BA Thesis an Overview of Stereotyped Portrayals of LGBT+ People In

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BA thesis in Japanese Language and Culture

An Overview of Stereotyped Portrayals of LGBT+ People in Japanese Fiction and Literature

Analysis of the historical evolution and commercialization of BL and yuri genres, and social practice of its consumer culture

Bára B.S. Jóhannesdóttir

Supervisor Kristín Ingvarsdóttir May 2021

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND CULTURES Háskóli Íslands

Hugvísindasvið

Japanskt Mál og Menning

An Overview of Stereotyped Portrayals of LGBT+ People in Japanese Fiction and Literature

Analysis of the historical evolution and commercialization of BL and yuri genres, and social practice of its consumer culture

Ritgerð til BA-prófs 10 ECTS

Bára B.S. Jóhannesdóttir Kt.: 210496-2039

Leiðbeinandi: Kristín Ingvarsdóttir Maí 2021

Abstract

This essay will explore the history of the portrayal of LGBT+ people in Japanese fiction, starting from The Tale of Genji, a novel from the early 11th century that is widely considered to be the first classic in history, and to the proper establishment of what is known as the BL (boys’ love) and yuri genres. BL, as the name suggests, is a genre that features the relationship between two male characters, usually in a romantic and/or sexual nature, while yuri is between two female characters. There will be a short examination of LGBT+ portrayal in historical literary works and art before moving onto a more detailed recounting of modern fiction and television. Some ancient literature will be reviewed, comparing real-life societal norms to their fictional counterparts. The focus will mainly be on the introduction of the BL genre, the historical evolution of it, the commercial start of it, the main components that make up the genre, and why it is as popular as it is, a well as an examination of the culture surrounding the fans of the genre. How did it become commercialized? Why has it managed to capture the hearts of many Japanese fans, as well as fans around the world? What is the mindset of the consumer and how do they practice fan culture, especially as a ‘social practice’?

Lastly, this thesis will include an analysis on the evolution and diversification of the genre over the 2010s and 2020s, by reviewing a select few contemporary fictionalized works.

Table of Contents

Introduction ...... 5

History – Earliest appearances in literary works ...... 7

Japanese aesthetics and creation of beautiful characters ...... 11

Commercialization of the genre – 1970 to the present ...... 15

Progression of female same-sex love from real life to fiction ...... 23

Social practice among BL consumers ...... 28

Evolution of the genre – the 2010s and 2020s ...... 30

Conclusion ...... 33

References ...... 34

Table of Figures

Figure 1 Takabatake, K. (n.d.). Tattoo. Painting of a beautiful wearing only a Japanese loincloth, with a sword pointed towards him. [Painting]. [URL] ...... 13 Figure 2 Hagio, M. (n.d.) Edgar, titular character of the manga The Clan of Poe. [Illustration]. ©Hagio Moto/Shogakukan Inc. [URL] ...... 17 Figure 3 (1982) Cover of the 4th issue of JUNE magazine, published in May. [Illustration]. ©San Shuppan. [URL] ...... 19 Figure 4 Yamagishi, R. (1975). Cover of compiled volume of The Two of the White Room. ©Yamagishi Ryo̅ko/Ribon Comic. [URL] ...... 25 Figure 5 Ikeda, R. (1974). A panel in vol.7 of The Rose of Versailles. Andre (dark hair) declaring his eternal love for Oscar, by saying that the possibility of loving anyone other than Oscar is impossible, he will swear it a thousand or ten thousand times if Oscars needs to hear it. ©Ikeda Riyoko/Shueisha. [URL] ...27 Figure 6 Hokusai. (1830-32). Under the Wave of Kanagawa/The Great Waves of Kanagawa. [Woodblock print]. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, United States. [URL] ...... 29 Figure 7 Kamatani, Y. (2015). Vol.1, p.59. Panel from Our Dreams At Dusk where the lead character, Tasuku, cries in regret and frustration for having to lie and hide his sexual identity, to please those around him. "Even though I'm about to die, why don't they?" ©Kamatani Yuhki/Shogakukan. [URL] ...... 32

Introduction

BL, or boys’ love, is a genre in Japanese fiction that came to be during the Sh표̅wa period, or the period in which Emperor Sh표̅wa Hirohito ruled (1926-1989). The commercial genre was originally created by women, for other women. The first term coined for it was sh표̅nen-ai, which literally translates to “boys” and “love”. Sh표̅nen-ai was first coined in the 1970s when sh표̅jo manga creators, largely women, started to commercially and non-commercially create works that mainly starred beautiful young men in male homosexual relationships. Sh표̅jo manga are Japanese graphic novels geared towards a younger female, or sh표̅jo, audience. Commercial works were mainly manga and novels, however, audio dramas, animations, games, and more can be BL themed as well. Sh표̅nen-ai was more frequently used for commercial works. Non- commercial works are often fan created parodies in the form of manga, written stories, or illustrations. These fan-created amateur works are called d표̅jinshi in Japanese, meaning “zines by like-minded individuals” (McLelland & Welker, 2015). D표̅jinshi can also be referred to as “self- published fan-fiction”, according to Saito (2011). The fans who create d표̅jinshi are called circles, or saakuru, and are either groups or individuals, who sell their works at comic conventions. Another term for sh표̅nen-ai rose in the 1980s, often used to describe non-commercial works. That term is yaoi, an acronym for yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi, which can be translated to ‘no climax, no point, no meaning’. As d표̅jinshi is often a parody of pre-existing characters from other media, these yaoi stories had no overarching plot but were rather a snippet into the characters’ daily lives or an alternative scenario from the norm, with no explanation for the background of the story. Some say that yaoi has now become a subgenre defined by stories of passionate homosexual love, usually in the context of self-published work (such as d표̅jinshi) that parody pre-existing media, anime (Japanese animation shows), manga, games, and more (Takeuchi, 2010).

Boys’ love, or b표̅izu rabu, however, was coined in the 1990s and generally used to describe commercial works. It is abbreviated to BL. The word “BL” will henceforth be used as a kind of umbrella term in this essay, similarly to how it is used in the book Boys love manga and beyond: History, culture, and community in Japan, as yaoi is too specific and sh표̅nen-ai has mostly fallen out of use (McLelland & Welker, 2015).

But how did this genre come to be? Homosexuality did not become fictionalized the 1970s. In fact, it was first seen in literature much earlier. This essay will expl표re its history and evolution towards commercialization and beyond. To understand the uniquely and historical Japanese view on homosexuality, one must analyze pre-modern literature first.

History – Earliest appearances in literary works

The Tale of Genji or Genji Monogatari written by Murasaki Shikibu in the early 11th century, or Heian Period, regales the adventures and tumultuous love affairs that Hikaru Genji, the son of the emperor and a lowly concubine, experiences. In the novel, Genji, who is snubbed in his pursuits of the ‘lady of the locust shell’, chooses to spend his time with the lady’s younger brother, Kogimi, instead. Genji ends up finding Kogimi lovelier than his sister. A sexual encounter between the two is never explicitly stated, however, many have interpreted their relationship as such. (Pflugfelder, 1992). Another LGBT+ interpretation of The Tale of Genji is the character Kaoru. He is Genji’s foster son and intensely adores another male character and father figure, the Eighth Prince, to the point of imprinting the image of the prince to two of the prince’s daughters, first Oigimi and then Ukifune, after the prince dies. Kaoru could only be platonically involved with Oigimi because she resembled her mother more than her father. However, he could not enter a sexual relationship with Ukifune because of her gender. After reconciling with the prince’s death, he ends up sexually involved with Oigimi. (Bargen, 1991).

