 978-1-135-98863-0 | access-date = 3 February 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160711112044/https://books.google.com/books?id=tkOUAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA13 | archive-date = 11 July 2016 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref name="About">{{cite web | last1 = Abe | first1 = Namiko | url = https://www.thoughtco.com/japanese-words-for-love-2028042 | title = Japanese Words for "Love": The Difference between "Ai" and "Koi" | publisher = About.com | access-date = 5 November 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141105225936/http://japanese.about.com/od/japanesecultur1/a/The-Japanese-Words-For-Love.htm | archive-date = 5 November 2014 | url-status = live }}</ref> The term {{Nihongo|''ai''|愛}}, which is often associated with maternal love<ref name="Ryang2006"/> or selfless love,<ref name="About"/> originally referred to beauty and was often used in a religious context. Following the [[Meiji Restoration]] of 1868, the term became associated with "love" in order to translate Western literature.

Prior to Western influence, the term {{Nihongo|''koi''|恋 or 孤悲}} generally represented romantic love, and was often the subject of the popular [[Man'yōshū]] Japanese poetry collection.<ref name="Ryang2006"/> {{transliteration|ja|Koi}} describes a longing for a member of the opposite sex and is typically interpreted as selfish and wanting.<ref name="About"/> The term's origins come from the concept of lonely solitude as a result of separation from a loved one. Though modern usage of {{transliteration|ja|koi}} focuses on sexual love and infatuation, the Manyō used the term to cover a wider range of situations, including tenderness, benevolence, and material desire.<ref name="Ryang2006"/>

The third term, {{Nihongo|''ren'ai''|恋愛}}, is a more modern construction that combines the [[kanji]] characters for both {{transliteration|ja|ai}} and {{transliteration|ja|koi}}, though its usage more closely resembles that of {{transliteration|ja|koi}} in the form of romantic love.<ref name="Ryang2006"/><ref name="About"/>

{{Nihongo|''Amae''|甘え}}, referring to the desire to be loved and cared for by an authority figure, is another important aspect of Japan's cultural perspective on love, and has been analysed in detail in Takeo Doi's ''[[The Anatomy of Dependence]]''<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Electronic Journal of Sociology |year=2000 |url=https://sociology.org/content/vol005.001/smith-nomi.html |title=Is ''amae'' the Key to Understanding Japanese Culture? |first1=Herman W.|last1= Smith |first2= Takako |last2=Nomi |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220062826/http://www.sociology.org/content/vol005.001/smith-nomi.html |archivedate=2014-02-20 }}</ref>