Arts, Faculty of
Asian Studies, Department of
DSpace
UBCV
Eshghi Furuzawa, Shirin
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
University of British Columbia
In the early 2000s, Japanese publisher Shinchōsha introduced the By Women For Women R-18 Literary Prize, Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō 女による女のためのR-18文学賞. This prize, which is administered by women editors and which is overseen by a panel of women judges, solicits women-authored sexual writing directed towards women readers. Within this dissertation, I examine five prize-winning stories and investigate whether they incorporate concepts and themes that are included in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education, which has been developed in line with Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) best practices, and with a view to advance women’s equity and empowerment. Using feminist theory, I also consider whether and how patriarchal processes have been challenged through the creation and dissemination of the texts. Through this process, I determine 1) whether this women-centred literary environment, created through a private publishing house, allows for the development of sexual writing that potentially subverts patriarchal systems of disempowerment, such as the current governmental and societal restrictions on the accessibility of sexual knowledge and sexual writing, including within libraries; and 2) whether the writing produced within this prize conveys sexual knowledge that potentially empowers women readers. In addition to reviewing the origin and scope of the R-18 Literary Prize, I also provide a contextualizing overview of Japanese and global sexuality education practices and consider the patriarchal pressures on literary expression vis-à-vis women’s sexuality in Japan by looking back at the publication history of literary works with sexual content for and about women. While the prize stories examined here have a tendency to replicate hegemonic ideas of sexuality, the production of the stories is also empowering. Each story touches on topics highlighted in the UNESCO Guidance and provides a basis for discussion and reflection for readers, and a venue for sexual expression for writers. The prize and its stories normalize the idea that sexual knowledge is important for women’s understanding of their rights vis-à-vis their sexuality in order to achieve equity, autonomy and freedom.
ACCESSING POWER AND KNOWLEDGE THROUGH WOMEN’S SEXUAL WRITING IN MODERN JAPAN: EDUCATION, RECREATION, AND THE R-18 LITERARY PRIZE by SHIRIN ESHGHI FURUZAWA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Asian Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) July 2024 © Shirin Eshghi Furuzawa, 2024 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Accessing Power and Knowledge Through Women’s Sexual Writing in Modern Japan: Education, Recreation, and the R-18 Literary Prize submitted by Shirin Eshghi Furuzawa in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Studies Examining Committee: Sharalyn Orbaugh, Professor, Asian Studies, UBC Supervisor Christina Laffin, Associate Professor, Asian Studies, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Ayaka Yoshimizu, Assistant Professor, Asian Studies, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Eric Meyers, Associate Professor, School of Information, UBC University Examiner Heather O’Brien, Professor, School of Information, UBC University Examiner Rebecca Copeland, Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Washington University in St. Louis External Examiner Additional Supervisory Committee Members: Joshua S. Mostow, Professor, Asian Studies, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract In the early 2000s, Japanese publisher Shinchōsha introduced the By Women For Women R-18 Literary Prize, Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō 女による女のための R-18 文学賞. This prize, which is administered by women editors and which is overseen by a panel of women judges, solicits women-authored sexual writing directed towards women readers. Within this dissertation, I examine five prize-winning stories and investigate whether they incorporate concepts and themes that are included in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education, which has been developed in line with Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) best practices, and with a view to advance women’s equity and empowerment. Using feminist theory, I also consider whether and how patriarchal processes have been challenged through the creation and dissemination of the texts. Through this process, I determine 1) whether this women-centred literary environment, created through a private publishing house, allows for the development of sexual writing that potentially subverts patriarchal systems of disempowerment, such as the current governmental and societal restrictions on the accessibility of sexual knowledge and sexual writing, including within libraries; and 2) whether the writing produced within this prize conveys sexual knowledge that potentially empowers women readers. In addition to reviewing the origin and scope of the R-18 Literary Prize, I also provide a contextualizing overview of Japanese and global sexuality education practices and consider iv the patriarchal pressures on literary expression vis-à-vis women’s sexuality in Japan by looking back at the publication history of literary works with sexual content for and about women. While the prize stories examined here have a tendency to replicate hegemonic ideas of sexuality, the production of the stories is also empowering. Each story touches on topics highlighted in the UNESCO Guidance and provides a basis for discussion and reflection for readers, and a venue for sexual expression for writers. The prize and its stories normalize the idea that sexual knowledge is important for women’s understanding of their rights vis-à-vis their sexuality in order to achieve equity, autonomy and freedom. v Lay Summary Japanese publisher Shinchōsha’s By Women For Women R-18 Literary Prize, Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō 女による女のための R-18 文学賞 solicits women-authored sexual writing which is directed towards women readers. The prize is administered by women editors, and is overseen by a panel of women judges. Within this dissertation, I examine whether this women-centred literary environment challenges a patriarchal system of disempowerment that exists under societal and governmental ideals of chastity. I also consider the historical role of publishers and libraries in managing access to sexual writing within Japan. I examine specific prize-winning stories and discuss how the prize and its stories can be considered a source of sexual knowledge and empowerment by calling into question chastity ideals while broaching topics deemed essential within comprehensive sexuality education. vi Preface This dissertation is original, unpublished, independent work by the author, Shirin Eshghi Furuzawa. vii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ iii Lay Summary ................................................................................................................................. v Preface ........................................................................................................................................... vi Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................ vii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. ix List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ x Conventions ................................................................................................................................... xi Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... xii Dedication .................................................................................................................................... xiv Chapter One: Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 Defining Pornography, Erotica and Obscenity ........................................................................ 9 Pornography ..................................................................................................................... 10 Erotica ............................................................................................................................... 16 Obscenity .......................................................................................................................... 21 Japanese Terminology for Sexual Media .............................................................................. 28 Chapter Layout ...................................................................................................................... 35 Chapter Two: Comprehensive Sexuality Education ................................................................ 38 International Standards on Comprehensive Sexuality Education ......................................... 38 Sexuality Education in Japan ................................................................................................. 44 Guarding Against Sexual Perils in the 1900s .................................................................. 44 Sexuality Education Under Siege ..................................................................................... 49 Chapter Three: Sexual Writing and its History in Japan ....................................................... 59 Educational Literature for Women in the Edo Period ........................................................... 64 Ōraimono and its Emphasis on Traditional Values ........................................................ 65 Shunga Parodies of Ōraimono ......................................................................................... 68 Sexual Materials for Women Readers ............................................................................. 69 Women’s Authorship in Classical Sexual Texts .............................................................. 74 Sexual Writing for and by Women from the Meiji Period to the Mid-Heisei Period ........... 76 Shifting Perspectives on Gender and the Emergence of Women’s Magazines ............. 76 New Literary Spaces for Women Readers and Writers ................................................. 83 The Impact of War on Women’s Literature ................................................................... 91 Manga and Libraries: Enemies of the State ..................................................................... 99 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 109 Chapter Four: The R-18 Literary Prize .................................................................................. 112 The Significance of Literary Prizes in Japan ....................................................................... 112 Framing the Prize: Kannō for Women ................................................................................ 115 viii Submission Criteria ............................................................................................................. 120 Phases of the Prize ............................................................................................................... 121 Selection Committee ........................................................................................................... 122 Prize Categories ................................................................................................................... 123 Selection Process ................................................................................................................. 129 Reception of the Prize ......................................................................................................... 130 Distribution in Libraries ...................................................................................................... 132 Chapter Five – Stories from the First Phase of the R-18 Literary Prize .............................. 135 Methodological Approach ................................................................................................... 135 “Aozora Cherī” .................................................................................................................... 142 UNESCO Guidance and “Aozora Cherī” ....................................................................... 147 “Magenta 100” ..................................................................................................................... 149 UNESCO Guidance and “Magenta 100” ........................................................................ 156 “Mikumari” .......................................................................................................................... 158 UNESCO Guidance and “Mikumari” ............................................................................. 163 Chapter Six – Stories from the Second Phase of the R-18 Literary Prize ............................ 167 “Manga Niku to Boku” ........................................................................................................ 167 UNESCO Guidance and “Manga Niku to Boku” ........................................................... 173 “Across The Universe” ........................................................................................................ 175 UNESCO Guidance and “Across the Universe” ............................................................ 184 Chapter Seven: Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 187 The R-18 Prize Genre vs. Pornography ............................................................................... 187 Empowerment through Sexual Knowledge ......................................................................... 193 Skirting Potential Censors ................................................................................................... 196 Sexual Freedom: Enemy of the Church ............................................................................... 201 Women, Life, Freedom ........................................................................................................ 205 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 208 ix List of Tables Table 1 – Grand Prize and Readers’ Choice Winners 2011-2023 ........................................... 125 Table 2 – Grand Prize and Readers’ Choice Winners 2002-2010 ........................................... 126 Table 3 – Excellence Award Winners ....................................................................................... 127 Table 4 – Tomochika Award Winners ...................................................................................... 128 x List of Figures Figure 1 – Characteristics of Pornography ................................................................................. 16 Figure 2 – Characteristics of Erotica ........................................................................................... 21 Figure 3 – Characteristics of Obscenity ...................................................................................... 25 Figure 4 – Comparison Between Characteristics of Erotica, Pornography and Obscenity ..... 26 Figure 5 – Key features of Comprehensive Sexuality Education, as defined in the revised edition of UNESCO's International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education. Courtesy of Joanna Herat et al. ........................................................................................................................ 39 Figure 6 – Key concepts and topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education. Courtesy of UNESCO. ............................................................................... 40 Figure 7 – Pie chart of concepts and topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education with darker shades of topics in the outer ring indicating areas covered by the Japanese school curriculum on sexuality education. ............................... 55 Figure 8 – Pie chart of concepts & topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education ............................................................................................................... 137 Figure 9 – Pie chart of concepts and topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education with topics included in “Aozora Cherī” indicated with a darker fill colour and excluded topics with lighter fill. ........................................................... 148 Figure 10 – Pie chart of concepts and topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education with topics included in “Magenta 100” indicated with a darker fill colour and excluded topics with lighter fill. ........................................................... 157 Figure 11 – Pie chart of concepts and topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education with topics included in “Mikumari” indicated with a darker fill colour and excluded topics with lighter fill. ....................................................................... 164 Figure 12 – Pie chart of concepts and topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education with topics included in “Manga Niku to Boku” indicated with a darker fill colour and excluded topics with lighter fill. ................................................ 174 Figure 13 – Pie chart of concepts and topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education with topics included in “Across the Universe” indicated with a darker fill colour and excluded topics with lighter fill. ................................................ 185 xi Conventions All translations of quoted text are my own unless otherwise indicated. For Japanese-language publications, Japanese names are formatted in Japanese order, with last name first, and with no commas, both within the body of the dissertation and in the bibliography. I have included the Japanese text as it appears in the source quoted. Any deviations have been noted. xii Acknowledgements I gratefully acknowledge that the majority of the research and writing of this dissertation was done on the ancestral, traditional, and unceded territory of the xwməθkwəy ̓əm (Musqueam). This dissertation would not be possible without the unwavering support of my mentor and supervisor Sharalyn Orbaugh, who believed in my ability to pull this off, and encouraged my pursuit of this unicorn project. I also benefited greatly from the thoughtful and expert input received from committee members Joshua S. Mostow, Christina Laffin and Ayaka Yoshimizu. It took a long time for the dissertation to take shape, and I am indebted to each of these individuals for their guidance and wisdom. I also appreciate the additional feedback I received from Rebecca Copeland, Eric Meyers and Heather O'Brien, and would like to thank Richard Carpiano for his guidance during the first leg of this work. As a librarian, I am deeply aware of the tremendous amount of work that goes into the selection, acquisition and maintenance of every print and electronic resource I used for this dissertation, and I offer my thanks to everyone at UBC Library, the British Library, the London School of Economics Library and the network of InterLibrary Loan partners. Further, I am grateful for the encouragement, support and feedback I received from Aleteia Greenwood, Katherine Kalsbeek, Saeyong Kim, and Chris Rea. I also extend my thanks to librarians Tomoko Kitayama Yen and Jeremy Buhler for their expert assistance. xiii The creation of this dissertation intersected with the onset of the pandemic and several joyful and sorrowful life events. I would like to thank those who supported us during this period including the Yip-Ono family (Sarah, Juliana, David, Wendy and Santa) as well as Manami and Tristan Calvo, Corine and Bruce Clark, Ella and Yasmin Diaz, Emma and Mei Kuusella, Seamus, and most especially, the entire Furuzawa family and R.R.S. Many people have asked how I have been able to work on this degree and this dissertation with young children and with work. This is completely thanks to my exceptional husband, Aki, who provides both sunshine and water to our growing family. At the same time, he has helped me think through diagrams, has commented on chapters and ideas, and has provided me with encouragement on the days that I felt defeated. I am beyond grateful for his presence in my life. Kimiya and Rumi are daily reminders of what is truly important, and both have made this dissertation at once more difficult to accomplish and more meaningful to see though. I am so very lucky to be their parent. Finally, I am forever thankful for my late parents’ encouragement, although I am sure they would not have approved of the pages to follow. xiv Dedication For Aki, my ultra superstar, and for Kimiya and Rumi, my mini superstars. 1 Chapter One: Introduction There are countless dirty novels in the world, but ninety-five percent of them are by men and for men. Even if we read them, are you not infuriated thinking “a woman would never get aroused like that,” “that’s so stupid”? For you ladies who have casually thought of reading or writing an erotic story, a story which feels natural for even women to read, we have established the “By Women, For Women R-18 Literary Prize”!! Thus began the initial 2001 announcement of what was then publisher Shinchōsha’s newest prize, the Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō 女による女のための R-18 文学賞 (By Women, For Women R-18 Literary Prize), which will hereafter be referred to as the R-18 Literary Prize.1 The prize, which was first awarded in 2002, was developed and continues to be managed by women editors. The prize is judged by an all-women panel, and is awarded to women writers, whose stories are meant for women readers.2 Initially, the main criteria for submissions was that sei 性 (sex) be included as a theme. While the term sei is broad in meaning and can encompass gender as well as sexuality, the solicitation of stories was framed with words and context such as the 2001 announcement 1 Shinchōsha 新潮社, Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō: dokusha mo sanka dekiru! 女による女のための R-18 文学賞：読者も参加できる！(Last archived November 30, 2001). Internet Archive Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20011130132818/http://webshincho.com/; Original Japanese: 世にエッチな小説は数あれど、その 95 パーセントは男性による男性向けのものです。私たちが読んでも「女はぜーったいそんな風には感じないの！」「そんなアホな！」……読んでいて怒りさえ覚えてしまいませんか？そこで、女性が読んでもナチュラルに感じられる、エロティックな小説を読んでみたい、書いてみたい、という思いをふと抱いた諸姉諸嬢のために【女による女のためのＲ－18 文学賞】を創設いたしました!! 2 The R-18 Literary Prize’s promotional material uses the word onna 女 (woman/women) to describe the prize stories’ authors as well as the judges and readers. The scope of the term onna is never fully explained. My use of the word “women” in this study refers to people who identify as women. 2 above, which made it clear that the publisher was seeking stories that incorporated depictions of sexual acts. Although this requirement was eventually dropped, the prize-winning stories continue to include themes related to sexual exploration and experience.3 In the following chapters, I choose to refer to fictional material that reflects sexual experiences as “sexual writing” to encompass the potential for these stories to include depictions of sexual activity, sexual attraction, or the aftermath of sexual experience. I will explain later in this chapter why I chose this term rather than other terms that are sometimes used to depict works with sexual content. In this dissertation I will explore the ramifications of the prize, particularly in terms of knowledge, power, and patriarchy. Cultural anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner describes patriarchy as a “combination of male hierarchy, male solidarity, and female exclusion, and the disdain for women that all that assumes and reproduces.”4 Sheila M. McMahon, a scholar of social work who specializes in the prevention of sexualized violence, defines patriarchy as “a sexual system of power in which the male possesses superior power and economic privilege, [that] is often central to feminists’ explanations of sexual violence.”5 Meanwhile, gender studies scholar Sechiyama Kaku 瀬地山角 asserts that “Patriarchy is a comprehensive 3 “‘R-18 bungakushō’ kara jitsuryoku-ha ga zokuzoku: Josei no sakuhin, josei ga senkō,”「Rー18 文学賞」から実力派が続々 女性の作品 女性が選考, Tōkyō Shinbun 東京新聞, May 27, 2013. 