While the Tale of Genji is certainly the first to portray LGBT+ relationships in any capacity, it is not the last to do so during the Heian and later periods. Another novel with LGBT+ themes is called Torikaebaya Monogatari from the 12th century. It delves into gender identity rather than sexuality. The novel follows the tale of two siblings, Himegimi, who was born female but identifies as male during a large part of his lifetime, and Wakagimi, born male but identifies as female for a big part of her life. However, the siblings end up switching their respective societal identities halfway through the book. The setting of the novel had a strong influence from the Tale of Genji, especially the portrayals of the gender roles in court society. Men behaved in a masculine manner while women were docile and shy. Torikaebaya subverts these gender roles by having Himegimi like traditionally male things since childhood. According to Buddhism, reincarnation does not necessarily keep one’s gender, race, or even species, the same as the previous incarnation. Because of this, the sibling’s parents accept their gender labels more easily. Pflugfelder (1992) suggests that with the use of verbs such as “becoming” or “turning” into their respective genders in the novel, ancient Japanese society and Buddhist beliefs put more stock into behavior determining one’s gender rather than anatomy. However, the novel still depicts the

7 siblings as being ‘unusual’ because while they present outwardly as a different gender than their sex, they still hide their biological sex. To avoid confusion, further discussion of the characters relationships will be noted as either same-sex (as in, same biological sex) or same-gender (participants involved in the relationship present as the same gender) just as Pflugfelder (1992) writes. Himegimi has several amorous, yet not explicitly sexual, relationships with other court ladies. He behaves in a similar manner as men who are courting ladies during this time, such exchanging poems after visiting a lady. He even ends up marrying a woman in an arranged marriage, however, their relationship is strictly platonic and ends up being a point of contempt later in the story as his wife, Shi no Kimi, ends up dissatisfied with a non-sexual relationship and has an affair with notorious playboy, Saisho. Meanwhile, Wakagimi gains a reputation of being a beauty that is even more shy than regular court ladies. Many male characters seek her out, but she avoids any same-sex relationships but does ends up in a same-gender relationship with an imperial princess. This princess is noted to have had very little reaction to Wakagimi’s biological sex reveal and considered it not having much effect on her loveliness. Saisho is among the many male characters who are aiming for Wakagimi but he is the most aggressive. Wakagimi refuses his advances, so Saisho seeks out Himegimi against his will instead, while still being under the impression that Himegimi shares his gender, paralleling the scene from the Tale of Genji where Genji seeks out Kogimi after his advances towards Kogimi’s sister fail. (Pflugfelder, 1992).

A term that came to be known later in history, around the 17th century, was “nanshoku”. This could be translated to “homosexuality”; however, it was specific to the sex of the speaker. As Pflugfelder (1999) explains in the book Cartographies of desire: male-male sexuality in Japanese discourse 1660-1950, the term is directly translated to “love of males” in which case, one can assume that there is a “lover of males”. The opposite of nanshoku was joshoku or nyoshoku which meant “love of females”. The perspective speaker of these words was assumed to be a biological man, as men during this time were said to have enjoyed the companies of other men and women. Therefore, women could not enjoy these erotic pleasures because of its specific male perspective. Though, as Pflugfelder (1999) mentions, men who did not partake in both pleasures and strictly stuck to one were considered eccentric. This was a monastic and militaristic tradition among the samurai, feudal warriors, and monk elites that had their own structure and commitments before a new tradition evolved along with merchants and artisans. This new tradition commercialized nanshoku into prostitution (Leupp, 1995). Fiction took

8 inspiration from this part of Japanese society and the word “nanshoku” appeared in many popular tales during the Edo (now Tokyo, the capital of Japan) period (1600-1868). For example, in Ihara Saikaku’s work Nanshoku okagami or the great mirror of male love that was published in 1687. It was a book consisting of short stories that featured male-male relationships between older and younger samurai and rich townsmen and younger kabuki theatre actors1 (who sometimes doubled as young male prostitutes). Schalow (1990) explains the concept succinctly in his translation of Saikaku’s work. Nanshoku was a kind of system wherein an older man or nenja, older than 19 who has had his coming-of-age ceremony with appropriate hairstyle, enters a homosexual relationship with an adolescent boy or wakashu, someone who has not become 19 or had his coming-of-age ceremony. Saeki (1997) explains that the nenja was to be a model of masculinity for the wakashu, who was expected to learn the samurai ideal from the older. Later, the wakashu would enter adulthood, achieve his masculinity, and become a nenja, thus continuing the cycle. This side of the nanshoku relationship served as a learning tool for becoming stronger military men. The concept of nanshoku was almost strictly a sexual love, rather than a romantic love. Pflugfelder (1999) likens it more to the Greek’s concept of sensual love, or eros. Regardless of how systemized this concept became, it seemed that exceptions existed. For example, one of Saikaku’s short stories features a couple that remained as devoted to one another in their sixties as in their teens. This was shown by them keeping the appropriate hairstyles showing their roles as “man” and “boy”. (Halperin, 1991).

One cannot mention nanshoku without also speaking of shudo. The concepts are incredibly similar but shudo/wakashudo, translated to “way of the youths” or “way of loving the youths” as Pflugfelder (1999) put it, has a spiritual nuance and an indigenous etymology, as opposed to nanshoku which originated in China rather than Japan. Shudo was also said to have predated nanshoku and seemed to have been less systemized, though there is overlap in the definitions. McLelland and Welker (2015), put shudo as a category of nanshoku while Saeki (1997), provide details of the practice of nanshoku more fitting for shudo. Regardless, these concepts only became public knowledge during the Edo period, as printing became more accessible. Many literary works during this time described youths in a shudo context as cherry

1 Some male kabuki actors, performing in female roles, were speculated to have been transgender (McLelland, 2011). ‘Transgender’ is an umbrella term for someone who does not fit the identity of their biological sex (“Transgender,” 2021)

