Were there gay samurai

Answer 1

That is a tricky question because Japanese constructions of sexuality were very different in the pre-modern period than they were in the West. There was, for instance, not a word that directly translates into 'homosexual.' There were certainly open displays of male-male bonding, and male-male love, but the concepts are not quite the same as what we think of as 'gay.' It would be more accurate to label these men as what we call today 'bisexual' -- men that were not attracted to women were somewhat of an oddity in the Edo period.

However there were (many) instances of male-male relationships within the samurai class. This was not terribly unusual, nor was it particularly frowned upon for many years.

Answer 2

Yes, there were records of homosexuality among samurai in Japan. Some samurai were known to have had same-sex relationships, which were accepted and even romanticized in some historical accounts.