4 Sherry B. Ortner, “Patriarchy,” Feminist Anthropology 3, no. 2 (2022): 309. 5 Sheila M. McMahon, “Theory, Feminist,” in Sexual Violence and Abuse: An Encyclopedia of Prevention, Impacts, and Recovery, ed. Judy L. Postmus (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2013), 671. 3 set of relationships and norms characterized by a gender-based allocation of set roles and a distribution of power that places men in a superior position.”6 Based on these definitions, does the R-18 Literary Prize defy patriarchy? In offering women sole agency to create, judge, and consume sexual writing, does the prize defy a “sexual system of power” which relies on the exclusion of women? Does it subvert gender roles in terms of the depictions found in the award-winning works and the processes of production and distribution? Within this dissertation I examine ways in which sexual writing that is created and read by women through the R-18 Literary Prize play a role in sexuality education within Japan, and the ways this may subvert patriarchal power dynamics that promote chastity education.7 I consider chastity in the context of societal expectations regarding women’s sexual activities and state objectives to control or influence women’s sexuality. This reflects both English and Japanese-language understandings of the concept of chastity. The term “chastity” is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary (hereafter OED) as “abstinence from all sexual intercourse” with an additional definition of “purity from unlawful sexual intercourse.”8 The Japanese term junketsu 純潔 translates to “purity” and is also used in the context of sexual restraint 6 Sechiyama Kaku, “Patriarchy in East Asia,” in Patriarchy in East Asia (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 14. 7 I use the term “sexuality education” and not “sex education” to align with the terminology applied within Comprehensive Sexuality Education, which I will explain in detail in Chapter Two. While some institutions use the terms “sex education” and “sexuality education” interchangeably, sexuality education often incorporates a broader set of concepts, including relationships, gender, and body awareness as opposed to only considering physical interactions and conception. Tracy Clelland, “An introduction to relationships and sexuality education (RSE),” The Education Hub, February 18, 2022. https://theeducationhub.org.nz/an-introduction-to-relationships-and-sexuality-education-rse/ 8 OED, s.v. “chastity (n.),” September 2023. https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/6259228517. 4 and chastity.9 Further, the term teisetsu 貞節 is used to describe fidelity of women towards their husbands.10 Japanese gender studies scholar Isabelle Konuma translates teisetsu as chastité (chastity) in French, and asserts that the term was used to describe the legal boundaries of sexual relations outside of marriage for women in the early twentieth century, the period that saw the production of the women-created journal Seitō 青鞜 (Blue Stockings, 1912–1916), which I will discuss later in this dissertation.11 In this way, chastity reflects not simply a personal choice of restricting sexual activity and intercourse, but also a societal and governmental standard of acceptability applied to women. I have drawn from my personal background and professional experience throughout the creation of this dissertation. Following my undergraduate degree in French literature and Japanese Studies, I completed a Master’s degree in Library and Information Studies. I subsequently attained a Master’s degree in Asian Studies with a focus on Japanese literature. My two last names reflect both my Iranian heritage and the Japanese heritage of my husband. I acknowledge that I will never have a complete understanding of the realities of being a Japanese woman residing in Japan, the very individuals that the stories highlighted in this dissertation are targeted towards and the lives of whom they are meant to reflect. I am 9 Puroguresshibu Wa-Ei chūjiten プログレッシブ和英中英語辞典 (Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary), s.v. “junketsu” 純潔, JapanKnowledge. 10 Nihon kokugo daijiten 日本国語大辞典, s.v. “Teisetsu” てい-せつ【貞節】(Shōgakukan 小学館). JapanKnowledge. 11 Isabelle Konuma, “La chasteté, d’un devoir vers un droit, au prisme du débat (1914-1916) autour de Seitō,” Ebisu: études japonaises 48 (automne-hiver 2012). https://doi.org/10.4000/ebisu.658 5 also a mother of two small but ever-growing children, and I approach the topic of sexuality with a concern for how the teaching and learning of this topic will impact them in future years. I have spent the vast majority of my working life in libraries and have worked as a librarian for almost twenty years. How fictional works on sexuality can contribute to sexuality education and empowerment remains an important consideration for me in my role as a librarian. Libraries define themselves as spaces where continuing and life-long education takes place. In the case of public libraries, fiction and non-fiction titles are made available to members of the public both for recreational and non-recreational purposes. Public libraries are used by those who have finished formal schooling as well as currently-enrolled students who look to public library collections as a supplement to their school or academic library collections. Public libraries also serve individuals with limited access to formalized education and offer a space where users can learn independently about topics that are important to them. Within the academic and school environment, the library can provide a broader set of resources and information than what may be introduced in the classroom. In addition to holding material that supports curriculum and classroom goals, fiction is a common part of academic and school collections to promote general literacy and to complement the interests of student populations. Librarians often consider the freedom to read to be a principle of primary importance to the library's role in educating students and the public. We advocate for the freedom to distribute texts, based on a belief that a reader needs as much access to information as 6 possible to fulfil their personal aspirations. Library advocacy is portrayed as a perilous fight for human rights within the manga series Toshokan sensō 図書館戦争 (Library Wars) by Yumi Kiiro 弓きいろ and Arikawa Hiro 有川浩. The first volume opens with the following statement from the fictional ‘Library Freedom Act’: Libraries have the freedom to acquire their collections. Libraries have the freedom to circulate materials in their collections. Libraries guarantee the privacy of their patrons. Libraries oppose any type of censorship. When libraries are imperiled, librarians will join together to secure their freedom.12 Despite being a work of fiction, this statement in Library Wars is based on the Statement on Intellectual Freedom in Libraries released by the Nihon toshokan kyōkai 日本図書館協会 (Japan Library Association) which proclaims shiru jiyū 知る自由 (the Right to Know) as a human right.13 Similar advocacy is expressed in the Canadian Federation of Library Association’s Statement on Intellectual Freedom and Libraries below: Libraries have a core responsibility to safeguard and facilitate access to constitutionally protected expressions of knowledge, imagination, ideas, and opinion, including those which some individuals and groups consider unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable. To this end, in accordance with their mandates and 12 Yumi Kiiro and Arikawa Hiro, Library Wars, trans. Watabe Kinami (San Francisco, CA: Viz Media, 2010), 1. 13Nihon toshokan kyōkai 日本図書館協会 (Japan Library Association), “Statement on Intellectual Freedom in Libraries.” http://www.jla.or.jp/portals/0/html/jiyu/english.html; Nihon toshokan kyōkai 日本図書館協会 (Japan Library Association), “Toshokan no jiyū ni kansuru sengen” 図書館の自由に関する宣言. https://www.jla.or.jp/library/gudeline/tabid/232/Default.aspx 7 professional values and standards, libraries provide, defend and promote equitable access to the widest possible variety of expressive content and resist calls for censorship and the adoption of systems that deny or restrict access to resources.14 Underlying these statements is the belief that knowledge is power. For patriarchal institutions, knowledge about sex and sexuality can be a danger to societal norms that keep the patriarchy stable. As a result, a community’s library resources on sex can become a focal point for discussion due to their implied power to influence readers. Although outside of formalized curriculum, sexual materials that are housed in school libraries and public libraries are challenged for teaching children about sexual practices and sexual identities that go beyond heteronormative expectations of particular parents, members of the public, and politicians. The American Library Association (ALA) compiles data on attempted book bans and the year 2022 represented a record-breaking number of challenged books within the United States. Amongst the thirteen most frequently challenged books that year, only one had instructional content, a self-help book called This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson. All other titles were either fiction or memoir, including graphic novels. The ALA documentation lists the reasons why each title was challenged, and the one reason that was cited for every title was content that was perceived to be “sexually explicit.”15 Additionally, works that are 14 Canadian Federation of Library Associations, “Statement on Intellectual Freedom and Libraries.” https://cfla-fcab.ca/en/guidelines-and-position-papers/statement-on-intellectual-freedom-and-libraries/ 15 American Library Association, The State of America’s Libraries 2023: A Report from the American Library Association, 2023, 6. https://www.ala.org/news/sites/ala.org.news/files/content/state-of-americas-libraries-report-2023-web-version.pdf 8 challenged often incorporate depictions of sexual activity or sexual identity that fall outside of heteronormative relationships and patriarchal family-making constructs. The works enumerated on the ALA list sit outside formalized curricula and yet are challenged based on the notion that these resources are powerful in the way they transmit knowledge. Librarians are keen to defend these works and similar titles, yet how do we know that sexual writing is a source of power to readers? In this dissertation, I will consider how sexuality education that is framed and managed within standardized Japanese educational curriculum compares with the knowledge about sex and sexuality that comes from the award-winning stories of the R-18 Literary Prize. I will first examine the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education (which will be referred to as the UNESCO Guidance moving forward).16 Keeping in mind that Japanese sexuality education curriculum is regulated by a governmental ministry with a male-dominated power structure, and is applied by a male-dominated group of school administrators, I will also consider how this curriculum compares to the women-centred corpus of texts in the R-18 16 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education: An Evidence-Informed Approach, revised edition, 2018. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000260770.locale=en 9 Literary prize in its ability to transmit a broad and accessible form of knowledge on sexuality that the UNESCO Guidance dictates.17 Defining Pornography, Erotica and Obscenity Beyond examining the R-18 Literary Prize and its stories in particular, I will also consider the societal and literary movements leading up to the initiation of the prize, and will examine how these movements have played a role in the dissemination of sexual knowledge throughout early-modern and modern Japanese history. As part of my analysis of these topics, I will examine scholarly works related to sexual writing and other sexual media. Since this scholarship employs various terms to refer to both writing and other media with sexual content, it is important to understand the complexities that exist through these labels, both in English and in Japanese. In the English-language context, sexually-explicit literature has often been labelled “pornography,” “erotica,” or “obscenity.” Below, I will briefly compare how these terms are commonly used to describe sexual writing, and will examine how the terms are used within 17 Data from 2023 indicates that less than 15 percent of middle managers employed by the Monbukagakushō 文部科学省 (The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, MEXT) identify as women. Monbukagakushō 文部科学省 (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Japan), “Kanrishoku he no ninyō jōkyō nado ni tsuite (Reiwa go nen do)” 管理職への任用状況等について (令和５年度）(January 29, 2024), 1. https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/houdou/mext_01334.html According to a 2023 census of educators in Japan, only 12.4 percent of high school administrators (including principals and vice-principals) and only 15.4 percent of junior high school administrators identify as women. Monbukagakushō 文部科学省 (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Japan), “Hōdō happyō” 報道発表 (December 20, 2023), 4. www.mext.go.jp/content/20230823-mxt_chousa01-000031377_001.pdf 10 the practical categorization of sexual media (both sexual writing and visual media) within research libraries. Pornography The term “pornography” is loaded with connotations, and at the same time, there is no set agreement on its parameters. In their study of how scholars relate to the term, McKee et al. surveyed researchers from various fields on how they defined the word. Following a request for an “open-ended definition,” “over three-quarters of the 36 respondents… included the term ‘explicit’ within their definition…just over half included ‘intention to arouse.’”18 This falls in line with various definitions of pornography that exist within scholarship. The OED defines pornography as something that is meant to “stimulate erotic feelings rather than aesthetic feelings.”19 Meanwhile, in her work The Pornography Industry, gender and sexual politics scholar Shira Tarrant refers to pornography as “visual depictions that are intended to sexually arouse the viewer, such as still photos, magazines, adult cable television channels, or VHS movies. Today, pornography is more likely to mean online video.”20 18 Alan McKee, Paul Byron, Katerina Litsou and Robert Ingham, “Defining Pornography,” in What do we Know about the Effects of Pornography After Fifty Years of Academic Research? Eds. Alan McKee, Katerina Litsou and Paul Byron (New York: Routledge, 2022), 32. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003232032 19 OED Online, s.v. "pornography, n.” Oxford University Press, December 2022. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/148012 20 Shira Tarrant, The Pornography Industry: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2016), 1. ProQuest Ebook Central. 11 Tarrant’s categorization of pornography above qualifies it as a visual genre, which is supported by medical historian Sarah Toulalan’s description below: Today we largely understand pornography as a kind of visual material that presents explicit images of naked bodies and sexual acts through the media of digital and photographic images or film rather than as a type of written text, as the development of new technologies enabled the proliferation of pictures, first as still images and then as ‘movies.’ The advent of the internet in the late twentieth century further facilitated their distribution.21 Yet, libraries do not adhere to the interpretation of pornography as a visual genre, and the Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) “pornography” applies to both image and text-based material. Rather than concerning itself with format, the LCSH, which is used extensively by academic libraries across North America to catalogue collections, has historically implied that pornographic material is immoral. The current heading “pornography” was preceded by the heading “Literature, immoral.” In 1971, librarian Sanford Berman published a scathing rebuke of the LCSH. Berman highlighted racist, homophobic, colonialist and sexist terminology that was rampant within the LCSH at the time. With regards to the “Literature, immoral” heading, Berman states: … LC [Library of Congress] has accepted whole-hog the Mrs. Grundy/”Nosey Parker’’ dictum that pleasureful sex or undisguised eroticism (as distinct from “soft” sex in TV commercials and magazine advertisements) is automatically tantamount to 21 Sarah Toulalan, “Pornography, Procreation and Pleasure in Early Modern England,” in The Cambridge Companion to Erotic Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2017), 105. Cambridge Companions Online: Full Collection. 12 immorality. By what authority, pray tell, does LC, or anyone else, determine that an erotic novel or volume of poetry is purely because of its sex content immoral?22 Literary scholar Alain Vaillant explains that pornographie, the French term for pornography, was derived from the 1769 work by writer Rétif de la Bretonne (1734–1806) entitled Le Pornographe ou Idées d’un honnête homme sur un projet de règlement pour les prostituées (The Pornographer or an Honest Man’s Ideas on Regulating Prostitutes). In this work, Rétif introduces the word pornographe as a writer who deals with prostitution.23 Literary scholar and critic Pierre-Marc de Biasi describes how Rétif used an amalgamation of the Greek words “pornê” (prostitute) and “graphos” (writing). Pornographie, which appeared in French in 1800 and which is derived from pornographe, carried the definition “treatise on, or scholarly study of, prostitution” until the 1840s.24 This underlying connection of the term pornography with prostitution is also apparent within examples provided by the OED with regard to the definition of pornography. The OED points to English-language medical glossaries of the 1800s that link the term with 22 Sanford Berman, Prejudices and Antipathies: A Tract on the LC Subject Heads Concerning People (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1971), reprinted with foreword by Eric Moon and preface by Sanford Berman (Jefferson and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1993), 158, page references are to the 1993 edition. https://www.sanfordberman.org/prejant/prejant.pdf 23 While Vaillant refers to de la Bretonne as Réstif, he is also known as Rétif and is generally referred to by his first name; Alain Vaillant, “Pornographie ou obscénité?” Romantisme 167, no. 1 (2015): 10. https://www.cairn.info/revue-romantisme-2015-1-page-8.htm; https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/148012; Rétif de La Bretonne, Le pornographe, ou Idées d’un honnête homme sur un projet de réglement pour les prostituées (London: J. Nourse; The Hague: Gosse junior et Pinet, 1769), 32. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k71955d 24 Translation of original French « traité ou étude savante sur la prostitution ». Pierre-Marc de Biasi, “Porno lexique,” Médium 46–47, no. 1–2 (2016): 324–25. https://doi.org/10.3917/mediu.046.0324 13 prostitution and hygiene concerns. This definition is listed as “obsolete” within the OED; however, Vaillant contends that pornographie continues to imply sexual commodification and exploitation.25 While pornography has been linked to the commodification of women in particular, it is also often associated with the denigration of women. In the early 1980s, writer and activist Andrea Dworkin and legal scholar Catharine A. MacKinnon worked to amend the Human Rights Ordinance of the City of Minneapolis with the following definition of pornography: The graphic, sexually explicit, subordination of women whether in pictures or in words that also includes one or more of the following: women are presented dehumanized as sexual objects, things or commodities; or women are presented as sexual objects who enjoy pain or humiliation; or women are presented as sexual objects who experience sexual pleasure in being raped; or women are presented as sexual objects tied up or cut up or mutilated or bruised or physically hurt; or women are presented in postures of sexual submission; or women's body parts are exhibited, such that women are reduced to those parts; or women are presented being penetrated by objects or animals; or women are presented in scenarios of degradation, injury, abasement, torture, shown as filthy or inferior, bleeding, bruised, or hurt in a context that makes these conditions sexual.26 Dworkin asserts that this framing of pornography holds true regardless of location (in North America, in Asia or elsewhere) and that it is essentially the same “whether the method of manufacture is words, photographs or video.” 27 Although internet-based pornography would not have been what Dworkin was considering in 1985, we can extrapolate from the 25 Vaillant, 11; OED Online, s.v. “pornography, n.” 26 Andrea Dworkin, “Against the Male Flood: Censorship, Pornography, and Equality,” Harvard Women’s Law Journal 8 (1985): 14. 27 Dworkin, 14. 14 statement regarding “method of manufacture” that the same definition would hold true for today’s online pornography, following Dworkin’s analysis of the genre. Dworkin’s view on pornography has not been universally accepted by feminists. Lesbian activists in particular have raised concerns about the over-regulation of pornography, which could target sexual expression that falls outside of heteronormativity.28 Ultimately, the amendment above was dropped as the mayor of Minneapolis at the time determined it could not withstand legal review.29 It is also worth noting that while mainstream pornography is primarily produced in a heterosexual, binary landscape dominated by men producers, there is also independent pornography that allows for other types of actors and producers. Tarrant describes the different streams of the pornography industry in this way: The business model for independent porn differs from mainstream porn in that an effort is made to create equitable and ethical financial agreements. That’s not to say that mainstream porn is always unethical or that indie porn always is. However, it is far more likely to find independent, queer, and feminist pornographers with a stated commitment to producing fair trade, ethical content.30 Therefore, while pornography may be its own commercial industry of film, magazines and internet sites, and can therefore be equated with the commodification of sex more 28 Whitney Strub, “Lavender, Menaced: Lesbianism, Obscenity Law, and the Feminist Antipornography Movement,” Journal of Women’s History 22, no. 2 (2010): 100. 29 Kirsten Delegard, “Minneapolis Anti-pornography Ordinance,” MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society. http://www.mnopedia.org/thing/minneapolis-anti-pornography-ordinance 30 Tarrant, The Pornography Industry, 28–29. 