9 blossoms as their beauty, connected to their age, blossomed only shortly like the flower. As is seen in Saikaku’s work, the couple that remained devoted to each other beyond the nanshoku or shudo time was described as “Two Old Cherry Trees Still in Bloom” (Halperin, 1991). This appreciation for young men or boys prevails through to more modern portrayals of LGBT+ people in Japanese fiction, as can be seen in the archetype of bish표̅nen or “beautiful young men” which will be explained in more detail in a later chapter. Another such appreciation can be seen in the monastic chigo monogatari or “tales about beautiful boy acolytes”, stories assumed to be written by Buddhist priests for other priests to enjoy (McLelland & Welker, 2015). Chigo meaning “acolyte” and monogatari meaning “tales or stories”, thus making chigo monogatari a genre of its time. Many monks would rather turn to chigo, as women were considered ‘temptresses’ and should be avoided (Faure, 2003). A chigo was a boy that had to take part in a weeks-long ritual to be reborn as a bodhisattva. The chigo’s appearance would become more androgynous with the help of attire and makeup. He would then enter a sexual relationship with a Buddhist priest, thus allowing the priest to have intercourse without breaking his vow of celibacy (Schmidt-Hori, 2009). Childs (1980) notes that chigo were boys around the ages of seven to fourteen, though some chigo could easily have been older. While chigo monogatari protagonists share homosexual qualities with the protagonists in nanshoku novels, they differ in that chigo monogatari always have religious overtones. Priests often lacked in their religious disciplines in abandoning all their worldly desires, represented as chigo, and it can be assumed that the purpose of chigo monogatari was to push priests to a religious awakening, as these stories often culminated the lover’s or chigo’s tragic end, thus ensuring the protagonists true awakening and devotion to their religion. Aki no Yo no Nagamonogatari or “A Long Tale for an Autumn Night” is considered the archetype of this genre and includes the elements stated above (Childs, 1980). The works in this genre included these elements of religiosity, war, and tragedy but Schmidt- Hori (2009) suggests that, unlike fiction, a priest’s pederastic relationship was accepted as a societal norm. Even Childs (1980) mentions that “There is, however, no trace in the tales themselves that homosexuality […] met with disapproval. It was […] no more immoral for a priest than heterosexual relations, and certainly not a moral issue for a layman” (p.127). What these concepts have in common is the exclusion of women and femininity. Feminine qualities were seen as a weakness (Saeki, 1997) though androgyny was celebrated (Schmidt-Hori, 2009).

With the Meiji Restoration comes the introduction of Western influence and -isms into Japanese literature (Schirokauer et al., 2013). However, the concept of nanshoku can still be observed in modern literature, as Saeki (1997) analyzes in Mishima Yukio’s novel, Confessions of a Mask. Mishima was a novelist born in 1925 (died in 1970) who was active during the Showa (1926-1989) era. Confessions of a Mask, published in 1949, can be categorized as an “I-novel”, a sort of confessional literature, symbolized by its self-narration and generally written in a first- person perspective (Tyler, 2000). Lilly (1993) refers to it as Mishima’s autobiography, in which he confesses to feelings of attraction towards the same sex (Saeki, 1997). In the novel, the character “I” admits to the admiration and idolization of an upperclassman, or senpai, from his school. This hierarchy, left over from the military system, can be observed in many places in Japanese society, beginning in the education system. A younger student, or k표̅hai, is expected to show utmost respect towards older students, their senpai (Sugimoto, 2010). This admiration of his senpai, an older male, in Confessions of a Mask complete the requirements for the age- stratification indignant of the nanshoku system (Leupp, 1995). “I”, a frail younger youth, thinks of his senpai, named Omi, as a model of masculinity, mirroring the relationship between a wakashu and his nenja, serving the educational function of militaristic nanshoku. However, differing from pre-modern literature featuring nanshoku in which the concept was more normalized, the character “I” feels shame in his attraction to Omi and purposefully distances himself from taking an active role in pursuing him. This Western perspective, that has been influenced by prejudice towards same-sex relationships, can be seen in how “I” looks to figures in Western history to find others that have a similar inclination as him, for example, Michelangelo (Saeki, 1997). These Western influences will carry on into other works with homoerotic themes and tie into the creation of the BL genre, as shown in later chapters.

Japanese aesthetics and creation of beautiful characters

Aesthetics of the male body, as seen in the admiration of the chigo, have played a big part in nanshoku literature and fiction. A word to describe the Japanese ideals of aestheticism would be tanbi, which could be translated to “absorbed in beauty”. Tanbi was also a literary term, wherein beauty triumphs over other matters. Or “the pursuit of and fascination with beauty,

11 giving beauty the supreme value” (Suzuki, 2015, p.99). Writers known for this style include Mishima Yukio and Tanizaki Jun’ichir표̅. An artistic, rather than literary, admiration for beauty, especially of the male body, can be exemplified in Tatabatake Kash표̅’s illustrations (Hartley, 2015) as well as numerous manga by ‘The Fabulous Forty-Niners’, who will be detailed in the next chapter. Kash표̅, a famous early Sh표̅wa era or pre-war (World Wars, or Pacific War as called in Asia) illustrator, was known for painting young and beautiful boys with an air of effeminate ‘softness’ and ‘passivity’ (Hartley, 2015), in an almost identical way to how he painted female characters. They were often characterized as having ‘dreamy’ gazes. His male characters could be described as bish표̅nen (bi meaning beauty and sh표̅nen meaning young man) while his female characters were called bish표̅jo (beautiful young women), and his paintings were often the covers for monthly magazines whose audience groups included boys, girls, housewives, and more. A lot of his illustrations were featured in a girl magazine, “The Girl’s Friend” (sh표̅jo no tomo), that ran from 1912-1955. These paintings featured young men who were often half-naked, in a tense pose, and flirting with the dangers of death (indicated by weapons pointed towards them or by being bound in a perilous situation) in acts of heroism that captured the attention of female viewers (Figure 1). Hartley (2015) argues that Kash표̅ may have had a strong influence on future female manga creators, thus becoming a fundamental part of the formation of the BL genre. Another prominent pre-war illustrator was Nakahara Jun’ichi, who was known for his paintings of demure, passive, beautiful young women with big eyes. These illustrations built up some of the blueprint for future sh표̅jo manga and Shamoon (2008) argues its influence in the creation of female-female fictions. Girls magazines were often read in a homosocial setting, like an all-girls boarding school, which created a more intimate and private culture for girls. This will be further detailed in the ‘Progression of female same-sex love from real life to fiction’ chapter.

Figure 1 Takabatake, K. (n.d.). Tattoo. Painting of a beautiful wearing only a Japanese loincloth, with a sword pointed towards him. [Painting]. [URL]

The concept of tanbi gave birth to the trope of the bish표̅nen, which would be featured prominently in the foundation of the commercialization of the BL genre. Women would find the bish표̅nen to be an imagined ideal removed from reality, as they had a soft and feminine beauty, a gentle personality, with the advantage of the male body, and without any negative female qualities like jealousy (Schodt, 1996). While some (Welker, 2011) note that the bish표̅nen was neither male nor female, but a third gender that was separated from the gender binary. Early sh표̅nen-ai (referring to works published in the 1970s) protagonists were consistently drawn as bish표̅nen. Takeuchi (2010) and Schodt (1996) mention these protagonists as a form of ‘manifestation’ for female readers to project themselves onto to “move freely” in a patriarchal society. Meaning that they were drawn in a similar style to sh표̅jo manga characters so it was easier for female readers, who these images had always been targeted, to see themselves in them and giving them a space to explore sexuality and eroticism outside of the concept of procreation (Takeuchi, 2010). Hagio Moto, Takemiya Keiko, and Ikeda Riyoko (to name a few) were prominent female sh표̅jo manga creators around this time that starred characters that fit the bish표̅nen trope, causing the aesthetic to become popular enough to launch a new girls magazine called JUNE in the 1970s. This magazine was dedicated to stories fitting the concept of tanbi, which had already been associated with homoerotic themes, and tying it into sh표̅nen-ai novels and manga (Suzuki, 2015). JUNE later became known as the blueprint of the present BL genre (Takeuchi, 2010).

One such writer, Mori Mari (1903-1987), daughter of writer Mori 푂̅gai (who’s novels often had tanbi themes), is widely credited as the inspiration for the tropes that make up the blueprint of early sh표̅nen-ai works with her novel Koibitotachi no Mori or “The Lovers’ Forest”. It was a beautified love story between an eighteen-year-old Japanese man and a biracial (French and Japanese) thirty-eight-year-old aristocratic professor, ending tragically when the older man is shot and killed by a former lover. The tropes introduced in her novel will be more closely examined in the next chapter, borrowing Mizoguchi’s words.

