Headcanon for Sha Gojyo of Saiyuki
Head-canon Point of Interest #1: Sha Gojyo is a 2 on the Kinsey Scale; Bisexual with Heterosexual leanings
Reason for Inclusion: Evidence from canon leads me to believe this.
Evidence
Character Canon: Gojyo is a hanyou, not even a true race, but rather a biproduct of two races producing an infertile child. After being exposed to incestuous relations, his mother was killed by his brother (and it was those two who were in a relationship). The next point of canon we have is that he did petty thievery, street-fighting, and gambling with Banri in order to survive, but this is not until he is many years older.
At that time, he is shown with magazines with naked men on the cover. In addition, he is in general a very sexualized character in the show, dealing with his self-worth issues by drowning his days in alcohol and his nights in beautiful company.
While he flirts with many women in public, the world is not openly accepting of homosexual behavior. For humor purposes, he is also seen many times flirting with members of his own sex, showing how comfortable he is in his sexuality, whether the rest of the world is aware of it or not. However, his most often-used compliment for those he flirts with is gender-neutral: "bijin", meaning beautiful-person, aka cutie/hottie/"beaut," as opposed to "ojousan/ojouchan" for "missy".
Gojyo tells Hakkai (Gonou, at that point, when Gojyo was 19) that he had never experienced love, but would like to at least once.
Headcanon Explained: Before Banri came along, Gojyo had to survive somehow. Aside from street-fighting, there are no other skills he could have utilized aside from child prostitution. This would have lead to an awareness, but not acceptance, of homosexual and bisexual tendencies. While Banri himself could easily be gay, there is no evidence that Banri and Gojyo had relations together.
Due to his traumatic childhood experiences, Gojyo was likely very closed off from sexual relations for as long as possible, and only women for a good time after that. However, as an adult, he actually enjoys sex with a passionate curiosity - after swinging that drastically in the completely opposite direction, to the point of a different lover every night, it's not hard to imagine he is a bigger fan of enjoyable sex than the person he has sex with. However, canon states that he loves women, so "gay" would be OOC and so would true bisexuality. An appreciation of beautiful people for the sake of a good lay, on the other hand, is not so off-base.
As Gojyo has never been in love before, it makes sense -- along with his playboy personality -- that he would fall in lust first, love second, and even then would only recognize feelings of 'love' after an extended period of time. Gojyo almost certainly has no experience with having a girlfriend or boyfriend in the modern use of the term; only one-night-stands and 'lovers' that lasted perhaps a week at most. This extends to a lack of knowledge of dating culture in general.
Head-canon Point of Interest #2: Sha Gojyo is familiar with modern slum culture and was functionally illiterate until meeting Cho Hakkai
Reason for Inclusion: Filling out a gap in the character's backstory after childhood, into teen years and early adulthood.
Evidence
World Canon: Saiyuki is a very anachronistic world. Chang'an, where the characters' story begins upon the four of them meeting, is a bustling metropolis of their world. There are taverns and drugs and street-brawling alleys to spare. It is in this region that Sha Gojyo came to as a boy, after leaving his country home with his mother and brother, and grew up until meeting the other characters from the series.
Character Canon: At some point, Gojyo picked up a love of cigarettes and alcohol from Banri, that is - after he was already a young teen and had been on the streets of Chang'an for a few years. In addition, Banri taught him how to gamble and street-brawl, then Gojyo learned how to woo lovers for the evening as well. He knows exactly what card-sharking is because he calls Hakkai a card-shark while helping the man recover from his near-death experience.
There is absolutely no evidence that Gojyo ever attended any form of school, something highlighted in the past of his canonmate, Cho Hakkai; the only "books" in his place of residence appear to be pornographic material - more pictographic than informational, to be sure. However, after the men start journeying west together, Gojyo appears to have a good grasp of certain things like how to read a menu. Hakkai is shown teaching Goku things like basic math because he was a teacher in his "past life" as a human living in the country.
Headcanon Explained: Gojyo is familiar with street slang and customs, such as stacking fists, how to buy drugs, as well as clubbing culture - dancing, back-room making out, getting thrown out of bars and taverns, card-sharking, etc.
Without any other explanation for how Gojyo learned to write, this was my idea. Hakkai was his room-mate for 3 years and he is a man who shows a love of teaching young people, unlike Sanzo, who also is shown gaining literacy through his Buddhist upbringing, but has absolutely no interest in passing on his knowledge to pupils. Thus, it is my belief that after Hakkai taught Goku during the day, he came home and gradually helped Gojyo become literate as well. Up until the age of 19, then, Gojyo was functionally illiterate, but from 19-23 years of age (the main body of Saiyuki canon) he had gained basic literacy through Hakkai's teachings, though he still has an extremely limited vocabulary and terrible handwriting.
Head-canon Point of Interest #3: Sha Gojyo does not know he is infertile
Reason for Inclusion: Relevant to how the character treats female lovers, as well his knowledge of the benefits of using condoms with all lovers. (See point #1)
Evidence
World Canon: Humans are shown as not knowing a great deal about hanyou at all, whereas youkai apparently know more; they can recognize red hair and red eyes immediately to mean "hanyou" (half-breed, taboo-child), but humans are only shown as knowing this when they have recently experienced a hanyou child being born in their village.
Character Canon: Gojyo is seen in canon with condoms near his porno magazines. In addition, Dr. Nii tells Jien/Dokugakuji (Gojyo's older half-brother) that hanyou are infertile and Dokugakuji appears shocked that Dr. Nii knows it, as well as horrified that Dr. Nii would tell Gojyo this fact.
Headcanon Explained: The above implies that Gojyo does not in fact know he is infertile at the time of Dr. Nii and Dokugakuji's conversation. In addition, it implies that Dokugakuji wouldn't have told Gojyo when they were children even if Dokugakuji had known back then.