15 readily than is the case with definitions of erotica, discussed below, it is not exclusively hegemonic when one looks beyond mainstream pornography. Dworkin’s stance, which sees all pornography as being an act of male aggression against women, becomes less viable when considering these independent pornography creators, and when taking into account the potential shift in power dynamics resulting from the appearance of queer and women content creators. Ultimately, the term “pornography” is burdened with very specific connotations. When pornography is represented as synonymous with the mainstream industry producing it or the individuals used to produce profit, it brings resonances of harm and exploitation, particularly towards women. With regards to its content and format, it is an often visual but sometimes textual form which tends to contain nudity and is sexually explicit. These elements overlap with some of what we see in definitions of “erotica” below. However, the LCSH for the term “pornography” quotes from the Random House College Dictionary’s definition of “pornography” as having “little or no artistic merit,” which is in contrast to how the term “erotica,” which I will be looking at next, is defined for the purposes of categorization.31 To help illustrate the many concepts that intersect with the term “pornography,” I have created the following diagram, which roughly shows to what degree each characteristic is 31 Library of Congress Subject Headings, “Pornography” (Washington, DC: Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service). https://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85105008.html 16 applicable to the term based on the discussion above, and how the term is viewed by researchers in particular. Figure 1 – Characteristics of Pornography Erotica Terms that include the word “erotic” such as “erotica” and “erotic literature” differ from the term “pornography” in several ways. For example, the term “erotica” does not have the same linkage with prostitution or the pornography industry as does the term “pornography.” As a result, sex, and the people who may be depicted as having sex, appear to be less commodified IllegalImmoralCauses HarmExploitativeRestrictedSexually StimulatingSexually ExplicitVisualLow ClassInvolves NuditySocially AcceptabileEmpowers WomenHolds Artistic MeritDepicts LoveHigh ClassPornographyNeverRarelySometimesOftenAlways 17 within works that are deemed to be “erotic.” Further, there is more social tolerance for what is being described. Writing two decades ago, cultural historian and literary scholar Ian Fredrick Moulton describes perceptions surrounding erotica: In recent decades, respectable or socially acceptable erotic writing has often been called erotica in order to distinguish it from pornography, which is presumed to be sleazy or socially unacceptable. But this distinction is often contentious, arbitrary, and highly subjective. Though many people feel they know the difference for themselves, there is no real consensus on where these boundaries lie. One person’s “erotica” is another person’s filth, while to a third reader it barely seems erotic at all.32 As noted by Moulton, erotica’s difference to pornography can sometimes lie in the eye of the beholder. “Erotica” may be used by writers to impart a higher-class aesthetic than what readers may generally expect from pornography. However, the term has many similarities to pornography as it can be sexually stimulating, sexually explicit, and depict nudity. At the same time, erotica does not necessarily sexually stimulate, which for many is a required trait of pornography, as indicated above. Further, the term “erotica” is sometimes used not only to identify literature and art that is more socially acceptable, but also to position material that falls under this category on the side of social justice, outside of patriarchal power structures. In the case of sexual writing, patriarchy and power imbalances that negatively impact women can appear in how women are portrayed. Tarrant points out that “anti-porn feminists 32 Ian Frederick Moulton, Before Pornography: Erotic Writing in Early Modern England (Oxford University Press, 2000), 5. 18 argue that pornography reflects patriarchal hegemony in which one person is oppressing or abusing the other, while erotica depicts sex among equals and is thus free of subjugation.” 33 Another reason why the term “erotica” tends to be used in lieu of “pornography” is to dodge judgement and governmental controls that are associated with pornography. This is possible because erotica is not regulated in the same way as works that are distributed through the pornography industry. Also, “erotica” as a term is not embedded in laws regulating sexually-explicit material in the same way as “obscenity,” a term I look at later in this chapter. Literary scholar Walter Kendrick asserts that “erotica” was purposely constructed to allow content creators to skirt regulations. He states: Nineteenth-century booksellers invented the word “erotica”; they tagged it to items of a sexually outspoken nature that might provoke obscenity charges… Such stuff often appeared in sumptuous formats, thick with risqué engravings. Its market was gentlemen with what were called “curious” tastes; only they could afford erotica’s high price. By the mid-20th century, “erotica” had broadened to include works of such numbing artistic integrity that they precluded arousal…. The evident kinship between art and cold showers helped to free some great novels from prosecution – among them Joyce’s “Ulysses,” Nabokov’s “Lolita” and Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.”34 33 Tarrant, The Pornography Industry, 4. 34 Walter Kendrick, “Increasing Our Dirty-Word Power: Why Yesterday’s Smut is Today’s Erotica,” New York Times (May 31, 1992). ProQuest Historical Newspapers. 19 Here Kendrick refers to works that are labelled “erotica” and that are considered literary classics, where artistic merit has been acknowledged. This is in contrast to pornography which, as mentioned above, is often categorized as being devoid of artistic merit. Further, while pornographic media do not generally communicate anything substantial in terms of feelings, the OED points to the etymology of “erotic” as being “sexual love,” and highlights the “passion of love” as its primary definition for the term.35 Meanwhile, psychology professor Andrew M. Colman defines the term as “relating to sexual desire,” and at the same time explains that it is derived from the Greek term for love (eros) and “relating to, or resembling” (ikos).36 This corresponds with the 1980 Random House College Dictionary definition cited by LCSH, which states that erotica is “literature or art dealing with sexual love.”37 With this possibility of love being inherent to the concept of erotica, many connotations that are true for pornography appear to be less so for erotica. Possible ties with harm, exploitation and immorality are less convincing or at least appear less prominent when love is in the equation. While I am not a cataloguing librarian, I have had the opportunity to assign subject headings both in public and academic libraries, and I do not remember assigning a subject 35 OED Online, s.v. “erotic, adj. and noun,” Oxford University Press, December 2021. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/64083 36 Andrew M. Colman, “erotic, adj.” in A Dictionary of Psychology (Oxford University Press, 2014). https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199534067.001.0001/acref-9780199534067-e-2850 37 Library of Congress Authorities, “Erotica.” https://lccn.loc.gov/sh85044718 20 heading for a sexually explicit work of fiction as anything but “erotic.” Particularly in the public library setting, North American publications that are labelled as “erotic” include works by women and queer authors, including non-white authors, and are publicised as being sexually liberating. “Erotica,” in the library sense, encompasses women-created sexually-explicit material, and works that fall outside of heteronormative concepts of sexual desire. Far from being exploitative, the intent if not the outcome appears to be the empowerment of groups and individuals who are very much disempowered within the hyper-commodified world of pornography. Below is a chart identifying characteristics that pertain to the term “erotica,” demonstrating that while there are some overlaps, there are also areas where erotica diverges substantially from pornography, particularly with regards to artistic merit and social acceptability. 21 Figure 2 – Characteristics of Erotica Obscenity The term “obscenity” is used when a boundary is crossed with regards to legality and social acceptability. In terms of historical meaning, sexologist Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) discusses two overriding meanings for obscenity: sexual obscenity and excremental obscenity.38 38 Havelock Ellis, On Life and Sex: Two Volumes in One (London, England: WM. Heinemann, 1948), 207. IllegalImmoralCauses HarmExploitativeRestrictedSexually StimulatingSexually ExplicitVisualLow ClassInvolves NuditySocially AcceptableEmpowers WomenHolds Artistic MeritDepicts LoveEroticaNeverRarelySometimesOftenAlways 22 Literary researcher Benjamin Jacob’s analysis of the background of the word obscenity points to why two seemingly disparate acts, namely sex and excrement, would fall under the same category. Jacob states that the Latin origin of the word “obscene” is ob scaenus, which he defines as “… ‘off the stage’ of public life, not openly shown for the sake of public good. It is obscene because it brings into the limelight what was previously unseen on the public stage.”39 Generally, defecating is not something done on a stage or in public. Similarly, sex is typically done in a private space. So, when these private acts are thrust into public view, they cross into obscenity as per the original sense of the term. Ellis also suggests that excremental obscenity is more commonly employed by those with religious backgrounds, stating: “When [men of the church] are obscene they are rarely sexual, the reason being that the taboo on the excremental obscene is only conventional and social, while that on the sexual obscene is regarded as also moral and religious.”40 Recent and historical definitions of obscenity are permeated with the idea of immorality. Benjamin Jacob notes this tendency when quoting from German reference sources to define obszön, the German word for obscene, which came into the language in approximately 1700. Jacob states that the word “means indecent, offensive and risqué [‘unandständig, anstössig, 39 Benjamin Jacob, “Whore, Court, Church, and Europe’s First Modern Obscene Text,” in Negotiating Sexual Idioms, (Leiden: Brill, 2008): 184. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401206525_011 40 Ellis, 207. 23 schlüpfrig’]; it is associated with shameful sexual and scatological [Fäkalbiech] acts; with that which is off the stage [‘ausserhalb der Szene, Bühne’].” 41 The LCSH has two separate entries for obscenity: Obscenity (Aesthetics) and Obscenity (Law). The Obscenity (Aesthetics) entry points to a 2016 OED definition for obscene that describes the term as being offensive to “moral principles.”42 Meanwhile, the Obscenity (Law) entry does not point to a specific definition; however, it is used to categorise legal perspectives on activity that is labelled obscene in various geographical jurisdictions.43 Courts around the world, including in Canada, have attempted to create a division between pornography and obscenity to ascertain the legality of particular works. Material that has been ruled obscene at times excludes many of the elements indicated in Dworkin’s definition of pornography, such as sexual explicitness or aspects of subordination. Instead, court rulings of obscenity have reflected a shifting perspective of “community standards” that often targets queer communities.44 In the late 1990s, Canada Customs was embroiled in a legal battle where, in a case that eventually landed in the Supreme Court of Canada, Vancouver gay and lesbian retailer Little 41 Benjamin Jacob, “Reading Obscenity” (PhD diss., University of York, 2003), 53. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/77022696.pdf 42 Library of Congress Subject Headings, “Obscenity (Aesthetics),” (Washington, DC: Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service). https://lccn.loc.gov/sh2016000893 43 Library of Congress Subject Headings, “Obscenity (Law),” (Washington, DC: Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service). https://lccn.loc.gov/sh85093744 44 Strub, 84. 24 Sister’s Book and Art Emporium argued that the government body unlawfully confiscated books that were destined for its shelves. While the case concluded in the bookstore’s favour, much hinged on the idea of whether the bookstore’s distribution of the material breached “community standards.” 45 What pushes pornographic or erotic works over the boundary into obscenity is how the material is viewed with regards to social sensitivities, morality and law. This view on the work can shift as public perception of certain sexual acts or certain types of relationships change. There are also differing perceptions depending on place and cultural context — one country’s laws may define something as obscene when another considers it merely sexually graphic. Below is a diagram illustrating the characteristics of obscenity. As seen here, it is the social, moral and legal characteristics of the term that differentiate it from erotica and pornography. 45 Brenda Cossman, “Disciplining the Unruly: Sexual Outlaws, Little Sisters and the Legacy of Butler,” University of British Columbia Law Review 36, no. 1 (2003): 92. 25 Figure 3 – Characteristics of Obscenity To summarize, pornography and erotica can be used to describe very similar material with regard to the level of sexual explicitness. However, pornography is typically used to identify materials produced by the pornography industry, which is largely audio-visual, and may be viewed as low class and less socially acceptable. Obscenity, meanwhile, describes material that has fallen outside of the realms of any measure of social acceptability or legality. An erotic or pornographic work can be considered an obscene one, depending on the person or the organization that views it. Below is a chart showing all the characteristics of all the terms at once, demonstrating the areas of overlap between the terms. IllegalImmoralCauses HarmExploitativeRestrictedSexually StimulatingSexually ExplicitVisualLow ClassInvolves NuditySocial AcceptableEmpowers WomenHolds Artistic MeritDepicts LoveHigh ClassObscenityNeverRarelySometimesOftenAlways 26 Figure 4 – Comparison Between Characteristics of Erotica, Pornography and Obscenity Returning to Dworkin and MacKinnon’s amendment to the Human Rights Ordinance of the City of Minneapolis, the definition of pornography that they proposed includes several aspects that can be considered socially unacceptable, including rape and torture. However, rather than labelling particular materials legally and socially obscene, Dworkin and MacKinnon sought to criminalize anything classified as pornographic. Dworkin maintains that “pornography, unlike obscenity, is a discrete, identifiable system of sexual exploitation IllegalImmoralCauses HarmExploitativeRestrictedSexuallyStimulatingSexually ExplicitVisualLow ClassInvolves NuditySociallyAcceptableEmpowersWomenHolds ArtisticMeritDepicts LoveComparison Between Erotica, Pornography & ObscenityErotica Pornography ObscenityNeverRarelySometimesOftenAlways 27 that hurts women as a class by creating inequality and abuse.”46 This perspective on pornography as harming women as a class of people contradicts the idea of “indie porn” that Tarrant describes, where women are less likely to be denigrated or exploited. As noted above, this dissertation includes many instances of scholars and critics positioning sexual material through the selection of certain labels, and this positioning of sexual works can also take place by way of publishers, and how they choose to promote the material. The usage of the terms erotica, pornography and obscenity may depend on each scholar’s point of view and the purpose of their argument. Two researchers may refer to a work using differing terms to categorize the same work. The variations of meaning and connotation that surround the terms pornography, erotica and obscenity complicate the way in which the English or French-language references that I use in the following chapters might relate to the texts at hand, namely the R-18 Literary Prize-winning stories. The complexities around the definitions of these terms requires me to carefully consider how I refer to writing that includes sexual content. Ultimately, I believe that the terms pornography and erotica are too subjective and have too many connotations to describe the prize-winning works. I therefore prefer to use “sexual writing” to consider this material within this dissertation, as I believe it is more objective and does not limit the content to any of the definitions attached to pornography or erotica, such as the level of explicitness or the intention to arouse. 46 Dworkin, “Against the Male Flood,” 9. 28 Japanese Terminology for Sexual Media Layered on top of the problematic labelling of sexual material in English, are the differences in Japanese-language labels for various sexual media, and Japanese society’s conceptualisation of this media. I return to Japanese terminology and the catagorization of the R-18 Literary Prize within the chapters below, where I outline the types of sexual writing that came into being throughout Japanese literary history, and the usage of the genre kannō shōsetsu 官能小説 (literally “sensual novels”) to describe the output of the R-18 Literary Prize winners. However, it is useful to spend some time within this introduction to consider how Japanese terminology interfaces with English terms on sexual media. The terms “pornography” and “erotica” have direct loan words into the Japanese language. The term “pornography” is read as porunogurafī ポルノグラフィー in full or poruno ポルノ as an abbreviated term. “Erotica” morphs into erochika エロチカ and “erotic” turns into erochikku in Japanese. The shortened ero エロ is defined as being both “erotic,” and iyarashii いやらしい (disgusting).47 Therefore. “dirty” is an appropriate translation of the term, particularly when the term is used within compound words to describe concepts that include sexual explicitness or promiscuity, such as ero-hon エロ本 (dirty book) or ero-oyajiエロオヤジ (dirty old man). Meanwhile, the term waisetsu 猥褻 is an equivalent term for obscenity. The Japanese language dictionary Nihon kokugo daijiten 日本国語大辞典 describes waisetsu as indecent 47 Nihon kokugo daijiten 日本国語大辞典, s.v. “Ero” エロ, Shōgakukan, JapanKnowledge. 29 and low class, particularly as it pertains to acts or behaviours that are sexually explicit or sexually stimulating. Therefore, waisetsu does not have the same association with non-sexual obscenity, specifically the excremental obscenity that Havelock Ellis mentions above.48 At the same time, the English-language loan words carry along meanings and traditions that impact how they are interpreted in Japanese. Within the National Diet Library (NDL) Authorities, which produces subject headings for use across Japanese libraries much in the same way LCSH works in North America, porunogurafī is listed as a “topical term,” or the equivalent of a subject heading. Related terms include erochishizumu (which transliterates to “eroticism” but is translated as “erotica”), waisetsu, shunga 春画 (spring pictures, which I will discuss later in this dissertation) and sei mondai 性問題 (sexual problems).49 Each of these related terms has their own subject heading, so while the library scheme indicates that there are similarities between the terms, there are enough differences to warrant separating these terms out as separate categories. The difference between how the NDL headings are applied compared to what they signify in the English-language context is not entirely clear. The encyclopedia Nihon daihyakka zensho (Nipponica) 日本大百科全書（ニッポニカ）describes porunogurafī as sexually-stimulating books, movies and images, bearing semblance to the English definition of “pornography” above. However, the encyclopedia also asserts that the term is used within the Japanese language to differentiate Western representations 48 Nihon kokugo daijiten 日本国語大辞典, s.v. “Waisetsu” わい-せつ【猥褻】, Shōgakukan, JapanKnowledge. 49 Web NDL Authorities, “Porunogurafī” ポルノグラフィー. https://id.ndl.go.jp/auth/ndlsh/00569162 30 of sex from Japanese traditions, which would normally be labelled as kōshoku 好色 (sensuality).50 Literary scholar Satō Satoru 佐藤悟 discusses the origin of the term kōshoku as it relates to the Tale of Genji, stating: … the [Tale of Genji] was symbolic of the Japanese tradition of ‘sensuality’ and ‘amorousness’ (irogonomi). Irogonomi was a classical aesthetic exemplified by aristocratic princes, in particular Hikaru Genji and Ariwara no Narihira (AD 825-80), the main character in the tenth-century Ise Stories (Ise monogatari). During the Edo period this aesthetic was converted into the new value of kōshoku (sex, lust) which emphasized the sexual component of irogonomi.51 While “pornography” is a term that originated from texts dealing with prostitution, the term kōshoku relates to aristocracy and literary treasures from Japan’s past. This would bring the term closer to the word “erotica,” due to its higher-class positioning, although for erotica, sensuality and lust between characters is optional. Returning to the R-18 Literary Prize promotional text quoted at the beginning of this introduction, both an English-language loan word and a strictly Japanese term are used to describe the polarities of sexual writing that were of primary concern to the R-18 Literary Prize editors: sexual writing by and for men, and sexual writing by and for women. The text uses the word “etchi” エッチ, which I have translated to “dirty” to describe sexual writing by and for men. Etchi is a term derived from the Japanese word hentai 変態, which in 50 Satō Nōnin 佐藤農人, “Pornography” ポルノグラフィー ぽるのぐらふぃー , Nihon daihyakka zensho (Nipponica) 日本大百科全書（ニッポニカ）. JapanKnowledge. 51 Satō Satoru, “The Tale of Genji in Shunga,” trans. Alfred Haft, in In Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art, eds. Timothy Clark, C. Andrew Gerstle, Akio Ishigami and Akiko Yano (London: British Museum Press, 2013), 228–29. 31 contemporary Japanese points to perverted sexuality. Etchi stems from the Japanese pronunciation of the letter “H,” the first letter of the word hentai when it is Romanized.52 The definition of hentai as being a perverted version of sexuality has carried through to the current usage of hentai as an import word to the English language.53 The meaning of etchi ranges from general sexual activity to perverted sexuality, and in the case of the R-18 Literary Prize’s recruitment copy, it is used to identify the “by men for men” variety of sexual writing, which the text clearly delineates as undesirable. Meanwhile, the promotional copy uses the word erochikku, the English import word for “erotic,” to indicate the “by and for women” type of sexual writing that the promotional text is trying to solicit. Therefore, the concept of “erotica” as a higher-class variety of sexual writing which can work in favour of women’s sexual liberation is evident in the usage of the term erochikku within the first days of the R-18 Literary Prize. In her 1978 essay “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” Audre Lorde (1934–1992) asserts: The erotic has often been misnamed by men and used against women. It has been made into the confused, the trivial, the psychotic, the plasticized sensation. For this reason, we have often turned away from the exploration and consideration of the 52 Dejitaru daijisen デジタル大辞泉, s.v. “ etchi” エッチ (Shōgakukan 小学館). JapanKnowledge. 53 The OED describes hentai as “Sexually explicit or pornographic manga and anime, often of an extreme or outlandish nature.” OED Online, s.v. “hentai, n.” Oxford University Press, March 2022. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/291048 32 erotic as a source of power and information, confusing it with the opposite, the pornographic.54 Lorde’s essay claims “the erotic” is a source not only of power but of information for women. Lorde was a librarian previous to her stellar career as a feminist scholar, and she spent time working with information services to youth in particular, both as a public librarian and as a head librarian at a school.55 This would only have enhanced her understanding of the ways in which access to information is made possible, and the way in which knowledge transfer occurs vis-à-vis youth. While Lorde is clearly critical of pornography, she disapproves of practices that might stifle discussion of sex and sexuality. Lorde asserts that misnaming “the erotic” as pornography hinders the “exploration and consideration” of sexuality. Perhaps it is the labelling of much sexually explicit material as “pornographic” or the prominence of the mainstream pornography industry in sexual media that has resulted in concerns being raised over the potential negative impact of sexually explicit material on society even when it is considered legal, and even when it is categorized as “erotica.” These concerns extend to the potential for textual and visual material with sexual content to relay inaccurate information on sex, and negative messaging about women’s agency. In their study on adolescents’ consumption of sexual media, Brown and L’Engle state: 54 Audre Lorde, “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” in the Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, eds. Henry Abelove, Michèle Aina Barale and David M. Halperin (New York; London: Routledge, 1993), 340. 55 Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, “Referencing Audre Lorde” (CUNY Graduate Center, 2018), 280. Originally published in Reference Librarianship and Justice: History, Practice & Praxis, eds. Kate Adler, Ian Beilin and Eamon Tewell (Sacramento: Library Juice Press, 2018). https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_pubs/494/ 33 In the context of a culture that provides little information about sexuality through conventional socialization channels such as parents, schools, and religion but condones a media environment replete with sexual content, the media have become important sexual socialization agents. Zillmann (2000, p. 41), in fact, argued that, “because consensually accepted programs of sexual education are lacking, erotica have come to serve as a primary agent of sexual socialization.”56 The anxiety about sexual media causing harm has also been examined within studies that consider the repercussions of pornography use, looking at pornographic video in particular, and its impact on viewers. Ultimately, a causal connection between exposure to sexual media and poor health outcomes such as limited contraception use and violence against women has proven difficult to substantiate for both adults and adolescents, even as it relates to mainstream pornography. McKee et al. note that current pornography research suggests that there is a “possibility of positive education from engagement with sexually explicit materials.”57 Meanwhile, social psychologists Sommet and Berent’s longitudinal study’s findings on the health impact of pornography demonstrate a marked decrease in sexual satisfaction for men who watch pornography but an increase in satisfaction for women who do the same.58 Further, there is 56 Jane D. Brown and Kelly L. L’Engle, “X-Rated: Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors Associated with U.S. Early Adolescents' Exposure to Sexually Explicit Media,” Communication Research 36, no. 1 (2009): 130. 57 Alan McKee, Paul Byron, Katerina Litsou and Robert Ingham, “Recent Academic Research on Pornography and Healthy Sexual Development,” in What do we Know about the Effects of Pornography After Fifty Years of Academic Research? Eds. Alan McKee, Katerina Litsou and Paul Byron (New York: Routledge, 2022), 98. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003232032 58 Nicolas Sommet and Jacques Berent, “Porn Use and Men’s and Women’s Sexual Performance: Evidence from a Large Longitudinal Sample,” Psychological Medicine (2022): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003329172100516X 34 little evidence that pornography use in and of itself results in a propensity for devaluing women generally. Kohut, Baer and Watt’s study found that pornography use was associated with “egalitarian attitudes” by both men and women viewers. Specifically, pornography consumers were more likely to support women in positions of power and working outside the home.59 In reference to Lorde’s discussion of “the erotic” being an empowering source of information for women, if what is labelled as pornography can sometimes have a positive impact on the women who view it, then what of sexual writing by and for women? How can it inform and how can it empower? As noted above, the R-18 Literary Prize solicits short stories with sexual content. It also represents a women-led and women-controlled bubble, where women create stories that are judged by other women and that are read by other women. Keeping in mind this context, the questions addressed in this dissertation are: • Does this women-centred environment allow for the development of sexual writing which challenges Dworkin’s definition of pornography by subverting a patriarchal system of disempowerment? • Does the writing produced within this prize convey, in line with Lorde’s vision, sexual knowledge that empowers women readers rather than encourage or tolerate 59 Taylor Kohut, Jodie L. Baer, and Brendan Watts, “Is Pornography Really About ‘Making Hate to Women’? Pornography Users Hold More Gender Egalitarian Attitudes than Nonusers in a Representative American Sample,” The Journal of Sex Research 53, no.1 (2016): 6–7. 35 sexual relationships that denigrate women? • Are the prize stories considered socially acceptable while being simultaneously at risk of suppression from governmental and societal handling of sexual material in Japan, and overarching views of chastity? Chapter Layout In Chapter Two of this dissertation, I examine what are deemed to be best practices with regards to the dissemination of sexual knowledge with a view to gender equity and women’s empowerment. Specifically, I will review the UNESCO Guidance, and its intended outcomes regarding gender equity. I then look towards Japanese sexuality education standards and practices, and the historical and political background that has led to the current governmental policies on sexuality education in Japan. In Chapter Three, I consider the patriarchal pressures on literary expression vis-à-vis women’s sexuality in Japan by looking back at the publication history of literary works with sexual content for and about women. I begin by focusing on Edo period (1600–1868) works and then move towards modern Japanese literary history, focusing particularly on the impact of Japanese women’s magazines and manga created for and often by women readers. In addition to highlighting how sexual writing was made available, I also reflect on instances where this writing was suppressed and disparaged. 36 In Chapter Four, I examine the history and structure of the R-18 Literary Prize, including the types of awards that fall under the umbrella of the Prize, and the submission and selection process. Chapters Five and Six provide an analysis of specific prize-winning stories, split between two phases of the prize’s history. Through textual analysis, I consider the descriptions of women’s pleasure and sexuality, and how these relate to patriarchal framings of women’s gender and sexual roles. I also compare each story to the UNESCO Guidance to better understand its function with regards to sexual knowledge transfer. This deductive approach vis-à-vis the Guidance does not provide the depth of analysis to the stories that appears through the textual analysis; however, my goal with regards to comparing the stories to the UNESCO Guidance is to demonstrate the relative power of these stories as compared to curriculum standards, and to highlight the role fiction can play even against uniform standards such as this Guidance. The concluding chapter examines whether Japanese women’s writing on sexuality creates a space for community and dialogue around sexuality issues, running counter to mainstream, male-dominated pornography, which is often marked by secrecy, isolation, and voyeurism.60 R-18 Literary Prize stories are categorized generally as kannō shōsetsu, and I consider whether this categorization aligns the prize stories with male-dominated erotic fiction or 60 Jae Woong Shim, “Online Pornography and Rape Myth Acceptance: Sexually Degrading Content, Anonymous Viewing Conditions, and the Activation of Antisocial Attitudes,” (PhD diss., Department of Telecommunications, Indiana University, 2007), 43–44. 37 pornography and its patriarchal pitfalls, or whether the stories and the prize itself have helped redefine kannō shōsetsu to fall in line with Lorde’s empowering vision of the erotic. 38 Chapter Two: Comprehensive Sexuality Education International Standards on Comprehensive Sexuality Education As stated in the introduction, this dissertation will consider how sexual knowledge may be disseminated through women’s fictional sexual writing in Japan and whether this writing has an empowering effect on women readers. I will consider how sexual knowledge is made available through access and distribution channels for women’s sexual writing, and also how sexual knowledge is conveyed through the writing itself. In order to understand the importance of sexual knowledge and how it might empower women in particular, it is imperative to review what are considered to be the best practices in sexuality education, and what types of sexuality education are deemed to be empowering to young girls and women. A key term related to international standards and ideals vis-à-vis sexuality education is “comprehensive sexuality education” (CSE). United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education (which will be referred to as the UNESCO Guidance moving forward) provides the following definition of CSE below. CSE addresses the different ways that gender norms can influence inequality, and how these inequalities can affect the overall health and well-being of children and young people, while also impacting efforts to prevent issues such as HIV, STIs, early and unintended pregnancies, and gender-based violence. CSE contributes to gender equality by building awareness of the centrality and diversity of gender in people’s lives; examining gender norms shaped by cultural, social and biological differences and similarities; and by encouraging the creation of respectful and equitable relationships based on empathy and understanding. The integration of a gender 39 perspective throughout CSE curricula is integral to the effectiveness of CSE programmes.61 The UNESCO Guidance aims to address sex and sexuality concerns through scientific methods, while incorporating a broad range of social issues as illustrated in the figure below. Figure 5 – Key features of Comprehensive Sexuality Education, as defined in the revised edition of UNESCO's International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education. Courtesy of Joanna Herat et al.62 61 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education: An Evidence-Informed Approach, revised edition, 17. https://doi.org/10.54675/UQRM6395 62 Joanna Herat et al., Key Features of CSE, as Defined in the Revised Guidance, image, “The Revised International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education – A Powerful Tool at an Important Crossroads for Sexuality Education,” Reproductive Health 15 (2018), 3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-018-0629-x. Creative Commons Licence (CC BY 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 40 The UNESCO Guidance includes eight key concepts, each with its own topics and learning objectives. The figure below shows the top-level concepts and topics.63 Figure 6 – Key concepts and topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education. Courtesy of UNESCO.64 63 The more detailed learning objectives for each topic are listed under pages 37–80 in the UNESCO Guidance. 64 UNESCO, Overview of Key Concepts, Topics and Learning Objectives, image, International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education: An Evidence-Informed Approach, 36. https://doi.org/10.54675/UQRM6395. Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/igo/deed.en 41 In addition to providing this guidance, UNESCO also asserts that sexuality education is a human right, stating “Under international human rights treaties, governments are bound to protect and ensure the rights to health, life, non-discrimination, education and information of its populations, particularly adolescents. These rights cannot be fully realized and enjoyed if adolescents lack sexuality education.65 The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) further explains: “Comprehensive sexuality education is a rights-based and gender-transformative approach, whether in school or outside of school. It is most effective when comprehensive sexuality education is taught over several years by integrating age-appropriate information that accounts for the developing capacities of young people.”66 While the UNESCO Guidance discusses the importance of curriculum on sexuality education, it cautions against using online media sources to further one’s understanding of sexual topics. It states: While online media can offer a lot of information, it does not offer the space for young people to discuss, reflect and debate the issues, nor to develop the relevant skills. CSE offers a forum for young people to understand and make sense of the images, practices, norms and sexual scripts that they observe via social media and 65 Center for Reproductive Rights, “An International Human Right: Sexuality Education for Adolescents in Schools” (New York: September 2008), 1. https://healtheducationresources.unesco.org/es/library/documents/international-human-right-sexuality-education-adolescents-schools 66 United Nations Population Fund UNFPA, Comprehensive Sexuality Education. https://www.unfpa.org/comprehensive-sexuality-education#readmore-expand The UNFPA was created in 1969 and was originally named the United Nations Fund for Population Activities. Their current website states that “while its name was changed to the United Nations Population Fund in 1987, the original acronym remains.” United Nations Population Fund UNFPA, About Us, https://www.unfpa.org/about-us 42 pornography. It provides an opportunity to learn about the aspects of sexuality that are absent from pornography, such as emotional intimacy, negotiating consent and discussing modern contraception. CSE can also support young people to safely navigate the Internet and social media and can help them identify correct and fact-based information.67 Thus, there are four components that differentiate CSE from pornography: 1. CSE provides a venue for discussion and debate 2. CSE encourages critical thinking with regards to “images, practices, norms and sexual scripts [found in] social media and pornography” 3. CSE touches on relationships, values and consent 4. CSE incorporates fact-based information The premise of CSE is rooted in dialogue. It is not a voyeuristic, one-sided lens on sex. In his dissertation Online Pornography and Rape Myth Acceptance, media scholar Jae Woong Shim defines “anonymous sexual media use as an intentional, temporal disconnection from the social network to watch sexually explicit media alone so that sexual media users feel that they are not being tracked, viewed or recorded while consuming sexually explicit content.”68 While the UNESCO Guidance purports that gender equity is integral to the delivery and outcome of CSE, it does not require countries to deliver the content through non-patriarchal modes, nor does it demand that countries adjust entrenched patriarchal and heteronormative standards as a prerequisite to making CSE available to their populations. The guidance states: 67 UNESCO, International Technical Guidance, 85. 68 Shim, “Online Pornography,” 44. 43 The illustrative learning objectives can be interpreted by curriculum developers at the local level, and made measurable based on the local context and/or existing national or regional standards and frameworks. The guidance is voluntary and non-mandatory, based on universal evidence and practice, and recognizes the diversity of different national contexts in which sexuality education is taking place. As a result, there are some issues and content that might be considered acceptable in some countries but not others, and each country will have authority to make appropriate decisions, respecting notions of human rights, inclusion and non-discrimination.69 Many governments are deeply rooted in patriarchal structures, with predominantly male political leaders influencing the policy making around sexuality education. This is true of Japan, where women’s political empowerment is ranked 138th of 146 countries according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2023.70 In addition to not having a woman head of state since women in Japan were afforded the right to political activity some seventy-five years ago, the percentage of parliamentarians and women in Japanese ministerial positions sits at 10 and 8.3 percent respectively.71 As described below, sexuality education in the country has been influenced by political objectives and by restrictive curriculum guidelines that remain unchanged despite protests from both advocates and educators. In the meantime, informal modes of women-generated content related to sexual knowledge have been able to thrive. 69 UNESCO, International Technical Guidance, 35. 70 World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2023, Insight Report (June 2023): 18. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2023.pdf 71 World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2023, 30. 44 Sexuality Education in Japan Guarding Against Sexual Perils in the 1900s In the early twentieth century, medical experts in Japan considered the potential for formalized sexuality education. The instigating factor for this was concern that children who were left uninformed about proper sexual conduct would become involved in activities that were considered to be immoral as they grew into adulthood. This pertained to anxiety over masturbation, and what was thought to be its detrimental impact on general health. Historian Sabine Frühstück explains: A direct connection between masturbation and neurasthenia was widely agreed upon by contemporary pedagogues, whether they propagated or opposed sex education at schools. They agreed that excessive autoerotic practices led to paleness, loss of appetite, forgetfulness, indifference, or melancholy among predominantly male youth, and to poor scholastic results.72 Additionally, sexuality education was proposed as a way to guard individuals against ideas around homosexuality. So, when evidence was published pointing to a high rate of masturbation amongst women factory workers living in close quarters, educators and medical professionals looked towards educational intervention.73 During this time, sexology journals began to flourish, including those that were targeted to the general population, as well as more technical sexology texts, including journals that 72 Sabine Frühstück, “Managing the Truth of Sex in Imperial Japan,” The Journal of Asian Studies 59, no. 2 (May 2000): 342. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/managing-truth-sex-imperial-japan/docview/230415808/se-2 73 Frühstück, “Managing the Truth,” 342–3. 45 were created for the medical community and for policy makers. These works tended to include translations of foreign sources. Mori Rintarō 森林太郎 (1862–1922), who wrote fictional works under the pen name Mori Ōgai 森鷗外, was tasked with considering sexology through the lens of nation building. Literary scholar Mark Driscoll explains: After four years studying hygiene, medicine, and psychiatry in Germany in the 1880s [Mori] quickly advanced in the military’s scientific hierarchy, finally serving as surgeon general from 1907 to 1916, a period when the Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 and the annexation of Korea brought the Imperial Army enormous national and international prestige… 74 Mori’s most prominent sexology text was Eisei Shinpen 衛生新篇 (New Compendium on Hygiene), which was published in five editions between 1897 and 1914. Driscoll maintains that the first edition “was largely a translation with commentary of Max Rubner’s Lehrbuch der Hygiene (1890)… and at 942 pages was immediately the authoritative source on modern hygiene in Japan.” 75 The following is an excerpt from the first edition, under the seishoku 生殖 (reproduction) section of the seiiku 生育 (sexual development) chapter: In regards to reading material, it is important to be very strict with the selection of books, and to keep away from obscene writings and illustrations.76 74 Mark Driscoll, “Seeds and (Nest) Eggs of Empire: Sexology Manuals/Manual Sexology,” in Gendering Modern Japanese History, eds. Barbara Molony and Kathleen Uno (Leiden: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007), 198. https://doi.org/10.1163/9781684174171 75 Driscoll, 198. 76 Original Japanese (my translation): 読書セシムルニハ典籍ノ簡擇ヲ嚴ニシ淫猥ナル文章圖書ヲ遠ザクルコ トヲ要ス; Mori Rintaō 森林太郎 and Koike Masanao 小池正直 著, “Seiiku,” 生育 in Eisei shinpen 衛生新篇, vol. 2 (Nankōdō 南江堂, 1897), 567. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/836710 46 Despite this more prudish take on sexual materials, by the time the 5th edition was published in 1914 at the beginning of the Taishō period (1912–1926), Mori was including his own take on sexuality that refuted Western norms of sexual restraint and repression. He promoted frequent sexual intercourse as a means to ensure healthy men and a strong army, and this entailed supporting prostitution. Driscoll states: “[Mori] concludes that ‘people’ (ningen) will benefit from a rationally planned and scientifically managed system of prostitution. It is safe to assume that by ‘people’ Mori is denoting the ferociously libidinalized men of Japan’s colonial empire.”77 Like those involved in the debate on sexuality education, Mori also denounced masturbation, noting its detrimental impact on men’s virility.78 Amongst the several sexology journals that proliferated between 1910 and 1930 the term hentai 変態 (perverse) was repeatedly used in journal titles.79 For example, Hentai seiyoku 変態性慾 (Perverse Sexual Desire, 1922–1925), which was developed by prolific Taishō period sexologist Tanaka Kōgai 田中香涯 (1874–1944), discussed sadomasochism and masturbation. Other titles that included hentai were Hentai shinri 変態心理 (Perverse Psychology, 1917–1926) and Hentai shiryō 變態・資料 (Perversity: Documents, 1926–1928). Outside of these works that focused on the psychological or behavioural aspects of sexuality, there were also 77 Driscoll, “Seeds and (Nest) Eggs,” 205. 78 Driscoll, 201. 79 As mentioned in Chapter One, the word hentai 変態 points to perverted sexuality. 47 sexology titles that concentrated on sexual health and gynaecological needs.80 As women’s bodies were discussed through a medicalized lens in these journals, their sexual desires were either excluded from mention, or examined in terms of negative social phenomena. Tanaka, for instance, acknowledged women’s sexual desire, but also linked it with nymphomania and hysteria.81 The historian Narita Ryūichi 成田龍一 observes the following about sexology publications at the time: [Sexologists] used men’s sexuality as the yardstick of comparison in discussions of women’s sexuality, and projected men’s sexual desire onto women. Popular serology lacked any discussion of women’s sexual desire from a woman’s point of view, which would have brought plurality to the debate.82 In contrast with the emphasis and importance placed on men’s sexual desire within Mori Rintarō (Ōgai)’s work, where women sex workers were considered necessary to satisfy male soldiers, thereby strengthening Japan’s colonialist endeavours, women’s chastity was being championed within Japan as a means of strengthening the state. 80 Aline Henninger, “Réception de la sexologie et presentation de l’homosexualité féminin, dans la revue seitô,” in Parcours feministes dans la literature et la société Japonaises de 1910 à 1930: de Seitô aux modèles de politique sociale (Paris: l’Harmattan, 2016): 126. 81 Driscoll, “Seeds and (Nest) Eggs,” 208. 82 Narita Ryūichi, “The Overflourishing of Sexuality in 1920s Japan,” translated by Sarah Teasley, in Gender and Japanese History Volume 1: Religion and Customs / The Body and Sexuality, eds. Wakita Haruko, Ueno Chizuko and Anne Bouchy (Osaka University Press: 1999), 352. 