Commercialization of the genre – 1970 to the present

As it is difficult to explain the commercialization of the BL genre without first talking of the development of sh표̅jo manga, so this chapter will begin with the latter instead. Sh표̅jo manga (graphic novels targeted towards young women, usually schoolgirls) started to be produced commercially in the 1950s, with Tezuka Osamu’s Ribon no kishi (Princess Knight). He was said to have drawn inspiration from the all-female theatre group called the “Takarazuka revue”, which is still active in Japan today. The main character, Sapphire, has two souls (one female and the other male), which she switches between as the need arose (Shamoon, 2012). This suggests that the sh표̅jo manga phenomenon has often played with gender norms in some ways. The artists and writers for sh표̅jo manga around this time were predominantly men resulting in their works featuring similar themes; of girls seeking approval and love from their mothers by going through trials. This changed in the 1960-1970s as the majority of sh표̅jo manga artists changed from men to women (Takeuchi, 2010). This group of female manga artists were often referred to as the ‘Fabulous Forty-niners’ in English (Hana no nij푢̅yonen-gumi) as they were all born around the 24th year of the Sh표̅wa era or 1949. Ikeda Riyoko, Takemiya Keiko, Hagio Moto, 푂̅shima Yumiko, and more were among this group. Many of these women had grown bored of previous iterations of sh표̅jo manga and sought to expand the industry, thus managing to diversify the genre. Stories about family, school life, science-fiction, fantasy, history, comedy, and sh표̅nen-ai, that still held the core of sh표̅jo (love) emerged (Takeuchi, 2010). Sh표̅nen-ai stories were seen as a “solution to the limits of the genre” (Saito, 2011, p.173). The term “sh표̅nen-ai” is said to have found its origin in Inagaki Taruho’s novel Sh표̅nen-ai no bigaku (‘Aesthetic of boy loving’). Taruho also used the German word knabenliebe, more accurately translated as ‘pederasty’ in English, which has pedophilic connotations. The Japanese term, however, could be meant as “a boy loves (someone) or (someone) loves a boy” (Welker, 2015, p.51). Thus, “sh표̅nen-ai”, in its ambiguity, was preferred. Hagio and Takemiya were one of the prominent pioneers of the early sh표̅nen-ai, but who inspired them? One inspiration is Mori Mari’s novel The Lovers’ Forest, as mentioned above. This is evidenced by the tropes born from Mori’s work that later took root in Hagio and Takemiya’s works. These tropes, as written by Mizoguchi (2003) are as follows:

(1) beautiful protagonists who are popular with women but choose men as their “ultimate” love objects, (2) an affluent environment (often among the European upper classes) and, (3) plots in which the protagonists’ “impossible” and “perfect” love ends in the tragic death of one or both of them, while nevertheless being “frozen” as an eternal dream. (p.52)

This, along with the protagonists always being beautiful young men to the point of being androgenized, began to shape themes of sh표̅nen-ai into a comprehensive genre. How BL differs from the ancient concept of nanshoku, with Pflugfelder’s (1999) definition, is that sh표̅nen-ai was not dictated by a difference in age, as in, age was more versatile (they could share the same age, be near in age etc.). Welker (2015) further defines the tropes of early sh표̅nen-ai by explaining how Hagio and Takemiya (who were roommates) were also inspired by European films and German (and western) novels2 that were introduced to them by Masuyama Norie, a novelist and musical critic who was also their roommate, respectively. Masuyama is credited as one of the pioneers of the sh표̅nen-ai genre as she encouraged the influence of foreign novels to diversify sh표̅jo manga of that time (Welker, 2011). This resulted in the backgrounds of these manga to often being set in boarding schools in a historical European context. If the works were set in Japan, then they were often set in the past and in a school. By the introduction of Western ideals, prejudices towards male-male romances, previously unseen in nanshoku works, started to be included. Many scholars have claimed that, because of the “impossibility” and societal taboo of these male-male romances, they were seen as a “purer” form of love and therefore more precious (Schodt, 1996, & Welker, 2015). The androgyny that these characters displayed has also eased the way for female readers to identify and ‘manifest’ themselves onto them, as Takeuchi (2010) and Schodt (1996) have mentioned. These ‘manifestations’ have allowed young women to engage with sexuality in a way outside of the pressures of a patriarchal society where they were expected to marry and only have sex to procreate (Takeuchi, 2010). With the progression of sh표̅nen-ai, these ‘manifestations’ managed to “open(ed) up opportunities for them [young women] to shift their own point of view from passive to active engagement” (Fujimoto, 2015,

2 (Welker, 2015) German novelist Herman Hesse’s Beneath the Wheel (1906), Demian (1919), and Goldmund (1960). European films These Special Friendships (1964) and Death in Venice (1971).

16 p.79). This view will later be contested by another, that focuses merely on the enjoyment of the genre, in the social practice chapter. However androgynous the characters were, they still served as either a slightly more masculine and dominant role or more passive feminine role, following the gender-binary. This would later become a narrative rule as sh표̅nen-ai developed further. The themes discussed so far can be exemplified in Hagio’s P표̅ no Ichizoku (The Poe Clan) and T표̅ma no Shinz표̅ (The Heart of Thomas) and Takemiya’s Kaze to Ki no Uta (The Song of the Wind and the Tree). For example, in the manga The Poe Clan, a fourteen-year-old vampire, born from an English aristocrat father and a mistress mother, named Edgar (Figure 2), becomes intimately (but not romantically) involved with another fourteen-year-old boy named Allan. Edgar is described as a bish표̅nen (beautiful young man), and the manga is set in a boarding school in England, and even though their love becomes eternalized via Edgar turning Allan into a vampire, Allan meets a tragic end. The Song of the Wind and the Tree is set in a boarding school in 19th century France about two roommates, Gilbert, and Serge, falling in love. The story deals with tragic and dark themes, such as homophobia, pedophilia, racism, drugs, and rape. However, by distancing the readers with the physical settings and time, these manga had a sense of ‘otherness’ to them. The term sh표̅nen-ai can be used to describe all commercial works that contained homoerotic themes published around the 1970s to the 1980s. Though Welker (2015) mentions some works that deviated from the established sh표̅nen-ai tropes of this time. Those are Mizuno Hideko’s Fire! (original run: 1969- Figure 2 Hagio, M. (n.d.) Edgar, titular character of the manga The Clan of Poe. [Illustration]. ©Hagio Moto/Shogakukan Inc. [URL]

1997), Yoshida Akimin’s Banana Fish (1984-1994), and Wakuni Akisato’s Tomoi (1986). Fire! was about rock musicians trying to make it big around the Detroit area in the United States, while Banana Fish was a detective stories set in New York involving drugs and themes of pedophilia and rape, and Tomoi was about a self-identified gay man whose boyfriend had died of AIDS. What these works had in common was their contemporary United States setting. Japanese or half-Japanese characters were often included in the stories, “linking the narratives to their Japan-based readers” (Welker, 2015, p.51). The preferred European and abroad settings will slowly start to disappear and shift over to a domestic setting during the 1980s, possibly as Japan’s self-image rose, along with the rising of its ‘bubble economy’ (Welker, 2015). Japan’s economic power grew, due to the inflation of stocks and such (Schirokauer, et al. 2013), thus strengthening Japanese people’s perception of themselves.