Reason for Inclusion: Evidence from canon leads me to believe this.
Evidence
Character Canon: Gojyo is a hanyou, not even a true race, but rather a biproduct of two races producing an infertile child. After being exposed to incestuous relations, his mother was killed by his brother (and it was those two who were in a relationship). The next point of canon we have is that he did petty thievery, street-fighting, and gambling with Banri in order to survive, but this is not until he is many years older.
At that time, he is shown with magazines with naked men on the cover. In addition, he is in general a very sexualized character in the show, dealing with his self-worth issues by drowning his days in alcohol and his nights in beautiful company.
While he flirts with many women in public, the world is not openly accepting of homosexual behavior. For humor purposes, he is also seen many times flirting with members of his own sex, showing how comfortable he is in his sexuality, whether the rest of the world is aware of it or not. However, his most often-used compliment for those he flirts with is gender-neutral: "bijin", meaning beautiful-person, aka cutie/hottie/"beaut," as opposed to "ojousan/ojouchan" for "missy".
Gojyo tells Hakkai (Gonou, at that point, when Gojyo was 19) that he had never experienced love, but would like to at least once.
Headcanon Explained: Before Banri came along, Gojyo had to survive somehow. Aside from street-fighting, there are no other skills he could have utilized aside from child prostitution. This would have lead to an awareness, but not acceptance, of homosexual and bisexual tendencies. While Banri himself could easily be gay, there is no evidence that Banri and Gojyo had relations together.
Due to his traumatic childhood experiences, Gojyo was likely very closed off from sexual relations for as long as possible, and only women for a good time after that. However, as an adult, he actually enjoys sex with a passionate curiosity - after swinging that drastically in the completely opposite direction, to the point of a different lover every night, it's not hard to imagine he is a bigger fan of enjoyable sex than the person he has sex with. However, canon states that he loves women, so "gay" would be OOC and so would true bisexuality. An appreciation of beautiful people for the sake of a good lay, on the other hand, is not so off-base.
As Gojyo has never been in love before, it makes sense -- along with his playboy personality -- that he would fall in lust first, love second, and even then would only recognize feelings of 'love' after an extended period of time. Gojyo almost certainly has no experience with having a girlfriend or boyfriend in the modern use of the term; only one-night-stands and 'lovers' that lasted perhaps a week at most. This extends to a lack of knowledge of dating culture in general.
Head-canon Point of Interest #2: Sha Gojyo is familiar with modern slum culture and was functionally illiterate until meeting Cho Hakkai
Reason for Inclusion: Filling out a gap in the character's backstory after childhood, into teen years and early adulthood.
Evidence
World Canon: Saiyuki is a very anachronistic world. Chang'an, where the characters' story begins upon the four of them meeting, is a bustling metropolis of their world. There are taverns and drugs and street-brawling alleys to spare. It is in this region that Sha Gojyo came to as a boy, after leaving his country home with his mother and brother, and grew up until meeting the other characters from the series.
Character Canon: At some point, Gojyo picked up a love of cigarettes and alcohol from Banri, that is - after he was already a young teen and had been on the streets of Chang'an for a few years. In addition, Banri taught him how to gamble and street-brawl, then Gojyo learned how to woo lovers for the evening as well. He knows exactly what card-sharking is because he calls Hakkai a card-shark while helping the man recover from his near-death experience.
There is absolutely no evidence that Gojyo ever attended any form of school, something highlighted in the past of his canonmate, Cho Hakkai; the only "books" in his place of residence appear to be pornographic material - more pictographic than informational, to be sure. However, after the men start journeying west together, Gojyo appears to have a good grasp of certain things like how to read a menu. Hakkai is shown teaching Goku things like basic math because he was a teacher in his "past life" as a human living in the country.
Headcanon Explained: Gojyo is familiar with street slang and customs, such as stacking fists, how to buy drugs, as well as clubbing culture - dancing, back-room making out, getting thrown out of bars and taverns, card-sharking, etc.
Without any other explanation for how Gojyo learned to write, this was my idea. Hakkai was his room-mate for 3 years and he is a man who shows a love of teaching young people, unlike Sanzo, who also is shown gaining literacy through his Buddhist upbringing, but has absolutely no interest in passing on his knowledge to pupils. Thus, it is my belief that after Hakkai taught Goku during the day, he came home and gradually helped Gojyo become literate as well. Up until the age of 19, then, Gojyo was functionally illiterate, but from 19-23 years of age (the main body of Saiyuki canon) he had gained basic literacy through Hakkai's teachings, though he still has an extremely limited vocabulary and terrible handwriting.
Head-canon Point of Interest #3: Sha Gojyo does not know he is infertile
Reason for Inclusion: Relevant to how the character treats female lovers, as well his knowledge of the benefits of using condoms with all lovers. (See point #1)
Evidence
World Canon: Humans are shown as not knowing a great deal about hanyou at all, whereas youkai apparently know more; they can recognize red hair and red eyes immediately to mean "hanyou" (half-breed, taboo-child), but humans are only shown as knowing this when they have recently experienced a hanyou child being born in their village.
Character Canon: Gojyo is seen in canon with condoms near his porno magazines. In addition, Dr. Nii tells Jien/Dokugakuji (Gojyo's older half-brother) that hanyou are infertile and Dokugakuji appears shocked that Dr. Nii knows it, as well as horrified that Dr. Nii would tell Gojyo this fact.
Headcanon Explained: The above implies that Gojyo does not in fact know he is infertile at the time of Dr. Nii and Dokugakuji's conversation. In addition, it implies that Dokugakuji wouldn't have told Gojyo when they were children even if Dokugakuji had known back then.