48 In 1908, an anti-adultery law was put in place to ensure hereditary-based inheritance, necessitating women’s chastity before and during marriage as a way to ensure paternal lineage.83 Further, girls’ education emphasised the importance of giving birth to boys for the good of the nation. Japanese language instructor and gender studies scholar Melanie Czarnecki asserts “Girls were encouraged to reproduce many baby boys, raising them to become strong and powerful soldiers in Japan’s military.” 84 During World War II, the usage of women’s bodies to strengthen the state took a horrific turn into sexual violence. As noted previously, Mori Rintarō (Ōgai) asserted that men’s sexual needs should be met through prostitution to ensure a healthy base of servicemen. The Imperial forces continued with this concept, later creating so-called comfort stations, where women from across Japan’s colonised territories were abducted and forced into sexual slavery as ianfu 慰安婦 (“comfort women”).85 Subsequent to World War II, governmental priorities on women’s sexuality still focused on the needs of the nation. In 1948, abortion was legalized, with the view of reducing over-population; however, the government continued to discourage the idea of sex for non- 83 Melanie Czarnecki, “Bad Girls from Good Families: The Degenerate Meiji Schoolgirl,” in Bad Girls of Japan, edited by Laura Miller and Jan Bardsley (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 52. 84 Czarnecki, 52. 85 Sabine Frühstück, Gender and Sexuality in Modern Japan (Cambridge University Press, 2022), 83. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108354967. 49 reproductive purposes.86 Literary scholar Julia Bullock describes the concept of “purity education” which was introduced in the late 1940s in order to encourage women’s chastity: Educating future wives and mothers in the postwar period … began early, with young female students indoctrinated to preserve their virginity for marriage. After marriage, they were expected to channel their sexual impulses into the production and rearing of children, as well as into creating a warm and comfortable home for their husbands. There was no recognition that women might legitimately have sexual desires that were independent of motherly “instincts.” Such impulses were actively discouraged as harmful and antithetical to women’s maternal destiny.87 The dissemination of information on sexuality through women’s education and within women’s publications was affected by the “purity education” concept, and gender roles continued to be emphasised within girls’ education through the Ministry of Education.88 The rift between what was censored or otherwise made impossible to publish versus material that was supported by governmental and political bodies was based on whether a work or publication would be perceived as encouraging sexuality on the basis of pleasure rather than patriarchal utility. Sexuality Education Under Siege Since the 1990s, Japan’s sexuality education has stayed within the tight boundaries of governmental control and concerns over morality. What persists through to today is the 86 Julia C. Bullock, The Other Women’s Lib: Gender and Body in Japanese Women’s Fiction (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2010), 19. 87 Bullock, 22. 88 Bullock, 25. 50 virtual absence of sexuality education offered through the school system. Tsuchiya Mayumi 土屋麻由美, a midwife and Vice President of Ninshin SOS Tokyo (Pregnancy SOS Tokyo), a pregnancy support non-profit organization, ascribes what she deems as thirty years of stagnation in Japanese sexuality education to the “Nanao yōgo gakkō jiken” 七生養護学校事件 (Nanao Special Needs School Incident), where teachers at the Nanao School in Tokyo were put under extreme scrutiny for their innovative sexual education teaching methods for special needs students.89 In 2003, a campaign was launched against the Nanao School teachers involved with sexuality education curriculum, culminating in the confiscation of sexuality education teaching resources, such as puppets. Two months following the incident, 102 teachers and principals from twenty-two schools across the Tokyo Metropolitan School District were reprimanded, with a statement from the school district indicating that sexuality education was the overarching reason for the reprimands.90 In 2005, Abe Shinzō 安倍晋三 (1954–2022), then Acting Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan (and later Prime Minister), established the Kagekina seikyōiku, jendā furī kyōiku jittai chōsa 89 Nippon Foundation 公益財団法人 日本財団 , Jūdai no sei to ninshin : yoki shinai ninshin ya seihigai kara mamoru tame ni 10 代の性と妊娠：予期しない妊娠や性被害から守るために. https://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/journal/2021/65437 90“(Fumareta sukāto Abe Seiken to josei: chū) Josei no ketteiken, yaridama”（踏まれたスカート 安倍政権と女性：中）女性の決定権、やり玉, Asahi Shinbun 朝日新聞, July 11, 2007. 51 purojekkuto chīmu 過激な性教育・ジェンダーフリー教育実態調査プロジェクトチーム (Project Team to Investigate the Radical Sex and Gender-free Education).91 Kanazaki Mitsuru 金崎満, the Nanao School principal at the time, received a one-month suspension and a demotion to regular teaching staff. Kanazaki later sued the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for wrongful punishment, a claim he won in court. The court ruling hinged on the lack of evidence for what the district later asserted to be the reason for dismissal, which was a misrepresentation of class structure. After two appeals from the metropolitan government, higher courts also determined that the punishment was unlawful.92 Despite this conclusion, Japanese teachers are reportedly still reluctant to teach sexuality education beyond the strict guidelines found in the curriculum standards due to a fear of backlash.93 91 The Liberal Democratic Party or jimintō 自民党 has dominated Japanese politics and governance since the 1950s. Through data analysis examining Japan’s political parties via the Manifesto Project, political scientist Taniguchi Naoko 谷口尚子 and international relations scholar Chris Winkler maintain that the LDP exhibits right-leaning tendencies as compared to other Japanese political parties. Yet, when compared to conservative-leaning parties in the United Kingdom and in the United States, the LDP sits as a centre-right party. Jendā furī (Gender-free) ジェンダー-フリー refers to the elimination of cultural and societal gender discrimination, as well as the freedom to choose how one lives in terms of gender roles and individuality. Taniguchi Naoko 谷口尚子 and Chris Winkler “Sekai no naka no nihon no seitō ichi” 世界の中の日本の政党位置 (The Positions of Japanese Political Parties in a Global Context), Nenpō seijigaku 年報政治学 71, no.1 (2020): 138 and 144. https://doi.org/10.7218/nenpouseijigaku.71.1_128 ; Dejitaru daijisen デジタル大辞泉, s.v, “Jendā furī” ジェンダー・フリー (Shōgakukan 小学館), last modified 2012; Gendai yōgo no kiso chishiki 現代用語の基礎知識, s.v. “Chūkōsei no ninshin sōdan ga kako saita” 中高生の妊娠相談が過去最多, Jiyū Kokumin-sha 自由国民社. JapanKnowledge. 92 “Moto kōchō no shobun torikeshi kakutei saikōsai, Nanao yōgo soshō / Tōkyo-to” 元校長の処分取り消し確定 最高裁、七生養護訴訟 /東京都, Asahi Shinbun 朝日新聞, February 25, 2010. 93 Ōkubo Maki 大久保真紀, “(Intabyū) jinsei no tame no seikyōiku: josanshi, Sakurai Hiroko san”（インタビュー）人生のための性教育：助産師・桜井裕子さん, Asahi Shinbun 朝日新聞, June 14, 2022. 52 Since the development of the UNESCO Guidance and its revision in 2018, comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) has become a focus of discussion amongst Japanese educators and health care providers, as they hope for a change in the format and content of Japan’s sexuality education curriculum.94 A recent Nippon Foundation survey of one thousand teens aged seventeen to nineteen revealed that most women respondents would have preferred to learn more about gender equity as part of their sexuality education curriculum. Other topics where respondents, both male and female, indicated a desire for more information through formal sexuality education included “romance and healthy sexual relationships” and “sexual responses and intercourse.” Information on sexual violence and making decisions about sex, including how sex can be refused, also ranked high in the survey.95 Sato et al. summarise the current framework of sexuality education in Japan below: While the benefits of comprehensive sexuality education are clear, restrictions are often placed on content, limiting the comprehensive nature of what is taught in many schools (Ishiwata 2011). For example, many secondary students reach a level of maturity at which pregnancy and childbirth become possible, so content that includes the topics of fertilisation and pregnancy is paramount. However, in Japan there have been calls for a focus on pregnancy to be removed from the curriculum (Plan Youth Group 2021). Other restrictions have also been placed on teaching about human reproduction. In Tokyo city schools, for example, teachers do not teach the names of 94 Nihon Hōsō Kyōkai 日本放送協会 (NHK), “Web tokushū: kawaru ka Nihon no ‘seikyōiku’” Web特集ー変わるか日本の“性教育.” https://web.archive.org/web/20211020020021/https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20201006/k10012648811000.html 95 Nippon Foundation 公益財団法人日本財団, “Jūhassai ishiki chōsa ‘dai 39-kai seikōi’ shōsai-han” 18歳意識調査「第３９回－性行為」詳細版, July 28, 2021. https://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/app/uploads/2021/07/new_pr_20210728_2.pdf 53 the sexual organs, talk about sexual intercourse, or introduce the subject of condoms. Furthermore, there is one school in which not even menstruation is taught, because teachers are afraid of being criticised.96 Teachers who participated in Sato et al.’s study expressed an appreciation for the importance of comprehensive sexuality education, but indicated that they lacked professional development support to provide CSE to their students. “Although teachers expressed confidence on topics that were clearly outlined in the manual (e.g. sexually transmitted diseases), other content (e.g. on pregnancy, abortion, and sensitive sexual behaviour) triggered feelings of anxiety, confusion and doubt, and it was in these areas that professional development was desired.”97 According to the Nippon Foundation, unlike the UNESCO Guidance which indicates a need for sexuality education starting at age five, Japanese sexuality education does not begin until grades four to five. Further, the national curriculum standards give strict limitations on the content of sexuality education in schools.98 These limitations are referred to as hadome kitei 歯止め規定 (literally “brake regulations”), where additional explanatory comments within the curriculum standards for 96 Takahiro Sato, Chie Kataoka, Cathy McKay and Ayaka Izumi, “Teaching Sexuality Education to Secondary Students in Japan: Reflections from Japanese Health Education Teachers,” Sex Education ahead-of-print (2021), 2. 97 Sato, Kataoka, McKay, and Izumi, “Teaching Sexuality Education,” 9. 98 Nippon Foundation 公益財団法人 日本財団 ,“Jūdai no sei”; The curriculum standards or gakushū shidō yōryō 学習指導要領 are created by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Monbukagakushō). According to their website, these are meant to maintain a national standard across Japan for educational curriculum and are meant to be followed by every school in the country. They are revised approximately once every 10 years. Children’s textbooks and schedules are based on these standards. 54 high school students indicate that discussion of sexual intercourse should be excluded from the curriculum and the focus should be limited to puberty and conception or the implantation of sperm to an egg (putting the brakes on further teaching of sexual matters).99 For middle school students, curriculum is further limited to discussions of puberty.100 As indicated in Figure 7 below, if we consider the concepts and topics within the UNESCO Guidance, we can see there is a deficit within the Japanese sexuality education model with regards to the majority of topics within the UNESCO Guidance on CSE. 99 Monbukagakushō 文部科学省 (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Japan), Gakushū shidō yōryō: kōtō gakkō 学習指導要領：高等学校 (2018), 575–76. https://www.mext.go.jp/content/20230120-mxt_kyoiku02-100002604_03.pdf; TBS News Dig: News 23, “‘Onna no ko mo pōchi ni kondōmu o’ hinin, seibōryoku, jendā… sekai no jugyō de wa koko made oshieru Nihon no seikyōiku wa naze okureteiru no ka?” 「女の子もポーチにコンドームを」避妊・性暴力・ジェンダー…世界の授業ではここまで教える 日本の性教育はなぜ遅れているのか？Last modified May 18, 2022. https://newsdig.tbs.co.jp/articles/-/47990?page=4 100 Monbukagakushō 文部科学省 (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Japan), Gakushū shidō yōryō: chūgakkō 学習指導要領：中学校 (2017), 129. https://www.mext.go.jp/content/1413522_002.pdf 55 The lack of holistic and broad-based sexuality education in Japan has been seen by experts as causing a deficit in the understanding of sexual functions and relationships that RelationshipsValues, Rights, Culture & SexualityUnderstanding Gender Violence & Staying SafeSkills for Health & Well-beingThe Human Body & DevelopmentSexuality & Sexual BehaviourSexual & Reproductive Health1.1 Families1.2 Friendship, Love and Romantic Relationships1.3 Tolerance, Inclusion and Respect1.4 Long-term Commitments and Parenting2.1 Values and Sexuality2.2 Human Rights and Sexuality2.3 Culture, Society and Sexuality3.1 The Social Construction of Gender and Gender Norms3.2 Gender Equality, Stereotypes and Bias3.3 Gender-based Violence4.1 Violence4.2 Consent, Privacy and Bodily Integrity4.3 Safe Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)5.1 Norms and Peer Influence on Sexual Behaviour5.2 Decision-making5.3 Communication, Refusal and Negotiation Skills5.4 Media Literacy and Sexuality5.5 Finding Help and Support6.1 Sexual and Reproductive Anatomy and Physiology6.2 Reproduction6.3 Puberty6.4 Body Image7.1 Sex, Sexuality and the Sexual Life Cycle7.2 Sexual Behaviour and Sexual Response8.1 Pregnancy and Pregnancy Prevention8.2 HIV and AIDS Stigma, Care, Treatment and Support8.3 Understanding, Recognizingand Reducing the Risk of STIs, including HIVFigure 7 – Pie chart of concepts and topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education with darker shades of topics in the outer ring indicating areas covered by the Japanese school curriculum on sexuality education. 56 extends from grade school into adulthood.101 Further, the onset of the global pandemic in 2020 resulted in an increase in the use of pregnancy help lines and support centres, particularly by teenage girls.102 Japanese media has recently highlighted the lack of comprehensive sexuality education within school curriculum, and there is an overwhelming sense that the country is behind many other countries in the world in its approach to sexuality education.103 Educators have also been frustrated by 2021 directives to provide guidance to students on issues related to consent and sexual violence, while hadome kitei restrictions remain in place with regards to discussing the topic of sex directly.104 During a committee meeting in October 2022, Liberal Democratic Party member Nagaoka Keiko 永岡桂子 (b. 1953), Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, was asked by Constitutional Democratic Party member Kikuta Makiko 菊田真紀子 (b. 1969) about hadome kitei and whether the LDP government was willing to repeal the wording. The response, which included a preamble about how there are many perspectives on approaching sexuality education, indicated that 101 Ōkubo Maki, “(Intabyū) jinsei no tame,” 13. 102 Gendai yōgo no kiso chishiki, s.v. “Chūkōsei no ninshin.” 103 TBS News Dig, “Onna no ko.” 104 Tani Keina谷圭菜, Gakkō no seikyōiku de “seikō” o oshierarenai “hadome kitei” tte nani? 学校の性教育で“性交”を教えられない 「はどめ規定」ってなに？NHK (August 26, 2021). https://www.nhk.or.jp/shutoken/wr/20210826a.html 57 there was no intention to remove the restrictive wording.105 The reluctance to provide clear and comprehensive information on sexuality as part of formalized school curriculum stands in contrast to the open dialogue on sexuality that has frequently woven its way through the rich history of Japanese literature, which will be discussed in Chapter Three. As mentioned in the previous section, while the UNESCO Guidance emphasizes curriculum-based education, in cases like Japan, where the school curriculum is set through a government body, it may be influenced by the patriarchal structures at play within that government. This calls into question whether within a country governed predominantly by men, sexuality education can target gender equity without women’s voices. There is an underlying assumption in the UNESCO Guidance that information on sexuality that is not curriculum based equates to pornography or popular media resulting in negative impacts on women in particular. However, sexuality educators in Japan who fall outside the education system have been able to connect with women and adolescent girls to provide information on sexuality that falls more closely in line with the UNESCO Guidance than the formalized education system. Apps and consultation spaces have been created by those with medical backgrounds in an effort to appeal to individuals unable to receive the 105 Sano Ryō 佐野領, “Seikyōiku no hadome kitei ‘teppaisezu’ Nagaoka Monbukashō Kokkai de tōben” 性教育のはどめ規定「撤廃せず」 永岡文科相が国会で答弁, Kyōiku Shinbun 教育新聞, October 26, 2022. https://www.kyobun.co.jp/news/20221026_05/ 58 same information through their formal schooling.106 Despite the UNESCO Guidance’s emphasis on adolescent sexuality education, adult women who did not receive this education at school are left to seek sexual knowledge during and beyond secondary school graduation, something that sexuality educators in Japan have noticed through the questions they have handled in recent years.107 With regards to the mandate of libraries discussed in Chapter One, libraries cater to those who are looking for resources for their own life-long learning. This can and does include instances where school or university curriculum alone does not sufficiently meet a reader’s learning needs. So, in addition to the apps and services mentioned above, how can the availability of stories on library shelves assist in the acquisition of sexual knowledge for those who are not able to access this information through curriculum alone? The following chapter will consider whether Japanese literary works have played a role in disseminating sexual knowledge where formalized education has fallen short. 106 NHK, “Web tokushū: kawaru ka Nihon no ‘seikyōiku.’” 107 Shigemi Daisuke, 重見大介, “Hōkatsu-teki seikyōiku” 包括的性教育, Igaku no ayumi 医学の歩み 7, no. 1 (May 14, 2022): 768; Nichole Edwards, “Women’s Reflections on Formal Sex Education and the Advantage of Gaining Informal Sexual Knowledge through a Feminist Lens,” Sex Education 16, no.3 (2016): 266–78. 59 Chapter Three: Sexual Writing and its History in Japan This section will consider the rich history of Japanese sexual writing for recreational reading purposes. If one were to visualize the shift between the materials analysed in Chapter Two to this chapter, it would be similar to moving from the area of the library that holds government publications and educational texts to the recreational reading space where novels and popular magazines reside. The UNESCO Guidance’s assertion that sexuality education be curriculum-based suggests that CSE is incompatible with fiction as a mode of dissemination. Rather than literary works, however, pornography and social media are mentioned in the guidance as informal modes of disseminating information about sex and sexuality. The guidance relays a negative assertion that these media may not allow for meaningful discussion and the development of “relevant skills.”108 Despite its exclusion from the guidance, can fiction generally and sexual writing in particular have a health impact related to sex and sexuality? For sexual writing, the influence of a social network on reading choices, and the way in which works are discussed amongst peers, may impact how readers perceive the reality of their bodies and sexuality, even when these readers understand that they are consuming fictional works. Readers may receive, talk about, redistribute and link what they are reading with real images and people. Literary works can therefore play a role in the reality of readers’ lives. The late psycho-sociologist Simon Clarke stated “the way in which people imagine the 108 UNESCO, International Technical Guidance, 85. 60 world to be and imagine the way that others exist in the world is central to the construction of identity. It does not matter that belief may be more fiction than fact, because the human imagination is central to identity construction; it is therefore concrete and has very real consequences for the world we live in.”109 Unlike videos studied in pornography research and magazine images examined in body image scholarship, fiction does not portray “real” people. The OED states that “fiction” in the literary context is “the species of literature which is concerned with the narration of imaginary events and the portraiture of imaginary characters.”110 Fiction may depict characters that bear similarities to actual individuals, but these characters are imaginary. In contrast, pornography actors are real people, and social media accounts that are linked to real people produce sexual narratives that are assumed to reflect real experiences. Despite this difference, fiction can be read in a manner that mimics the consumption of other media, where expectations and values that are woven into texts can potentially impact health outcomes, even if a reader is conscious of the fact that what is being portrayed in a fictional work is imaginary. Bonomi et al.’s study describes an increased likelihood of domestic violence amongst the readership of E.L. James’ (b. 1963) Fifty Shades of Grey. The article contends that 109 Simon Clarke, “Culture and Identity,” in The SAGE Handbook of Cultural Analysis, eds. Tony Bennett and John Frow (Los Angeles: Sage, 2008), 511. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781848608443.n25 110 OED Online, s.v. “fiction, n.” Oxford University Press, July 2018. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/69828 61 “Problematic depictions of violence against women in popular culture – such as in film, novels, music or pornography – create a broader social narrative that normalizes these risks and behaviors in women’s lives….” Bonomi also associates potential harm to how material is handled in libraries, stating: Stories are especially influential when readers become drawn into them and cognitive resources, emotions and mental imagery faculties are engaged. Additionally, while the harms of reading fiction have not been documented empirically, when libraries and schools ban books, the assumption is that fiction can have harmful effects on attitudes and beliefs.111 In contrast to research on visual media, very little research has been done on the health effects of literary works on readers, with Bonomi et al. being an exception. A research paper by Mori Naoko that touches on this dynamic will also be discussed later in this chapter. Fifty Shades of Grey is a trilogy that is described as an “erotic romance” within mainstream media, and the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) ascribed to the work include “erotic fiction,” “erotic stories,” and “romance fiction.”112 As discussed in the introduction, the label ‘erotic’ is associated with sexual media and stories that are more socially acceptable than pornography. As a result, works described as “erotic” may be more accessible and more readily available in stores and in libraries than works labelled “pornographic” or “sexually explicit,” and the social acceptability of such works also makes it 111 Amy E. Bonomi et al., “Fiction or Not? Fifty Shades is Associated with Health Risks in Adolescent and Young Adult Females.” Journal of Women’s Health 23, no.9 (2014): 721. https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2014.4782 112 OCLC. “Fifty Shades of Grey, “WorldCat Catalogue Entry. https://www.worldcat.org/title/780307033 62 more likely to be openly discussed amongst peers as compared to hard-core pornographic media. In short, writing that is labelled “erotic” can more easily weave itself into the day-to-day lives of a broad cross-section of consumers than pornographic works. Material classified as erotic may also be discussed more openly in social media and can be adapted into mainstream film and media, which happened for Fifty Shades of Grey. As a result, this type of sexual writing has the potential to influence social trends and social discourse. As discussed in the introduction, the term “erotic” also tends to be used for sexual writing that subverts the hegemonic masculinity that is prevalent within mainstream pornography. However, Fifty Shades of Grey, authored by E. L. James, a British woman, illustrates how undercurrents of patriarchy in the form of violence against women or overall ideas of male dominance do not diminish with women-created works. Sun et al. suggest that female directors of top-selling pornography produce equally violent movies as compared to their male counterparts. Nevertheless, the study by Sun et al. raises the possibility that this is the result of market pressures that stem from the primary audience being men. Women-directed works aimed at women audience members are not top selling and were outside the scope of the study, illustrating how using a quantitative marker like higher sales masks the complexities associated with assessing existing women-created works within an industry dominated by men.113 113 Chyng Sun et al., “A Comparison of Male and Female Directors in Popular Pornography: What Happens when Women are at the Helm?” Psychology of Women Quarterly 32, no. 3 (2008): 321–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2008.00439.x 63 Similarly, sociologist James Beggan and psychologist Scott Allison’s study of the U.S. magazine Viva (1973–1979) also indicates that women’s participation in the production of pornographic works cannot override the market forces that are driven by heterosexual men, and that are influenced by socially constructed views on sexuality. By focusing on eroticized male nudity through the lens of female heterosexuality, Viva was originally intended to provide a contrasting publication to men’s magazines filled with female nudity. However, consumers faced barriers with regards to access, as the supermarkets where they tended to purchase magazines refused to stock Viva.114 In an effort to regain women readers, and to change its positioning in the newsstands, the magazine eventually morphed into a journal with no male sexuality while maintaining some female nudity. Interestingly, this resulted in the loss of its male readership, which accounted for 25 percent of its circulation, and the magazine folded in its sixth year of publication.115 Beggan suggests it “ultimately succumbed to [the establishment] and, inadvertently, reified established, hegemonic views of female sexuality” with assertions from the woman editor that women were accepting of female nudity but not of male nudity.116 114 James K. Beggan and Scott T. Allison, “Viva Viva? Women's Meanings Associated with Male Nudity in a 1970s ‘for Women’ Magazine,” The Journal of Sex Research 46, no. 5 (2009): 454. 115 “Circulation Low, Viva Magazine to Halt in January,” The New York Times (November 18, 1978): 19. https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/18/archives/circulation-low-viva-magazine-to-halt-in-january.html 116 Beggan and Allison, “Viva,” 455. 64 Although Viva’s editor was a woman, the magazine’s founder as well as other important figures in the publication’s creation, were men.117 Additionally, like the pornographic movie industry, the patriarchal influences in the magazine industry ultimately forced this publication, which was initially conceptualized as an antidote to male-centred views on sexuality, to change course and follow the patriarchal practices of men’s magazines. The sections below will review the history of Japanese sexual fiction created for women readers and will consider not only the content of literary works throughout the years, but also how these works were distributed. This is to facilitate an understanding of what patriarchal frameworks may have existed, and whether, unlike the examples of Viva and Fifty Shades of Grey, Japanese sexual fiction for women was able to disrupt or subvert these frameworks, allowing it to make a substantial impact on gender equity for women readers. Educational Literature for Women in the Edo Period As discussed in the introduction, this dissertation will focus on current Japanese sexual writing, and will examine what role this writing plays in the dissemination of sexual knowledge to women readers in Japan. While this will include an in-depth analysis of twenty-first-century texts related to a particular literary prize, it is vital to gain an understanding of how various types of publications played a role in the transfer of sexual knowledge over the course of Japanese literary history. This historical overview will 117 Beggan and Allison, 456. 65 highlight what types of methods have traditionally been employed to create and distribute information on sexuality within print publications and outside of formal school instruction or educational texts. This will allow us to consider whether similar elements are present in the creation and distribution of women’s sexual writing in the present day. To begin, this section will explore the types of educational works and fictional texts that were made available to women in Japan’s early modern period (the Edo period, 1600–1868), and how information on sexual knowledge was framed, excluded or included in these texts. This will lead to a discussion of twentieth century women-authored writing and how its divergence from mainstream, male-dominated publishing modes holds similarities to the publication strategies of the sexual writing examined in this dissertation. Ōraimono and its Emphasis on Traditional Values Ōraimono 往来物 refers to women’s educational texts published in the Edo period. Though educational in nature, ōraimono were not created by the state, nor did these texts play a part in formal schooling. Education scholar Amano Haruko 天野晴子 provides a useful overview of ōraimono as she points to the following different types that were in production during the Edo period. 1) Educational lessons kyōkun-kei 教訓型 - concentrating on morals and everyday discipline 2) Letters / contacts shōsoku-kei 消息型 - compiled templates for women’s letters 3) Societal shakai-kei 社会型 - customs and rules for society, hobbies appropriate for women 66 4) Educational chiiku-kei 知育型 - encompassing geography and industry 5) Anthology gōhon-kei 合本型118 Japanese literary scholar Tanaka Naoko 田中尚子 asserts that the overarching goals of ōraimono were linked to Confucian values. The objectives of ōraimono corresponded to an idealised family harmony, and the creation of a stable, well-educated family line. In these works, women’s happiness hinged on dutifully following the guidance of one’s parents and in-laws, and staying away from lascivious activities. The main emphasis was on the importance of creating harmony and stability with regards to the continuation of the family line.119 Ultimately, women’s ability to be successful in the world was contingent on filial piety, whereas boys could be successful through scholarship.120 Tanaka contends that in the Edo period, during the height of ōraimono printing and publication, taikyō 胎教 or prenatal education was considered integral to an educated population.121 Taikyō ideology purported that babies in the womb could be influenced by the moral education of their mothers. Additionally, it was acknowledged that mothers played a vital role in the early education of their young children, giving rise to the reasoning that 118 Amano Haruko 天野晴子, “Edo jidai no joshi kyōiku ni tsuite – ōraimono o tōshite miru josei no kyōiku to seikatsu” 江戸時代の女子教育について―往来物を通してみる女性の教育と生活, Seikatsu bunka kenkyūjo nenpō 生活文化研究所年報 21 (March 31, 2008): 6. 119 Tanaka Naoko 田中尚子, “‘Kenkyū nōto’ ōraimono ni miru kinsei-teki joseikan no ikkōsatsu <研 究ノート> 往来物に見る近世的女性観の一考察, Kyōiku bunka 教育文化, 8 (March 1998): 41–42. 120 Tanaka, 45–46. 121 Tanaka, 39. 67 women required some type of education in order to fulfil this role as educators for their children. As a result, women were expected to be educated, albeit in a different way than their male peers.122 Martha Tocco explains that “the primary goal of this education was to prepare older girls and teenagers for marriage,” and was used to teach the “rules of etiquette, the maintenance of beauty, and the management of countenance.”123 However, it was the illustrated ōraimono that “juxtaposed moral essays with beauty hints and classical romantic poetry [which] held the young reader’s attention in ways that… morality or pedagogy alone would not have done.”124 Therefore, while the Confucian content may have extended to illustrated publications, illustrated oraimono’s popularity amongst women readers was attributable not only to the attractiveness of the texts, but to their relatability to women readers at that time and the aspects of fiction/poetry that these ōraimono incorporated in their pages. While ōraimono steered away from discussions of sexual activity specifically, they incorporated information on women’s roles in marital relationships and in society. The overall context for this was to provide the educational underpinning needed to support the 122 Tanaka, 39-40. 123 Martha Tocco, “Norms and Texts for Women’s Education in Tokugawa Japan,” in Women and Confucian Cultures in Premodern China, Korea, and Japan, eds. Dorothy Ko, JaHyun Kim Haboush, and Joan R. Piggott (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003): 198. 124 Tocco, 201–02. 68 successful development of future offspring. These aspects relate to comprehensive sexuality education and the UNESCO Guidance, specifically with regards to letters, where social and gender norms are connected to communication skills, and the understanding of societal norms and biases tie in with understandings of gender.125 Shunga Parodies of Ōraimono Ōraimono were also parodied in shunga works which focused on sexual activity, and which were sexually explicit in nature. Shunga refers to sexually explicit illustrated material which gained prominence and popularity in the Edo period.126 Andrew Gerstle has specifically researched ōraimono parodies, focusing on prominent shunga artist Tsukioka Settei 月岡雪鼎 (1710–1786). Settei created Onna shimegawa oeshibumi 女令川おへし文 (Love Letters and a River of Erect Precepts for Women), which combines explicit imagery and wordplay to parody Onna Imagawa oshie-bumi 女今川教文 (The Imagawa Admonitions for Women and Letters for Teaching). The parody is emphasized 125 See topic 5.3 in the UNESCO Guidance: Communication, Refusal and Negotiation skills. 126 According to Timothy Clark and C. Andrew Gerstle,“Shunga (‘spring pictures’) [春画] represents an extraordinary body of explicit erotic art, comprising many thousands of images, often with texts, produced in Japan between about 1600 and 1900. They took the relatively discreet formats of the painted hand scroll, printed illustrated book or album; or a set of sheet prints, possibly sold originally in a wrapper;” Timothy Clark & C. Andrew Gerstle, “What was Shunga?” in Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art, eds. Timothy Clark et al. (London: British Museum Press, 2013), 18 and 20. Shunpon 春本 is defined by Ellis Tinios as “Edo-period illustrated erotic books.” Ellis Tinios, “Japanese Illustrated Erotic Books in the Context of Commercial Publishing, 1660-1868,” Japan Review no. 26 (2013): 83. 69 through the way the content is presented, maintaining the page order with themes that play off of the original work.127 Gerstle argues that creating such parodies, “established... a counter-discourse to Confucian-based popular ethical texts for women, which either ignore sex or portray sexual pleasure negatively, especially for women.”128 He also states that “These parodies... present a counter view of what a woman should be: not simply obedient and in service to her husband’s family, but a lively partner in the home, and one who is actively sexual.”129 Gerstle provides a number of examples where shunga parodies of ōraimono accomplish this goal of serving as a counter-narrative to the original texts, which are steeped in Confucian values. Sexual content is framed in a manner similar to educational texts through their diagrams and medical explanations.130 Sexual Materials for Women Readers The art historian Timon Screech asserts that shunga was created and used almost exclusively for the masturbatory enjoyment of men. To support his argument, Screech considers the socio-economic dynamics of Edo at the time, particularly the fact that the Edo capital had an 127 Tsukioka Settei 月岡雪鼎, Onna shimegawa oeshibumi 女令川おへし文, eds. C. Andrew Gerstle and Hayakawa Monta, Kinsei enpon shiryō shūsei 近世艶本資料集成 4 (Nichibunken sōsho 日文研叢書, 2007), 40. 128 C. Andrew Gerstle, “Shunga and Parody,” in Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art, eds. Timothy Clark et al. (London: British Museum Press, 2013), 327. 129 Gerstle, “Shunga and Parody,” 330. 130 Gerstle, “Shunga and Parody.” 70 overabundance of men. He asserts that there was an increased requirement for illustrations of women and sex to fill the absence of real-life sexual interactions with women whose numbers were limited in the capital.131 Contrary to Screech’s argument above, while shunpon and shunga appear to be exclusively created by male authors and illustrators, and certainly male consumption was expected, many scholars believe that women readership was also possible (if not likely) in several instances. For example, Japanese literary scholar Gergana Ivanova contends that adaptations of Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow Book that were published between 1741 and 1818 were “produced for female audiences and conveyed knowledge that was viewed as able to enhance a woman’s desirability as a wife.”132 In her analysis of Ehon Haru no akebono 笑本・春の曙 (Spring Dawn) she states: The opening scene of the book, which… features the first night of a married couple, might suggest that this work was intended as a trousseau item for young brides. Although erotic, Spring Dawn can be viewed as sharing similarities with female educational texts, which construct women as subservient to their husbands and provide practical advice for improving spousal relations.133 In this instance, we see a work that was created for consumption by women, and its content mimics some of the objectives and messaging of the ōraimono of the day vis-à-vis marriage. 131 Timon Screech, Sex and the Floating World: Erotic Images in Japan, 2nd ed. (London: Reaktion Books, 2009), 45. 132 Gergana Ivanova, Unbinding the Pillow Book: The Many Lives of a Japanese Classic (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), 86. 133 Ivanova, 106–7. 71 Literary scholar Laura Moretti’s “Distribution and Circulation of Erotic Prints and Books in the Edo Period” provides an overview of the distribution of shunga through kashihon’ya 貸本屋 (lending libraries) noting how shunga was distributed to women in particular. Moretti offers a detailed analysis of shunga which includes the portrayal of women consuming shunga and using it to advance their sexual knowledge and pleasure.134 Art historian Hayakawa Monta 早川聞多 explains how the kashihon’ya facilitated the distribution of shunga to women, who were the primary clients of the libraries.135 Tocco also discusses the importance of lending libraries with regards to ōraimono, explaining how Japanese girls’ education gave girls and women the ability to read and access texts in bookstores, lending libraries and household libraries. Tocco’s discussion of the formatting of ōraimono, also suggests that shunga and shunpon benefitted not only from using the distribution channels of ōraimono, but also from mimicking the format used to make ōraimono more appealing to women readers, which Tocco describes as “sturdy, brightly coloured editions,” with the inclusion of popular elements such as poetry within the texts.136 134 In this study, Moretti uses the term shunga to refer to both shunga and shunpon (books). Laura Moretti, “Distribution and Circulation of Erotic Prints and Books in the Edo Period,” in Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art, eds. Timothy Clark et al. (London: British Museum Press, 2013). 135 Hayakawa Monta, “Who Were the Audiences for ‘Shunga’?” Trans. C. Andrew Gerstle. Japan Review, no. 26 (2013): 17–36. 136 Tocco, “Norms and Texts,” 201–02. 72 Another element considered by scholars with regards to women readership is whether shunga was provided to brides as a wedding present. Art historian Yamamoto Yukari 山本ゆかり contends that shunga was used to “instruct a new bride (and groom) in sexual techniques.” 137 To substantiate this claim, Yamamoto quotes essayist and scholar Mitamura Engyo 三田村鳶魚 (1870–1952) as follows: “When a bride from the family of a samurai lord [daimyō] or high-ranking shogun retainer [hatamoto] got married, she invariably took with her a set of twelve erotic pictures [warai-e]. It was the custom for these to be splendidly mounted as a pair of handscrolls.”138 Hayakawa supports the idea that shunga was prevalent within samurai households, stating that shunga was considered a “talisman to invigorate warriors and protect them on the battlefield.”139 Hayakawa points to discussions of shunga within fictional works, diaries and anecdotal evidence to prove his argument that shunga was made available to and was considered of value by samurai families. Like Yamamoto, Gerstle also indicates that shunga were offered as wedding presents through his examination of Bidō nichiya johōki 艶道日夜女宝記 (A Treasure Book for Women on the Way of Love — Night and Day), a parody of the household medical text Idō nichiyō chōhōki 医道日用重宝記 (Treasure Book of Medicine). Gerstle argues that while the 137 Yamamoto Yukari, “Traditional Uses of Shunga,” trans. Timothy Clark, in Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art, eds. Timothy Clark et al. (London: British Museum Press, 2013), 296. 138 Mitamura Engyo as cited in Yamamoto Yukari, “Traditional Uses,” 296. 139 Hayakawa, “Who Were the Audiences for ‘Shunga’?” 29. 73 medical text contained no information on sex, the explicit parody was considered of value to a new bride’s trousseau.140 Gerstle provides excerpts featuring illustrations that portray sexual interactions, and emphasize genitalia and sexual technique. While the parody was clearly created for enjoyment and recreational reading, it also had a practical usage for new brides, and since the original title was medical in nature, readers may have been given the impression that this work could provide authoritative guidance on sex. Similarly, Laura Moretti’s article “Intertextual Divertissement, Sexual Education and Entertaining Humor” focuses on Onna enshi kyōkun kagami 女艶姿茎群鑑 (The Enchanting Figure of a Herd of Penises as a Model for Women), published in 1777 by school of Tsukioka Settei, that parodies several works, including a medical text. She states that the work is in part a parody of Onna Genji kyōkun kagami 女源氏教訓鑑 (The Teachings of Genji as a Model for Women, 1713), but also includes the “parodic rewriting of sections from another conduct book, the selective appropriation of the style used in guides for the interpretation of dreams and the verbatim quotation of long passages from the medical text Kōso myōron.” She adds that it “combines the educational dimension of a non-narrative manual for sexual hygiene with an entertaining dimension that derives from the presence of overtly humorous narratives.”141 Through her study of Onna enshi kyōkun kagami, Moretti asserts that such 140 C. Andrew Gerstle, Edo onna no shungabon: E to shō no fūfu shinan 江戸をんなの春画本 : 艶と笑 の夫婦指南 (Heibonsha shinsho, 2011), 185. 141 Laura Moretti, “Intertextual Divertissement, Sexual Education and Entertaining Humor: The World of Onna enshi kyōkun kagami,” Japan Review, no. 26 (2013): 195. 74 works can be considered “a sub-genre in which the overtly erotic tone is combined with a didactic posture shared with manuals of sexual hygiene.142 In this way, shunga parodies linked sexuality education with sexual pleasure, while incorporating a general discussion and understanding of sexual technique and sexual issues outside of reproduction. Women’s Authorship in Classical Sexual Texts As noted above, shunga disseminated sexual knowledge whereas ōraimono were lacking information on sex and sexuality, while emphasizing the importance of creating offspring for the nation and family. This history of sexual knowledge being incorporated into publications outside of educational texts continues to the present, with a shift from men to women authors challenging the patriarchal perspective on sex and sexuality. For the material above, even within the works that highlighted women’s sexuality including pleasure and anatomy, authorship continued to reside with men. Historian Anne Walthall describes how the “assumptions and preoccupations [of these men authors in the Edo period] filter almost everything said about women.”143 Additionally, Walthall notes that within these works women are presented with the implicit message that “masturbation is a poor substitute for sex with a man.”144 142 Moretti, “Intertextual,” 208-9. 143 Anne Walthall, “Masturbation and Discourse on Female Sexual Practices in Early Modern Japan,” Gender & History 21, no.1 (April 2009): 1. 144 Walthall, 4. 75 In his examination of nanshoku 男色 (“sexual passion for males”), Japanese classical literary scholar Joshua Mostow explains how women are portrayed as being exclusively heterosexual within the context of Edo period sexuality, thereby excluding the possibility of female-female desire within sexual narratives. Like Walthall, Mostow also considers how women’s sexuality is acceptable as long as it is through the lens of male fantasy. For example, with regards to wakashu 若衆, who were male but not considered men, Mostow states that “wakashu and woman can sexually join, as long as it is under the direction and control of a man.”145 In contrast to this, Walthall provides the example of Hiji sahō 秘事作法 (Secret Techniques), where the author is presumed to be a woman. This piece of writing includes advice on masturbatory techniques for women, including where and how to masturbate.146 Secret Techniques was made as an educational text for women who were employed within a daimyō 大名 (feudal lord) household. While it is a rare example of Edo-period sexual writing attributed to a woman, Walthall contends that its valuing of “female–female relations strictly 145 Joshua S. Mostow, “The Gender of Wakashu and the Grammar of Desire,” in Gender and Power in the Japanese Visual Field, eds. Joshua S. Mostow, Norman Bryson, and Maribeth Graybill (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2003), 60-61; In Mostow and Ikeda’s exhibition catalogue A Third Gender, wakashu is defined as: “‘sexually mature males who were not yet recognized as adult men,’ distinguishing them from prepubescent children, who are the sexual object of pedophiles.” Joshua S. Mostow, Asato Ikeda, and Ryoko Matsuba, A Third Gender: Beautiful Youths in Japanese Edo-Period Prints and Paintings (1600–1868) (Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 2016), 13. 146 Walthall, “Masturbation and Discourse,” 8. 