With commercials and amateur self-published (d표̅jinshi) works that applied the concepts of tanbi and the trope of bish표̅nen characters flourishing, the creation of the girls’ magazine JUNE (produced by San Shuppan), “featuring beautiful boys and young men in romantic and sexual relationships” (Welker, 2015, p.59), was established. JUNE (Figure 3) ran from 1978-1979 and 1981-1996. It published manga and prose fiction or novels and allowed writers, that had not been established yet, to submit their stories. Thus, making JUNE magazine a perfect place for new creators to bloom and it became a “readers magazine, created by and for the readers” (Schodt, 1996). These works would later adopt a distinct ‘JUNE flavor’, tame in sexual themes with a strong emphasis on aesthetics (Suzuki, 2015), and mark JUNE as a sort of subgenre of BL works. Another magazine often discussed alongside JUNE was ‘Allan’, which had a stronger focus on textual works. A unique aspect of ‘Allan’ was its person column (called ‘Lily Communications’) that encouraged female readers who identified as yuri (lily) or lesbian, to discuss foreign or domestic literature and films with homosexual themes.

How else did non-commercial works affect this phenomenon? Amateur creators who wanted to explore themes outside of sh표̅nen-ai/JUNE often did so by self-publishing their works. These works included manga, illustrations, short stories, and essays and were often derivative of commercial works, so called ‘parodies’ of pre-existing media or d표̅jinshi. They were published by groups, or an individual called a saakuru or ‘circle’. Parodies of anime (Japanese animation Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 2 Hagio, M. (n.d.) Edgar, titular character of the manga The Clan of Poe. [Illustration]. ©Hagio Moto/Shogakukan Inc. [URL]

18 shows or cartoons) were called “ani- paro” (McLelland & Welker, 2015). Ani-paro were parodies of anime shows, largely whose manga was originally serialized in the magazine Sh표̅nen JUMP (1968−). This magazine was targeted towards boys and its works had themes of adventure, male friendship, bonding, and rivalry. Making parodies of these shows appealed strongly to fans because they were an “ideal romantic love” that “had a clean and honest relationship of mutual caring, in contrast to “corrupt” relationships that start from romantic or erotic motivations” (Saito, 2011, p.183). Sports manga had these themes of male bonding as well. Parodies of celebrities, especially rock musicians such as David Bowie and Queen Figure 3 (1982) Cover of the 4th issue of JUNE magazine, published in (singers who both identified as queer), May. [Illustration]. ©San Shuppan. [URL] were particularly popular as well. These d표̅jinshi often deviated from the ‘JUNE taste’ in its willingness to explore more overt sexual themes, thus attracting many creators and readers. D표̅jinshi were frequently sold at conventions called Comic Market or Comiket, for short. The culture surrounding the buying and selling of d표̅jinshi will be explored further in the ‘Social practice among BL consumers’ chapter. The term yaoi (acronym for ‘yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi’ meaning ‘no climax, no point, no meaning’) started to be used among these amateur creators (those in the Ravuri or Lovely circle), as a self-derogatory remark about the quality of their work (Welker, 2015) around the 1980s. As has been mentioned briefly in the introduction of this thesis, yaoi is more often used a term for stories with no overarching plot that have been designed to be a snippet into the commercial characters’, sometimes erotic, daily lives.

Mizoguchi (2003, p.50) refers to the description of yaoi as “pornographic parodies”. Welker (2015) mentions a few titles of anime shows, popular in the 1980s, that had been made into ani- paro, thus increasing Comiket’s material and reader participation exponentially. Some of these titles were Captain Tsubasa (1981-1988) by Takahashi Y표̅ichi, Saint Seiya (1986-1990) by Kurumada Masami, Slam Dunk (1990-1996) by Inoue Takehiko, One Piece (1997−) by Oda Eiichir표̅, Naruto (1999-2017) by Kishimoto Masashi etc. Captain Tsubasa and Slam Dunk were sports-themed manga, while the rest of the titles cited were all action. Captain Tsubara d표̅jinshi dominated the Comiket market during the 1980s and Lam (2010) credits the near doubling of Comiket’s customers in 1986-1987 to the parodies created of the show. Yaoi was adopted globally and was used as an umbrella term to describe the sh표̅nen-ai phenomenon as well. Mizoguchi (2003), for example, uses ‘yaoi’ as opposed to McLelland’s (2015) and Welker’s (2015) use of ‘BL’. Yaoi has evolved over the years and multiple genres and tones, from light to dark, can be observed today. Suzuki (2015) mentions that yaoi divides itself as a subgenre by assigning narrative structure to the act of pairing men or male characters, who are not necessarily in a homosexual relationship, into specific sexual roles. This process of pairing is called coupling in Japanese and shipping (taken from the word relationship) in the western audience. Differing from coupling, shipping does not necessarily contain sexual acts. These sexual roles, as Suzuki (2015), defines them are the seme, the one who takes the position of penetrator in sexual intercourse, and uke, the penetrated. Seme is also translated literally to ‘attacker’ while uke is ‘receiver’. This specificity in sexual positions is first observed in yaoi and will be further detailed below.

Japan’s ‘bubble economy’ burst in the early 1990s, affecting industries across the country, and resulting in an influx of new creators entering the BL field, as BL already had a loyal fanbase of readers (Mizoguchi, 2003). Many magazines would recruit already established d표̅jinshi creators. One of these was the manga artist group, CLAMP, that would go on to create many titular works3 (Lam, 2010). This influx was called a “boom” or “boys’ love boom” (Welker, 2015). Numerous new magazines for BL were published and some of these publishers introduced the term b표̅izu rabu or ‘boys’ love’, which would later be shortened to ‘BL’.

3 Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, Cardcaptor Sakura, and the xxxHolic series. Many of these works had non-explicit LGBT+ themes, more accurately described as having themes of ‘spiritual love’ (Shamoon, 2008).

Assumed to come from sh표̅nen-ai, this term would become known as a label for all commercialized work from the 1990s to the present (Welker, 2015). This term resonated with a lot of people because, unlike bish표̅nen manga and sh표̅nen-ai stories, the protagonists were no longer strictly androgynous and seen as an “idealized self-image” (p.53) for young women (Mizoguchi, 2003). Boys’ love, like its predecessor, would develop tropes and narrative rules specific to its genre. These tropes were:

(1) rape as an expression of love, (2) one or both of the protagonists maintaining that they are straight even after they are homosexually involved, (3) the top/bottom roles in sex corresponding to the masculine/feminine appearance of the protagonists, (4) the roles never reversing, (5) and sex always involving anal intercourse (Mizoguchi, 2003, p.56).