76 in terms of achieving sexual release, not emotional commitment” bears similarities to other sex manuals at the time, which were created by men. She continues: The only place in the social imaginary where female same-sex relations were possible was in the inner quarters for the ruling class, yet there women were discouraged from forming close personal bonds for two reasons. Horizontal connections might distract them from their duty to their superiors; they might also lead to jealousy and conflict among women who had to live together for a lifetime.147 The following section will illustrate how women-created content following the end of the Edo period contradicted the notion that sexual pleasure and intimacy is viable only through the presence of men. Sexual Writing for and by Women from the Meiji Period to the Mid-Heisei Period Shifting Perspectives on Gender and the Emergence of Women’s Magazines This section will examine the emergence of women’s writing on sexuality in modern Japan, from the Meiji period (1868–1912) through to the mid-Heisei period (1989–2019). I will discuss how the social and publication environment during this timeframe provided opportunities for sexual writing to be disseminated to women, despite the prevalence of patriarchal factors that restricted women’s voices. With the commencement of the Meiji period, Edo-period norms were challenged and suppressed. In 1872, the Ishiki Kaii Jōrei 違式詿違条例 (Ordinances on Deviant and Petty Violations), a public morals ordinance, banned shunga as well as public nudity, tattoos and 147 Walthall, “Masturbation and Discourse,” 10. 77 mixed bathing.148 In the same year, a Publication Ordinance came into effect which in 1893 was transformed into the shuppan hō 出版法 (Publication Law). Historian Obinata Sumio 大日方純夫 explains the law’s scope: The Publication Law defined “publications” as any writing or picture that was printed and then sold or distributed. At the time of print, two copies had to be submitted to the Home Ministry at least three days in advance of the date of publication, not including mail delivery time. If a work was judged to be disturbing to public peace and order or injurious to public morals, its sale and distribution were forbidden and all plates and printings confiscated.149 Of the two copies that were sent to the Home Ministry, one stayed with ministry officials and one was sent to the Imperial Library. In cases where a publication ban was ordered, the submitted publications’ copies continued to be held there, otherwise they were distributed to various area libraries.150 Although the system of censorship was clearly laid out and followed, the criteria for censorship was less clear, particularly for sexual materials. In 1907, Article 175 of the criminal code was introduced in order to curtail the creation and dissemination of “obscene” 148 Heung Wah Wong and Hoi-yan Yau, Censorship in Japan (Milton: Taylor and Francis, 2020), 26-27; Hosoki Toshichi 細木藤七, ed. Ishiki Kaii Jōrei 違式詿違条例 (Yōyōdō洋々堂 , 1878). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/794267 149 Obinata Sumio, “Home Ministry Censorship and the Publishing Culture of Pre-WWII Japan,” trans. Christina Yi, in Censorship, Media, and Literary Culture in Japan from Edo to Postwar, eds. Suzuki Tomi et al. (Shinyō-sha, 2012), 76. 150 Obinata Sumio, “Home Ministry Censorship,” 82–83. 78 materials.151 The varied interpretation of the term waisetsu 猥褻 (“obscenity”) has resulted in a lack of clarity over the actual application of censorship rules. Constitutional law expert Lawrence W. Beer explains how obscenity has been handled in Japan’s judicial system: The Supreme Court has held that obscene passages in a book infect the whole and that a judgment on obscenity should be made with respect for the public welfare according to “prevailing social ideas” or “the common sense of society,” without too much attention to a work’s artistic or social values.152 Social anthropologists Heung Wah Wong and Hoi-yan Yau contend that the term waisetsu never had a clear scope or common understanding. They state: It is important to point out that the law per se did not (and has not) define(d) what constitutes waisetsu. One possible reason for this, among others, is that the Meiji legislators had no clue of what waisetsu was, for this was fundamentally and essentially a Western concept. Unaware of the moral and ethical contexts surrounding the condemnation of obscenity, the Meiji state criminalised the public display, sale, and distribution of waisetsu materials without defining what truly constituted waisetsu, leaving plenty of room for the court’s interpretation, if not manipulation, of the definition of obscenity.153 While censorship impacted the general population, there were specific legal regulations developed during the Meiji period that had a particularly striking impact on women specifically, with some directives limiting women’s activities, including sexual freedoms. 151 Alexandra Hambleton, “Gendered Desires: Pornography and Consumption,” in The Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture, eds. Jennifer Coates, Lucy Fraser and Mark Pendleton (London: Routledge, 2020), 365. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315179582; Lawrence W. Beer, "Freedom of Expression: The Continuing Revolution in Japan’s Legal Culture," Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies, no. 3 (1991): 14. 152 Beer, “Freedom of expression,” 14. 153 Wong and Yau, Censorship in Japan, 26-27. 79 Cultural historian Gregory Pflugfelder provides the following insight into how the perception of gender shifted during this time: … gender moved to the foreground in determining the individual’s civic and societal obligations. More precisely, it was the genital distinction between male and female that came to outweigh other modes of defining gender, including the erotic triangle of “women, youths [wakashu], and men” that Tokugawa popular culture had validated for more than two centuries. Under the Meiji polity, legal gender simply equaled physiological sex. Regarding anatomy as civic destiny, Meiji lawmakers discriminated between male and female in such areas as inheritance, political rights, military duties, educational choices, and professional opportunities.154 As a result of these restrictions and trends, information on sex moved out of recreational shunga and into works that were deemed scientific in nature, and a boundary began to be developed between the type of sexual information that was provided to women versus men. Unlike shunga publications, which played a role in the dissemination of sexual knowledge for women as well as men, the Meiji period and the subsequent Taishō period saw the proliferation of sexology texts that provided different types of messaging to men and women. Through the creation of sons, women’s sexuality was determined to be useful for strengthening the nation. Having more sons meant supporting Japan’s patriarchal family structure, and helping the nation fulfil its colonialist goals. The message was clear: women’s sexuality existed to strengthen the patriarchy and its objectives. Through this lens, literary works and publications that touched on aspects of sexuality that did not include procreation, 154 Gregory M. Pflugfelder, “The Nation-State, the Age/Gender System, and the Reconstitution of Erotic Desire in Nineteenth-Century Japan,” The Journal of Asian Studies 71, no. 4 (November 2012): 970. 80 such as pleasure and birth control, would negate what was purported to be the main purpose of women’s sexuality, namely reproduction. Another factor in the patriarchal approach to women’s education came from the increased presence of Christianity in Japan, and its impact on women’s education in particular. In her book, Shojo no dōtei 処女の道程 (The Dogma of Virginity), essayist Sakai Junko 酒井順子 (b. 1966) outlines the emergence of Christian values in the Meiji period. Although suppressed in the Edo period, Sakai maintains that Christian charitable contributions in poorer communities as well as the establishment of missionary girls’ schools gave the religion a favourable reputation in the Meiji period, particularly in urban centres. With Christianity becoming increasingly recognized and understood, so was the concept of women’s chastity as a value. Sakai points to Christian poet Kitamura Tōkoku 北村透谷 (1868–1894), who is referred to as Tōkoku below, as exemplifying how Christian values vis-à-vis women’s sexuality were portrayed during the late 1800s.155 Tōkoku penned his work “Shojo no junketsu o ronzu” 処女の純潔を論ず (Deliberating the Purity of Virgins) within an 1892 issue of the women’s magazine Jogaku zasshi 女学雑誌 (Women’s Education Journal). Tōkoku wrote: For the many who love heaven and earth, can there be anything more loving than the chastity of a virgin? If gold and lapis lazuli and pearls are treasures, then the chastity of a virgin represents the gold, lapis lazuli and pearl treasures of humanity. 155 Sakai Junko 酒井順子, Shojo no dōtei 処女の道程 (Shinchōsha 新潮社, 2021), 58-59. 81 If life is the sullied earth, then let us proclaim that the chastity of a virgin is the divine light.156 It is notable here that the term junketsu 純潔 is used in the poem and the title, and typically refers to “purity.” However, in this instance, the publication links junketsu to the English-language term “chastity.” While the table of contents of the magazine, which includes English-language translations, translates junketsu to “purity,” within the text itself, junketsu is glossed with the katakana pronunciation “chasuchichī,” drawing direct reference to the English term “chastity.” Tōkoku’s text includes obviously Christian content; however, according to literary scholar Rebecca Copeland, Jogaku zasshi was not limited to espousing Christian ideology. She states: This journal [Jogaku zasshi], founded and managed by men, was intensely devoted to raising the level of a woman’s education and incorporated over the course of its twenty-year history a wealth of essays and articles concerning female literacy, education, and social roles. Inaugurated in 1885… Jogaku zasshi employed literature and literary-minded individuals in its efforts to encourage women to participate more actively in society. Equally responsible for fostering literary ambitions among its female readers, the journal provides a rich environment for an exploration of this emergence of women’s writing in Meiji Japan.157 While Jogaku zasshi may have had broader goals vis-à-vis women’s education, Christianity and women’s education were intertwined at the time of the magazine’s creation in the late 1800s, and its influence on the magazine’s output was unmistakeable. Christian 156 Tōkoku 透谷, Shojo no junketsu o ronzu処女の純潔を論ず (Virgin Purity), Jogaku zasshi 女学雑誌 (Aug 8, 1892): 6. Original Japanese: 天地愛好すべき者多し、而して尤も愛好すべきは処女の純潔なるかな。「もし黄金、瑠璃、真珠を尊としとせば、処女の純チャス潔チチイは人界に於ける黄金、瑠璃、真珠なり。もし人生を汚濁穢染の土とせば、処女の純潔は燈明の暗牢に向うが如しと言おう・・・ 157 Rebecca L. Copeland, Lost Leaves (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2000), 8. 82 missionary schools provided by far the most opportunities for girls who sought educational advancement beyond elementary schooling.158 Therefore, it is unsurprising that many of Jogaku zasshi’s women contributors had attended these schools, and that much of the content of the magazines had Christian underpinnings. Despite these considerations, Jogaku zasshi provided a framework for women to develop as writers and contributors. Copeland states: “Education, most literary historians agree, particularly Western-flavored mission-sponsored education, was the single most important factor leading to the renewal of writing by women in the modern era. To understand the reemergence of women as writers, therefore, one must consider their educational opportunities.”159 From the late 1880s, Jogaku zasshi’s editor Iwamoto Yoshiharu 巌本善治 (1863-1942) began to include and encourage women’s fictional writing within the magazine.160 However, men continued to control the production of this and other women’s magazines, and the magazines targeted men as well as women readers. Despite Iwamoto’s efforts to address the lack of women’s voices in Jogaku zasshi through the solicitation of women writers’ contributions, women’s stories continued to be constrained by social expectations, and rather than sexual desire, their writing in the magazine was limited to the context of marriage.161 Women’s voices were generally constrained in social and political arenas during this 158 Copeland, 11. 159 Copeland, 8. 160 Copeland, 30. 161 Copeland, 43. 83 same period. Kubo and Gelb explain: In 1889 the Japanese Constitution was promulgated and, as the electoral system took shape, women’s political activities were banned across the board by Article 5 of the Peace Preservation Law. In 1905 women socialists began a movement to appeal for revision of the Public Order and Police Law, which prevented women’s political organization and participation. But the movement did not succeed. 162 As a result of this disenfranchisement in the political and governmental spheres, women needed to turn to unofficial channels to communicate and find community. New Literary Spaces for Women Readers and Writers While women felt continued pressure to conform to patriarchal structures to strengthen national objectives, Japanese women in the Taishō period were able to secure some employment outside the home, and with this came disposable income, which was often spent on reading material in the form of women’s magazines.163 This phenomenon helped shape publication trends and establish a marketplace for women-centred content that fell outside of determining factors of family and state. As stated above, Jogaku zasshi’s content included contributions by men and was also controlled by men. In contrast, Seitō 青鞜 (Blue Stockings, 1912–1916) was women-run and offered a different perspective of women’s sexuality. Seitō included short stories, essays and 162 Kimiko Kubo and Joyce Gelb, "Obstacles and Opportunities: Women and Political Participation in Japan," in Women of Japan & Korea: Continuity and Change, eds. Joyce Gelb and Marian Lief Palley (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994), 122. 163 Maeda Ai, “The Development of Popular Fiction in the Late Taishō Era: Increasing Readership of Women’s Magazines,” trans. Rebecca Copeland, in Text and the City (Duke University Press, 2004), 171. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822385622 84 translations of foreign texts. Like Mori Rintarō (Ōgai)’s sexology titles, Seitō included sexology texts from abroad; however, the sexology information provided through Seitō was not limited to a dry retelling of medical texts. Selections of sexology works were translated and published for the purpose of instigating dialogue amongst women readers. For example, although Seitō featured translations of works by European sexologists that Mori also highlighted, such as texts by Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840–1902), Seitō also included translations from English sexologist Havelock Ellis, most notably his work on homosexuality, including lesbianism.164 The April 1914 issue of Seitō featured a translation of Ellis’s chapter “Sexual Inversion” from his work Studies in the Psychology of Sex. Two months later in June 1914, “Haru no ban” 春の晩 (Spring Night), a short story by Tamura Toshiko 田村俊子 (1884–1945) detailing a lesbian encounter, appeared in the journal Shinchō 新潮 (meaning “new tide”).165 Shinchō began publication in 1904, and was created by Shinchōsha publishing house’s founder Satō Giryō 佐藤義亮 (1878–1951). Unlike Seitō, Shinchō was not a feminist, women-created or women-oriented publication.166 Despite this, a topic of discussion that 164 Aline Henninger, “Réception de la sexologie,”129. 165 Zhao Shuxin 趙書心, “‘Kikei’ o kasōsuru: Tamura Toshiko ‘Haru no ban’ ni okeru josei dōseiai hyōshō”「畸形」を仮装する : 田村俊子「春の晩」における女性同性愛表象, JunCture: chōiki-teki Nihon bunka kenkyū 超域的日本文化研究 11, Center for Transregional Culture and Society, Graduate School of Humanities, Nagoya University (March 26, 2020): 104. https://doi.org/10.18999/juncture.11.96 166 In its first issue, Shinchō described itself as a publication made for and comprised of contributions by seinen 青年, a term typically used to describe young men, but which can be extended to a gender non-specific, more general meaning of youth; Shinchōsha 新潮社, Shinchō : hyōshi to mokuji de miru ‘Shinchō’ 110-nen 新潮：表紙と目次で見る「新潮」110 年「新潮」編集部編. https://www.shinchosha.co.jp/shincho/100year/ 85 appeared in Seitō months previously made its way to Shinchō’s pages in the form of “Haru no ban.” Tamura herself would have been aware of Seitō’s stories and articles, having published her story “Ikichi” 生血 (Lifeblood) in Seitō’s inaugural issue. This indicates the possible influence of Seitō on the greater literary landscape as well as its relevance to discourses on sexuality that were happening at the time.167 Other women’s magazines of the early 1900s also touched on sexuality through stories that involved the pursuit of a younger girl by an older girl as a type of school-aged romance. Beginning in the 1910s, serialised novels within these magazines featured “S” relationships and this was “condoned only within the context of a larger homo-social group, usually an all-girls’ school, and only as long as both girls maintained feminine characteristics.”168 Deborah Shamoon asserts that the environment at the time was amenable to a boom in “S” stories both because of a “prohibition on writing about male-female romance of any kind” and “because girls were allowed to pursue each other and to be pursued in a way not possible in heterosexual relationships.”169 Despite having distinct romantic undertones, “S” stories conformed with patriarchal values by avoiding the topic of male-female relationships, thereby creating the pretence of chastity. However, the publication of “S” relationships “gave girls agency in expressing their 167 “Ikichi” delves into a woman protagonist’s visceral reaction to losing her virginity while unmarried. 168 Deborah M. Shamoon, Passionate Friendship: The Aesthetics of Girls’ Culture in Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2012), 37. 169 Shamoon, 38 & 44. 86 desires” as Shamoon contends, while providing the impetus for the creation of reader communities where young women shared thoughts both via letters to the magazines, and through in-person gatherings, such as reader forums created by the magazines’ editorial staff.170 Women’s magazines at the time also included in-person lecture series, as well as roundtable style discussions within the publications, in an effort to “organise readership.”171 Seitō also challenged the conventions of family and female sexuality through its stories and essays. Not only did it highlight the possibility of sexual relations outside of heterosexual relationships, the magazine also solicited and published fictional works that further challenged patriarchal structures dictated and promoted by the Japanese government. For example, Seitō contributors debated the importance placed on chastity while Jogaku zasshi championed it as being reflective of Christian values, and these debates bled into other journals of the time. Cultural historian Jan Bardsley quotes Iwabuchi Hiroko as saying that the significance placed on female virginity was tied to “the influence of Christianity and also the rising popularity in the 1910s of the belief that a woman’s sexual contact with one man would have a genetic effect on the child born of a later union with another man.”172 Ultimately, officials sought to diminish Seitō’s influence through censorship and intimidation of readers and contributors. The April 1913 issue featured the essay Yo no fujin- 170 Shamoon, 50 & 55. 171 Maeda, “The Development of Popular Fiction,” 173–4. 172 Jan Bardsley, The Bluestockings of Japan: New Woman Essays and Fiction from Seitō, 1911–16, (Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2007): 52. 87 tachi ni世の婦人たちに (To the Women of the World) by founder and writer Hiratsuka Raichō 平塚らいてう (1886–1971). The story questioned marriage as an institution, with a promise that Raichō herself would leave her family home in favour of living with her lover.173 On April 20, 1913, the Ministry of Education decided to censor women’s magazines which were critical of the ideal of the adage “good wife, wise mother,” that had gained traction within formal education at that time.174 In the following days, Seitō members received death threats, and were summoned to the censorship office, all due to Raichō’s essay.175 While Seitō was discontinued in 1916, other women’s magazines saw a surge in popularity during the 1920s, with approximately 20 magazines in circulation by 1923. Due to their success, which was attributable to the increased purchasing power of women at the time, the magazines were able to pay authors 4-5 times more than newspapers of that period.176 173 Jan Bardsley, “Seitō and the Resurgence of Writing by Women,” in The Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature, ed. Kirk Denton, Bruce Fulton and Sharalyn Orbaugh (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003): 96. 174 Christiane Lévy, “Chronologie interne à Seitō,” Ebisu: études japonaises, 48 (automne-hiver 2012): 168. https://doi.org/10.4000/ebisu.669; Koyama Shizuko 小山静子, “Ryōsai kenbo shugi” 良妻賢母主義, Nihon Daihyakka Zensho (Nipponica)日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ), JapanKnowledge. 175 Lévy, “Chronologie,” 169. 176 Maeda, “The Development of Popular Fiction,” 172 and 175. 88 Although women writers eventually made inroads into these magazines, male writers such as Tanizaki Jun’ichirō 谷崎潤一郎 (1886–1965) produced their headline works.177 In addition, while the magazines provided a venue for disseminating information about women’s sexuality, much of this content was also created by men. The male-dominated contingent of writers likely contributed to the patriarchal nature of many of the sexual portrayals found within the magazines’ pages. While popular, women’s magazines were looked down upon by the literary establishment at the time, namely the male-dominated bundan 文壇. Maeda Ai contends that the bundan blamed women’s magazines for decreased literary quality.178 In her work The Other Women’s Lib, Julia Bullock defines the bundan as follows: [Bundan] was originally used in the Meiji period (late 1800s) to refer to a literary guild structured according to a close-knit set of master-disciple relations, where young writers labored under the tutelage of established authors…. As the market for literary production and consumption expanded dramatically in the Shōwa period (beginning in 1926), the center of power gradually shifted from this small fraternity of like-minded intellectuals to the publishing industry itself, as mass-circulation newspapers and journals increasingly took the place of coterie magazines as the primary outlet for original works of fiction. By the 1960s, the term bundan had come to refer broadly to those public intellectuals with the “power”—in the form of educational capital and status, as members of the academy or the publishing industry—to determine the success or failure of the literary careers of aspiring writers…. From the beginning of the modern period, the power of the bundan was exercised in evidently gendered ways to restrict or shape women’s literary production.179 177 Maeda, 176-79. 178 Maeda, 164. 179 Bullock, The Other Women’s Lib, 31. 89 Although men writers like Tanizaki were able to gain popularity through women’s magazines while moving to the elite of the writing world, women’s writing was lumped into joryū bungaku 女流文学 (women’s literature), a term which encompassed all writings by women authors. The umbrella term failed to recognise the diversity of styles amongst women writers, and the categorization also determined a masculine norm, as women authors were considered all one and the same and yet decidedly different to the norm of “literature,” which was implicitly male.180 According to Bullock “Attributes presumed to be natural in a woman’s voice—sentimental lyricism, and impressionistic, nonintellectual, detailed observations of daily life—were the result of a confluence of social and literary trends that, in the 1920’s, crystallised the notion of a distinct ‘women’s style.’” 