“Rape as an expression of love” is said to be either the seme/top expressing his love to the uke/bottom by taking control, or the seme averting the rape of the uke by other men, in a show of his cool and manly exterior (Suzuki, 2015). Another principle in the narrative structures of BL, as Suzuki (2015) notes, is that the seme and uke must be in a monogamous relationship. This rule is called ichib표̅ ikketsu meaning ‘one stick, one hole’. The seme/uke narrative was introduced when yaoi came to be developed as a subgenre and its rules were strictly adhered to, but the narrative of a monogamous relationship was introduced in BL. For example, an uke in a yaoi work may have multiple relationships with other men only if his sexual position stayed as uke (Suzuki, 2015). Mizoguchi (2003) argues that these sexual roles are tropes to “achieve ‘heterosexual romance’ narratives for heterosexual female readers across the bodies two male (same-sex) protagonists, […] to present their romance as an ‘impossible’ – and therefore ‘precious’” (p.56), while Nagaike and Aoyama (2015) note that it “functions as a parody […] by revealing the possibilities inherent in gender performativity” (p.122). Regardless, they all agree that the tropes of BL were created by and for, largely heterosexual, women.

Another change from its predecessor is the background setting. Before, most of them were set in foreign (often historical) countries but now it was more common to see BL works set in contemporary Japan. It was unusual to see foreign characters, but acceptable, if Japanese or

21 half-Japanese characters were a part of the narrative. This change might have been brought about because of the improvement of Japan’s ‘bubble economy’, as mentioned above. Along with the contemporary settings, BL fans now desired a happy ending over the tragic ones seen often in early sh표̅nen-ai work. Fans now expected happy endings, to the point of commenting harshly on works that did not warn of the lack of it (Suzuki, 2015). With BL now having a rigid narrative structure, some professional BL writers noted that new writers could more easily enter the industry by following the ready-made mold of the BL formula (Suzuki, 2015). Many creators, who had previously only done d표̅jinshi and ani-paro in an amateur capacity, entered the field of commercialized BL work in the 1990s (Welker, 2015). BL works were now being published, not only in magazines, but also paperback (often compilations of chapters that were previously in magazines), and drama CDs (where voice actors would act out the stories), and even anime. An example of a manga involving these BL tropes can be Mat표 Sanami’s FAKE, a cop story set in New York (deviating from the setting of contemporary Japan) about a half-Japanese (linking the narrative back to Japan) cop named Ryo. His role is more feminine while the lead protagonist, Dee, serves as the masculine role. Dee expresses a romantic interest in Ryo and considers him to be the only man for him (despite referring to himself as bisexual earlier in the manga), while Ryo identifies himself as a straight man. After Dee’s many advances, Ryo accepts his feelings towards Dee, and they become romantically involved. The tropes that Mizoguchi (2003) noted can be seen in the manga, with Dee and Ryo maintaining their straight identities and their sexual roles never reversing, as well as in Dee’s actions towards Ryo before they got together (“Fake (manga),” 2021).

However, because of the rigidity of the narratives presented in mainstream and commercial BL works, as well as the need to confer with editors for creators to publish their work, many professional BL authors still turn to self-publishing d표̅jinshi. Some do it simply to avoid copyright issues, as the content they want to create with is not their own (Mizoguchi, 2003). Others make d표̅jinshi created from their own original work but choose to publish it as d표̅jinshi, as it does not fit into the narrative structure of commercial BL (Suzuki, 2015). Thus, ‘spin-offs’ or d표̅jinshi that would contain explicit sexual content or content that would better fit an ‘alternate universe’ are created (Mizoguchi, 2003). D표̅jinshi has now been contextualized as a ‘freedom of expression’ (Nagaike & Aoyama, 2015). This interpretation will be examined further in the social practice chapter.

Progression of female same-sex love from real life to fiction

Western ideas of homosexuality as a self-identification and having the inclusion of romantic love had not, historically, had a place in Japanese society, as examined in the concept of nanshoku. In fact, it was not until girls, in the early 1900s, started enjoying a romantic relationship with other girls, that a term in the modern context was invented for ‘homosexuality’ (Shamoon, 2008). Nanshoku and joshoku had the perspective of a male speaker and a nuance of hierarchy (an older male in a better position or class than the object of affection), and excluded a female perspective completely, as well as the notion of romantic love (Pflugfelder, 1999). Pflugfelder (1999) defines it as a sexual love, an eros. The term that was invented was d표̅sei-ai4, translated to ‘same-sex love’, this term included the concept of romantic love. D표̅sei-ai was used to describe the relationship between two schoolgirls in an ‘S relationship’. The ‘S’ stood for the English word ‘sister’.5 This relationship usually happened in all-girls schools, wherein a younger girl would choose an older girl as her object of affection and adoration (akogare) and call her onee-sama (older sister), as Shamoon (2012) writes in her book, Passionate Friendship: The Aesthetics of Girls’ Culture in Japan. These relationships were without sexual elements, in which girls mostly exchanged letters containing romantic poems. These relationships had to be exclusive and was only accepted between two feminine-looking girls, as it was seen as a practice run of a traditional heterosexual courtship (Shamoon, 2012). They were only socially condemned from it if the girls took it beyond a school setting, or one or both displayed masculine traits (such as short hair).6 ‘S’ relationships were seen as an “accepted means of delaying heterosexual experience until girls were old enough for marriage,” (Shamoon, 2008, p.140) and scholars do not see it as ‘homosexual’ or ‘lesbian’ in the Western sense. However, as these relationships only held romantic love instead of sexual love, they were described as ‘spiritual love’ and contributed to early (1970s) sh표̅jo manga stories (Shamoon, 2008 & 2012). Early sh표̅jo manga, as discussed

4 Term for ‘homosexuality’ invented in the 1920s, making it possible to talk about female-female, and male-male romantic relationships in the same context, though it was used more for female love (McLelland, 2011). 5 ‘S’ could also stand for sh표̅jo or sex (McLelland, 2011). 6 Negative media attention was also given to ‘s’ relationships, due to several reports in which female couples committed love suicides (McLelland, 2011).

23 above, often had male characters with feminine or androgynous features, allowing female readers to identify with them. The characters, regardless of their biological sex, often shared these androgynous features as well. Shamoon (2008) cites the work of Ikeda Riyoko, Berusaiyu no Bara (The Rose of Versailles) to have had these elements. In the manga, Oscar (who was born female but raised as male), captain of the guards, begins a romantic and sexual relationship with Andre (cisgender male, meaning he identifies with his biological sex), a guard. (Figure 5). They both share androgynous features common to sh표̅jo manga from that time (long hair and big eyes with pronounced eyelashes). Thus, their relationship could be described as same-gender, a term Pflugfelder (1992) used for the relationships appearing in Torikaebaya Monogatari. However, this is not a true female-female relationship, in the sense of the characters gender identities.

‘S’ relationships inspired the themes in many literary works during the 1950s, where spiritual love was a prominent concept, and the use of flowers and flower symbolism was incredibly popular (Shamoon, 2012). One such novelist was Yoshiya Nobuko (1896-1973), known for Hana Monogatari (Flower Tales), a novel depicting around fifty short stories featuring ‘S’ relationships. Yoshiya, herself, enjoyed a relationship with another woman starting from 1923 and presumably lasting to Yoshiya’s death (“Nobuko Yoshiya,” 2021). Hagio’s manga, The Heart of Thomas, utilized themes of spiritual love, wherein the character Juli ultimately chooses his love for Thomas (who had already passed away) and ends up entering a seminary (Shamoon, 2012). Flowers were also prominent in illustrations depicting girls in the Sh표̅wa era, as seen in Tatabatake Kash표̅ and Nakahara Jun’ichi’s art, both of whom influenced sh표̅jo manga imagery (Hartley, 2015). The white lily (yuri in Japanese) was particularly favored in girls magazines, illustrations, and logos for all-girls schools, for its symbolism of purity and innocence (Shamoon, 2012). Girls even used lilies in the self-descriptive sense as society encouraged them to emulate the white lily’s symbolism. And this flower was often seen in the cultures surrounding all-girls schools and ‘S’ relationships, making it easy to discern why Japanese lesbian subculture adopted the symbol as well. Some pinpoint its subcultural start from the editor, It표̅ Bungaku, of Japan’s first gay commercial magazine Barazoku (1971-2008), whereas gay men were described as barazoku (rose tribe) while lesbians were yurizoku (lily

24 tribe) in an editorial column7 (Welker, 2011, & Friedman, 2017). Comiket, the place that gave birth to the term yaoi, used to describe amateur male-male (often pornographic) content, also used yurizoku in its shortened form, yuri, for female- female content.8 Yuri content, parallel to BL, had a fanbase among men who were mostly interested in the sexual components of it (Friedman, 2017). Artists showing a more realistic view of lesbians in contemporary Japan would create yuri narratives as well. For example, Amamiya Sae, author of Plica-chan, which told the story of a lesbian navigating the dating life and lesbian culture of contemporary Japan. Unlike commercialized BL works, yuri did not have strict narrative structure, resulting in parodied erotic female-female d표̅jinshi, stories about ‘s’ relationships (featuring the Figure 4 Yamagishi, R. (1975). Cover of compiled volume of The Two of the White Room. ©Yamagishi Ry표̅ko/Ribon Comic. [URL] passionate adoration of an upperclassman, not necessarily with sexual elements), and narratives with self-identified lesbians all compiled into the broad category of yuri (Friedman, 2017). However, Fujimoto (2014) identifies and analyzes some themes and character tropes that appear in 1970s-1980s manga that featured female-female romances, starting with Yamagishi Ry표ko’s Shiroi Heya no Futari (The Two of the White Room). This manga shared themes with sh표̅nen-ai manga of that time, especially in its setting and tragic end (Figure 4). Simone, a sporty girl who acts out in school due to troubles with her mother at home, and Recine, a girl who recently lost her parents in an accident, are

7 The yurizoku column was used to advertise the lesbian group Young Grass Club, a place for lesbians, in search of companionship or discussions of politics, to meet (Welker, 2011). 8 Although many are under the impression that the term yuri was invented in counterpart to yaoi, the two are unrelated (Mizoguchi, 2008).

25 roommates at an all-girls boarding school. The two are drawn to each other and share a kiss, however, due to rumors condemning their same-sex love, Recine withdraws from Simone, ending in a fight that results in Simone’s suicide. Other works from the 1970s ended in a similarly tragic way. Fujimoto (2014) then identifies character tropes emerging more clearly in 1980s yuri manga, which are the “Crimson Rose”, a beautiful, cool, and bold woman, and the “Candy Girl”, an extremely girly woman. Both characters, especially the Rose, have troubles in their domestic lives and are condemned by their peers and society for their same-sex relationship, frequently ending with the Rose’s death (usually by suicide). The origin of this trope could stem from reports of ‘love suicides’ that girls in ‘S’ relationships committed in the 1950s (McLelland, 2011). Meanwhile, BL works do not express the harsh reality that LGBT+ people face nearly as much as yuri works, as BL exists in a fantastical world that does not depict ‘real homosexuality’ (Fujimoto, 2014). Fujimoto (2014) categorizes commercialized BL as ‘fantasy’ because the genre “adopted the figures of boys to […] acquire the excitement and fascination of human relationships removed from everyday experience,” (p.33), and yuri manga works created by women as ‘reality’ for their willingness to show the social issues surrounding LGBT+ people. So, male-male romances are ‘pure fantasy’ (Galbraith, 2011). Though Fujimoto (2014) notes that the tones of yuri work have brightened since the 1990s. Publishers have recently come to use the term GL (girls love) for this genre of fiction as well.

Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 4 Yamagishi, R. (1975). Cover of compiled volume of The Two of the White Room. ©Yamagishi Ryko/Ribon Comic. [URL]

Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 5 Ikeda, R. (1974). A panel in vol.7 of The Rose of Versailles. Andre (dark Figure 5 Ikeda, R. (1974). A panel in vol.7 of The Rose of Versailles. Andre (dark hair) declaring his hair) declaring his eternal love for Oscar, by saying that the possibility of loving anyone other than Oscar eternal love for Oscar, by saying that the possibility of loving anyone other than Oscar is impossible, he is impossible, he will swear it a thousand or ten thousand times if Oscars needs to hear it. ©Ikeda will swear it a thousand or ten thousand times if Oscars needs to hear it. ©Ikeda Riyoko/Shueisha. [URL] Riyoko/Shueisha. [URL]

Social practice among BL consumers

The culture surrounding consumers of BL works have long been the academic interest of many scholars over the years. Fans, in Japanese, have often been called otaku. An otaku is someone who devotes to a leisure activity or fiction etc., (Hester, 2015) and in some cases, someone who has an extreme obsession with certain subjects. Fans of BL and yaoi works started calling themselves fujoshi (a play on the polite word for ‘ladies’ written with the kanji character for ‘rotten’ instead) around the 2000s, which Hester (2015) describes as a gender-specific otaku interested in “male romantic and homoerotic relationships” (p.173). Galbraith (2015) gives another definition, giving clues as to why they are ‘rotten’:

One, fujoshi are in relationships with fictional men rather than actual members of the opposite sex. Two, fujoshi prefer male-male romance to male-female romance. […] Three, fujoshi have deviated from the social roles and responsibilities that define women. In homosocial and imaginary relations, yaoi fans do not have to face reality and grow up (they are “girls”) and fail to achieve reproductive maturity (they are “rotten”). (p.154).

Like the term yaoi, fujoshi was also coined in a jokingly self-deprecating manner (Galbraith, 2015). Many of these female fans are heterosexual, though some define themselves as lesbians (despite having boyfriends) (Galbraith, 2011). Welker (2011) has noted that a bigger part of early BL fans identified as lesbian, seen from their correspondence in the gay magazine, Barazoku. One of the social practices that fujoshi partake in, outside of creating d표̅jinshi, is engaging in moe-banashi or moe talk. Moe is an excited or euphoric response to virtual topics, such as fictional characters (Galbraith, 2011). These talks, engaged with friends or like-minded fans in face to face or online situations, consist of taking characters (fictional, parodies of real people, or anthropomorphized animals, objects, etc.) and coupling (assigning seme-uke roles) them and putting them in imagined scenarios (Galbraith, 2015). Assigning seme-uke narratives on objects can be endless, as exemplified by the teacup and teapot9 in Suzuki’s (2015) writing, and

9 The teacup was uke and the pot was seme, as the act of pouring tea into a cup implies ‘inserting’.

Hokusai’s painting The Great Wave of Kanagawa10(Figure 6) (Galbraith, 2015). A way to help this process along is by the utilization of neta (‘material’) communication, wherein the “topic itself is less important than the communication” (Galbraith, 2011, p.214). Neta presents a topic for participants to discuss materials, encouraging creativity and interaction, to chase the high of moe, which produces a feeling of solidarity and excitement among fujoshi fans (Galbraith, 2011). Here, Galbraith (2015) introduces the concept of female fans reading BL works as a pastime for pleasure and entertainment, in contrast to early scholars research into women’s BL reading as a way for girls to ‘manifest’ themselves, to explore sexuality away from the pressures of childbearing expectations (Schodt, 1996, & Takeuchi, 2010).

Male fans of BL works had been largely invisible but had started to gain visibility in the early 2000s, with the help of sociologist Yoshimoto Taimatsu’s publication of a survey that fudanshi participated in (Nagaike, 2015). The word fudanshi (danshi meaning ‘young man’) is a play on fujoshi. Nagaike (2015) speculates that the appeal of BL works for fudanshi is an “escape from the bounds of conventional masculine identity” (p.128), and the highly romanticized love stories, rather than the sexualities of the characters. Most of the men participating in Yoshimoto’s survey also preferred stories with less explicit sexual content. This interpretation parallels early scholars’ view on female BL readers, as they were both forms of escapism from reality and gender norms.

Figure 6 Hokusai. (1830-32). Under the Wave of Kanagawa/The Great Waves of Kanagawa. [Woodblock print]. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, United States. [URL]

10 Famous woodblock print painting by artist Hokusai of a wave that is about to crash over a tiny boat. The seme is the wave that has been “pushed too far” by the uke, the boat, and responds with a show of “overwhelming force and power” (Galbraith, 2015, p.161).

Evolution of the genre – the 2010s and 2020s

From the highly restrictive narratives of BL manga, how has the genre evolved? The passing of years has brought out many changes to BL work. This can be seen in the rigid narrative structure of the ‘BL formula’, introduced formatively by Mizoguchi (2003), loosening in recent titles as well as representations of other sexual orientations and visibility of contemporary social issues that LGBT+ people face. For example, Tagame Gengoroh’s manga, Ot표̅to no Otto (My Brother’s Husband). Tagame Gengoroh, a self-identified gay man and prolific manga artist active since the 1980s, has produced many works with LGBT+ themes (“Gengoroh Tagame,” 2021). The story of My Brother’s Husband (2014-2017) follows Yaichi, a single father living with his daughter Kana, facing, and overcoming his prejudices when his estranged twin brother’s Canadian husband, Mike, travels to Japan for three weeks. Yaichi’s twin brother, Ry표̅ji, had passed away prior to the start of the story, prompting Mike to travel to his husband’s home country, fulfilling the promise of visiting that the couple had made. Mike also wanted to learn more about Ry표̅ji’s past and family. Kana quickly accepts Mike as part of the family, but Yaichi is slow to warm up to him. The story ultimately ends on a happy note, with Yaichi welcoming Mike as family. This award-winning manga inspired a live-action-drama series as well (“My Brother’s Husband,” 2021).

Another LGBT+ work that has become incredibly popular among LGBT+ fans of manga is Kamatani Yuhki’s Shimanami Tasogare (Our Dreams at Dusk). Kamatani, an out asexual11 and x-gender12 person (“Yuhki Kamatani,” 2021), is celebrated for their portrayal of trans characters. Our Dreams at Dusk (2015-2018) is set in Hiroshima, Japan, and is about a closeted high school student, Tasuku, (Figure 7) coming to terms with his homosexuality with the help of the people frequenting the local (community) drop-in center. Other members of the center include, ‘Someone’ (does not prefer to be named), a woman who identifies as asexual, Haruko

11 A person who is not sexually attracted to others (“Asexuality,” 2021). 12 A term used in Japan for a transgender identity, that it neither female nor male. ‘Non-binary’ or ‘gender-queer’ is often used in Western context, meaning someone who does not identify within the gender-binary (“Third gender,” 2021).

30 and Saki, who are in a lesbian relationship, Utsumi, a trans man13, and Misora, a sixth-grader who is in the process of exploring their gender identity. The series also deals with bullying, evidenced by Tasuku’s fear of his classmates’ reaction to him being outed, and homophobia, with incidents that Haruko and Saki must deal with. Konayama Kata’s manga Fukakai na Boku no Subete o (Love Me for Who I AM), stars a non-binary character, Mogumo, who works at a maid café.14 Other characters included Mogumo’s fellow high school students and staff working at the maid café (a cisgender lesbian, a cisgender man, a gay man, and two trans women). This manga started running in 2018 and the last volume is set to come out in May 2021 (“Love Me for Who I Am,” 2021). Though these works were not categorized under either the BL or yuri manga genre, they undeniably have LGBT+ themes, resulting in fans grouping them together.

Some other fictional (manga and anime) titles that include LGBT+ themes are: Aoi Hana (Sweet Blue Flowers) and Horo Musuko (Wandering Son) by Shimura Takako, Tokyo Godfathers directed by Kon Satoshi and produced by animation studio Madhouse, Ao no Furagu (Blue Flag) by KAITO15, Oya ga Urusai node K표̅hai to Gis표̅ Kekkon shitemita (I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up) by Kodama Naoko, and more.

13 “a man who was assigned female at birth”, or FtM (female to male), someone who’s gender identity did not fit with their biological one (“Trans man,” 2021). 14 A café that originated in otaku culture, where waiters and waitresses dress up in maid costumes (often based on French maids) and act as the customers’ servants (“Maid café,” 2021). 15 What sets this manga apart was that it was serialized in weekly magazine Sh표̅nen JUMP, whose demographic is young boys (Viri, 2020).

Figure 7 Kamatani, Y. (2015). Vol.1, p.59. Panel from Our Dreams At Dusk where the lead character, Tasuku, cries in regret and frustration for having to lie and hide his sexual identity, to please those around him. "Even though I'm about to die, why don't they?" ©Kamatani Yuhki/Shogakukan. [URL]

Conclusion

LGBT+ themes were first examined through a historical lens via ancient literature where the concept of nanshoku (male-male sexual love from the perspective of a man), shudo (the way of loving youths in military traditions), the stories of chigo (nanshoku in monastic traditions), and the play with gender seen in Torikaebaya Monogatari, primarily with the help of Pflugfelder’s research (1992 & 1999). Society’s reactions to nanshoku literature, and the transformation of it to a more modern setting was also reviewed.

And then, from the ‘Fabulous Forty-niners’ commercialized sh표̅nen-ai work in the 1970s, that was steeped in tanbi concepts, and featured mostly bish표̅nen characters meeting their tragic ends, to the 1980s of self-published parodied work, free from copyright issues and tame sexual expression, and rigidity in commercialized BL narrative structure from the 1990s (Mizoguchi, 2003, & Suzuki, 2015), BL works have come a long way in its evolution and diversification. With fan culture around to encourage creativity, from the changes of story-telling and expression in the pre-2000s, and the increase of inclusivity in post-2000s work, BL and yaoi works are sure to continue to create innovative work. With numerous existing papers on the topic, scholars’ interest and motivation to this study will likely endure as well.

In conclusion, the 2010s and 2020s concluded in a shift from visibility of BL (boys’ love) and yuri works to representation of LGBT+ identities. Coherent, and accepting, identities such as gay, lesbian, transgender, asexual, and more are now being represented in Japanese fiction and literature. Character tropes, such as seme and uke, persist in the genre but non-stereotypical portrayals are now present as well. As has been observed in the evolution of commercialized and self-published works, these genres are always changing. Thus, this thesis will conclude on the understanding and belief that they will continue to transform, for better or for worse.

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