181 The consumers of 1920s girls and women’s magazines included “modern girls” moga who were intent on exploring life outside the home. This new conceptualisation of womanhood was the subject of fascination within Japanese society, and Sari Kawana maintains that this resulted in moga characters frequently being the “targets of murder and dismemberment via 180 Claire Dodane, “Femmes et littérature au Japon,” Cahiers du Genre, no. 1 (March 2006): 198. https://doi.org/10.3917/cdge.hs01.0197; Joan Ericson, “The Resisting Woman Writer,” in Women Critiqued: Translated Essays on Japanese Women’s Writing, edited by Rebecca Copeland (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2006), 114; Rebecca Copeland, “Introduction,” in Women Critiqued: Translated Essays on Japanese Women’s Writing, edited by Rebecca Copeland, (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2006), 2-3. 181 Bullock, The Other Women’s Lib, 32. 90 Edogawa Rampo” and saw the moga come “out of the confines of the home onto the streets, only to be watched, stalked, and killed.”182 In addition to being subject to fictional annihilation by male authors, moga were also targeted by policy makers. Bardsley notes: … state censorship of mass culture became a reality in the 1920s. Educators and other members of the establishment believed new trends pointed toward a dangerous loss of traditional values, especially among the young. They called conferences to discuss what could be done about the aggressive, young females (moga or “modern girl”) and their passive, “overly feminine” male companions (mobo or “modern boy”).183 In the face of patriarchal attacks over their existence both in fiction and in reality, moga readers sought to make connections with each other rather than turn towards the patriarchal home for protection. As outlined above, the image of the moga was linked to women’s financial independence, and women’s power as consumers strengthened the financial viability of women’s magazines. Concurrent to this, proletarian and leftist values stood as undercurrents of the journal Nyonin geijutsu 女人芸術 (Women’s arts, 1928–1932). Sarah Frederick explains: This short-lived and seemingly obscure publication launched the careers of many of twentieth-century Japan’s most important women writers, including Hayashi Fumiko, Sata Ineko, and Enchi Fumiko, and it is for this that it is now best known. Women translators also introduced works by authors from Edgar Allan Poe to Alexandra Kollontai. At the same time, the magazine developed into a major forum for leftist feminists who saw it as a potential way to reach out to women workers through 182 Sari Kawana, Murder Most Modern (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), 70. 183 Jan Bardsley, “Purchasing Power in Japanese Popular Culture,” Journal of Popular Culture 31, no. 2 (1997): 8. 91 proletarian fiction and practical information or to debate issues such as the role of art in revolution.184 Nyonin geijutsu attempted to speak to proletarian concerns by reflecting the circumstances of women’s working lives without the glamorization that surrounded the image of moga. The magazine’s creators, who included previous Seitō members established the Women’s Arts League.185 While socialist themes were apparent throughout the publication, descriptions of sexual fiction also were featured, particularly in the Jidenteki ren’ai shōsetsu 自伝的恋愛小説 (Autobiographical love stories) issue of March 1929. Within this issue, explicit descriptions of sexual encounters were self-censored with fuseji (where characters of certain words were replaced by “x” symbols) in order to bypass censors. The Impact of War on Women’s Literature As the country turned to war in the 1930s and 40s, women writers who shone a light on sexual freedom for women in Japan and who contributed to women’s journals were largely silent with regards to atrocities against non-Japanese women. For example, Hiratsuka Raichō 平塚らいてう (1886-1971) quietly passed the war years writing in the countryside.186 Some of this silence may have been related to the Japanese government’s surveillance and control over publications at the time. Modern Japanese literary scholar Marvin Marcus states: …with the 1930s, Japanese society came under the sway of a militarist regime that systematically eliminated left-wing activity and cultural progressivism as it prepared 184 Sarah Frederick, Turning Pages (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2006), 137. 185 Frederick, 141. 186 Sabine Frühstück, Gender and Sexuality, 83. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108354967 92 the nation for war. Politically subversive writing was banned, and members of the proletarian movement were purged. On pain of imprisonment and physical torture, most writers and intellectuals were successfully coerced into renouncing their leftist political stance and officially “converting” (tenkō) to the nationalist agenda. With Japan’s entry into war with China in 1937, many writers were pressed into military service as correspondents and propagandists. All were expected at least nominally to demonstrate acquiescence with the prevailing order. What is more, given the paper shortages and the escalating wartime austerities, creative writing essentially ground to a halt.187 During this time, Hayashi Fumiko worked as a war correspondent and visited occupied regions. Yet, she remained silent with regards to the horrific sexual violence that took place towards women in these areas.188 Following Japan’s surrender in 1945, and during the subsequent occupation by American forces (1945-1952), censorship focused on suppressing nationalist ideology rather than sex and sexuality.189 It was at this point that Hayashi touched on women’s hardships resulting from war, including intimate accounts of prostitution and survival. Citing Hayashi’s work Uzushio うず潮 (Whirlpool), modern Japanese literary scholar Sharalyn Orbaugh states: This novel deals graphically with the plight of war widows, focusing on this special body category of women who were (according to prewar social standards) sexually “adult” (because once married however briefly) but sexually inactive (out of respect for the memory of dead husbands) – many of whom were forced to renounce that 187 Marvin Marcus, “The Social Organization of Modern Japanese Literature,” in The Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature, eds. Joshua S. Mostow et al., (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 56. 188 Joan Ericson, “Hayashi Fumiko,” in The Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature, eds. Joshua S. Mostow et al., (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 161. 189 Sharalyn Orbaugh, “Occupation-period Fiction,” in The Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature, eds. Joshua S. Mostow et al. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 185. 93 socially encouraged celibacy and take new lovers or sexual clients in order to support themselves and their dependants.190 While Hayashi managed to write fictional works during the occupation period, a relatively small number of women writers published fiction during this time.191 Following the occupation, there was renewed interest in women’s magazines as a venue to discuss sexuality. Früstück explains: “A particularly notable trend in mass magazines concerned women’s bodies and sexual desires, as could be seen from the literature-laden Romance (Romansu) to the more explicit Married Sex Life (Fūfu no seiseikatsu). Readers of a 1954 issue of Married Life (Fūfu seikatsu) learned, for instance, that ‘99 percent of husbands [knew] nothing about their wives’ ‘sensual spot.’ Readers were then offered extensive insights on the ‘clitoris technique.’”192 In the 1960s, women’s magazines were known to include gossip on pop stars or the royal family, and to focus on women in the home.193 However, women’s magazines in the 1970s, namely An’an, Non’no, Croissant and More, emphasized women’s sexuality and rights, and stepped away from the idea that women belonged in the home. While these magazines were similar to each other in terms of being filled with photos and having titles in Roman script, 190 Sharalyn Orbaugh, Japanese Fiction of the Allied Occupation: Vision, Embodiment, Identity (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007), 371. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004155466.i-518 191 Orbaugh, 350. 192 Frühstück, Gender and Sexuality, 85. 193 Kazue Sakamoto, “Reading Japanese Women’s Magazines: The Construction of New Identities in the 1970s and 1980s,” Media, Culture & Society 21, no. 2 (1999): 177-78. 94 An’an and Non’no were considered to be for those in their teens and early 20s, while More and Croissant were generally targeting women in their mid-20s and 30s.194 An’an had a focus on travelling separately from one’s parents, while Non’no discussed interior design with the assumption that readers would have their own place to live.195 Similar to the magazines of the 1920s, these magazines, which continue to be published today, were blamed for negatively influencing women in Japanese society. For example, Sakamoto asserts that the 1988 publication kurowassan shōkōgun クロワッサン症候群 (The Croissant Syndrome) blamed Croissant “for driving unmarried women to postpone marriage and, more generally, make poor life choices.”196 In addition to including articles on travel and interior design, More, which began publication in 1977, featured interviews with women novelists and feminists, such as Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986). More articles challenged the notion of marriage and solicited letters and responses to surveys related to issues women were facing. The 1980 More Report survey focused on women’s sexuality.197 Sakamoto explains: The More Report emphasized that women should not fake orgasm, nor be ashamed of looking for sexual pleasure, including masturbation. It was obvious that More, 194 Sakamoto, “Reading Japanese,” 179. 195 Sakamoto, 177. 196 Sakamoto, 180-183. 197 Sakamoto, 184-185. 95 influenced by the women’s liberation movement, intended to establish women as subjects in sexuality instead of objects of men’s desire.198 During this period, the bundan was still actively influencing the literary world. In an effort to explain how women’s fictional works, including sexual writing, were dismissed or minimised through the bundan at this time, literary scholar Chieko Ariga analysed the commentaries of the men writers and critics that were included in the women authors’ publications. She states: A close look at the contents of these commentaries reveals that the influence of the primarily male bundan (literary establishment) in Japanese criticism is impeding the development and influence of women’s literature. In the process of commentary criticism, women’s works often become framed in patriarchal discourses and appropriated for their purposes…. The fact that any work that enters mass circulation comes under the lens of bundan critics has a huge impact on how works written by women are assimilated into social culture.199 Ariga uses an example of a commentary found within a publication of Nakazawa Kei 中沢けい (b.1959), namely Umi o kanjiru toki 海を感じる時 (When You Feel the Sea), to illustrate this phenomenon. A male critic from the bundan establishment minimizes the significance of Nakazawa’s description of the main character’s first sexual encounter and the resulting conflict between herself and her mother, as well as society more broadly. The commentator 198 Sakamoto, 185. 199 Chieko M. Ariga, “Text Versus Commentary: Struggles over the Cultural Meanings of Woman,” in The Woman’s Hand: Gender and Theory in Japanese Women’s Writing, eds. Paul G. Schalow and Janet A. Walker (Stanford University Press, 1996), 353. 96 reduces the work to a reflection of women’s “natural” sexuality, which Ariga determines is a reflection of “the yearning for the nostalgic fantasy of the mythic ‘natural’ woman.”200 In an essay translated within Rebecca Copeland’s Women Critiqued, novelist and literary critic Tomioka Taeko 富岡多恵子 (1935–2023) questions the authority of the male bundan by pointing to the integral role that mothers play in children’s language acquisition, and stating that it is only once these children move into the realm of Japanese patriarchal society that they are forced to speak the “national language,” and use kanji derived from China. Tomioka also asserts that pornography written by women merely mimics male writing on sex. She states: Nowadays there are women who write pornographic fiction, but the number is very low. The purpose of pornographic fiction and that kind of reading material is to create excitement in the reader (this is called lust in the ‘‘national language’’) through intentionally elaborating on the sections with the sexual acts. Among those who write pornographic fiction, there are those who use “women’s language,” but that is only as a token gesture of “women’s language” as seen from a man’s perspective. In the end, this kind of pornographic fiction is written for men. Since pornographic fiction for men employs the tropes of gazing on women masturbating, heterosexual intercourse, or solitary peeping Toms, it is not a style that incites women’s desire. Depicting women in this way will always only be material for men’s “lust.”201 200 Ariga, “Text Versus Commentary,” 367. 201 Tomioka Taeko, “Women’s Language and the National Language,” trans. Joan E. Ericson and Nagaoka Yoshiko, in Women Critiqued: Translated Essays on Japanese Women’s Writing, ed. Rebecca Copeland (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2006), 143-44. 97 Tomioka asserts that “women talk about sex sentimentally and emotionally” as it is “the only possible vocabulary in ‘women’s language.’”202 With this, Tomioka suggests that while women’s language and writing deserves more recognition from the writing establishment, women authors are also substantively different when it comes to sexual writing. Although Tomioka’s analysis is problematic in that she supports the notion that women are naturally prone to using euphemisms to describe sex and sexuality, her assertion that sexual writing by women is constrained to male-created methods of speaking about sex deserves further examination. Despite Tomioka’s reservations about the content of women’s sexual writing, the act of writing itself refutes patriarchal notions of sexuality for the sake of reproduction, as it represents women’s interest in writing and reading about sexual pleasure. Further, by becoming commentators on women’s sexuality as opposed to allowing men to dominate writing on women’s sexuality, women authors reclaimed power over their voices and their bodies. As Sharalyn Orbaugh asserts: Even those women who claim to accept their roles in the economy of power would be implicitly challenging it by the very act of writing. “To speak” is not the woman’s role, even if what she speaks is the language of the patriarchy.203 202 Tomioka, “Women’s Language,” 143. 203 Sharalyn Orbaugh, “The Body in Contemporary Japanese Women’s Literature,” in The Woman’s Hand: Gender and Theory in Japanese Women’s Writing, eds. Paul G. Schalow and Janet A. Walker, (Stanford University Press, 1996), 123. 98 Therefore, even when women writers shaped their works to adhere to patriarchal limitations, they still stood against the patriarchy by forming stories that were relatable to women readers. Further, although the bundan may have been critical of women’s writing, women writers started to win literary prizes that were previously awarded exclusively to men. Literary scholar Gretchen Jones writes that due to women’s increased educational opportunities, purchasing power, and the new emphasis on equality for women during the post-war period, “the 1960s and 1970s saw a dramatic increase in the number of women achieving critical acclaim and winning literary prizes. As a result, more women were able to publish their work than ever before.”204 Women also were able to push the boundaries on writing about sexuality. Jones states: Works by Kōno Taeko, Ōba Minako, Kurahashi Yumiko (b.1935), and other women feature utopian and fantasy worlds, parody, satire, and a focus on the grotesque – modes that stand in opposition to the previously accepted norms for women’s writing: autobiography, confession, and realistic or historical fiction. Furthermore, much of the fiction written by women in this era seems fixated on the abnormal, and, in particular, on “deviant” sexuality, including masochism, pedophilia, incest, partner-swapping, homosexuality and sexually motivated murder, all wrapped up in an oblique, often impenetrable narrative style. Stories involving dreams, madness, and sexual fantasies are common, as well as preoccupation with myth and the antirational, mystical side of life. Rejection of typical female norms, including motherhood and heterosexual, monogamous marriage is another common feature of 1960s and 1970s women’s writing. Kōno, Kurahashi, and later, Tomioka Taeko (b. 1935), Takahashi Takako 204 Gretchen Jones, “The 1960s and 1970s Boom in Women’s Writing,” in The Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature, eds. Joshua S. Mostow et al. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 222–223. 99 (b.1932), and Kanai Mieko frequently portray single women, often without children.205 In addition to the texts Jones mentioned above, as described below, illustrated works also gained prominence and had a profound impact on sexual writing in this period. Manga and Libraries: Enemies of the State While the origins of manga (comic books and graphic novels for all ages) can be traced back to the Meiji period, its dominance in the publishing industry came about in the latter part of the twentieth century. Two main genres of manga were shōjo 少女 (girls) and shōnen 少年 (boys) manga. Both genres were neatly split along heteronormative gender lines in terms of audience and content. Intimacy was largely lacking within shōjo manga, leaving manga creators and manga readers searching for a way to expand the genre to include sexual content for women. Legendary manga creator Takemiya Keiko 竹宮惠子 (b. 1950) discussed her motivation to draw sexual themes in an interview with manga scholar Ōgi Fusami 大城房美 stating: I wanted to tell women what sex was without veiling it, including bad things as well as good things. Drawing sex as an important theme in relation to propriety seems naturally acceptable. But sex involves an issue of power. From the old days, during war, men used to rape women of an enemy country. In order to understand such circumstances surrounding women, in these peaceful days, women should think directly about sex without fear, not just about sex with fear. I thought that the most 205 Jones, 1960s and 1970s, 223. 100 important issue for women was sex. So, I tried to imagine how I could convey the message directly to women.206 Despite this desire to communicate about sex to women readers, Takemiya was confronted with obstacles when contemplating the inclusion of heterosexual intimacy within her manga, and she instead delved into portraying intimacy with exclusively male characters in her work Kaze to ki no uta 風と木の詩 (Song of the Wind and Trees), a tragic love story set in France. Takemiya recounts: In Japan, when I serialized Kaze to ki no uta, there was a strange loose code which did not allow shôjo manga to show a man and a woman having sex, but if both of them were male, that would be all right… What I worried about the most was the PTA. I was concerned how parents would react. My publisher was Shogakukan, which was very strict about educational concepts…207 The work that Takemiya created alongside other women manga authors who used a similar technique of featuring male-male sexual encounters ultimately evolved into the boys’ love (BL) manga genre. Another subset of manga called “ladies’ comics” emerged in the 1980s. Ladies’ comics subverted patriarchal power dynamics through the brazen creation and sharing of stories about heterosexual sex ostensibly by and for women. Ladies’ comics were void of any 206 Ōgi Fusami, “Shôjo Manga (Japanese Comics for Girls) in the 1970s’ Japan as a Message to Women’s Bodies: Interviewing Keiko Takemiya – A Leading Artist of the Year 24 Flower Group,” International Journal of Comic Art 10, no. 2 (Fall 2008): 161. 207 Ōgi, 160–161. 101 consideration of childbearing or child rearing, but instead concentrated on sexual gratification, mostly between unmarried characters. Further, like the S narratives and women’s literary journals described previously, reader communities were integral to ladies’ comics and these communities replaced the shared space of family with that of a community of women. Unlike the earlier girls’ magazines that had featured “S” relationships, ladies’ comics did not arrange for in-person meetings amongst readers. Instead, ladies’ comics magazines sought reader connections through the compilation of reader comments at the end of individual volumes, as well as through survey participation and the solicitation of story ideas. Writers and readers thus connected and also became co-creators of the works.208 The ladies’ comics genre was subject to external patriarchal pressures and caught the negative attention of political groups as its popularity grew. Gretchen Jones states: As the content became more sexually explicit, the sales grew in number and by 1991, when the genre was at its peak, there were over 50 titles with an estimated publication of over 100 million copies per month. Although the genre has seen a decrease since the high point of the early 1990s, ladies’ comics still sell well and show no indications of fading. However, protests from various civic and governmental groups and even court cases regarding sexually explicit depictions in the media (not targeted at ladies’ comics per se) caused large, well-respected, mainstream publishers to curtail the sexual content in their publications in general, leaving smaller firms with limited catalogues and less public presence to publish material that might come under attack.209 208 Gretchen Jones, “Bad Girls Like to Watch: Writing and Reading Ladies’ Comics,” in Bad Girls of Japan, eds. Laura Miller and Jan Bardsley (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 99 and 104. 209 Gretchen Jones, “Bad Girls Like,” 98. 102 This interference with regards to the dissemination of ladies’ comics exemplifies the way in which women’s sexual writing was subject not only to governmental directives but also to the patriarchal inclinations of the publishing community and society more broadly.210 Despite their popularity, these genres were targets for critique and suppression. To understand how and why this occurred, it is important to examine the manner in which material with sexual content was viewed politically at this time. The stated concern of politicians and organizations was the potential negative impact of publications with sexualized content on youth. Literature and film scholar Kirsten Cather explains: Beginning in 1991, prefectural youth regulations, including “harmful book” (yūgai tosho) designations for works that “significantly retard the healthy growth of youths or stimulate sexual feelings of youths,” were strengthened across the nation, and in 2000 “harmful environment” (yūgai kankyō) laws enforcing curfew restrictions and where contraceptives and sex toys can be sold were proposed by the LDP.211 It was in this context that in 2002, based on a complaint from a concerned parent to their LDP representative, the government took the creators of the manga Mitsushitsu 蜜室 (Honey Room, 2002) to court.212 Cather notes that feminist arguments were put forth from both the 210 Mori Naoko 守如子, “Joshi ga seihyōgen no shōhisha ni naru koto no imi: ‘Dai 7-kai seishōnen no seikōdō zenkoku chōsa’ dēta kara” 女子が性表現の消費者になることの意味 ―「第 7 回青少年の性行動全国調査」データから (Characteristic Traits of Young Female Consumers of Pornography in Japan), Kansai gakubu shakaigakubu kiyō 関西学部社会学部紀要 49, no. 1 (October 31, 2017): 139. https://kansai-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/9586 211 Kirsten Cather, The Art of Censorship in Postwar Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2012), 236. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824865733 212 Cather, 231. 103 prosecution and the defence in the case, with government lawyers asserting that “scenes of masochistic women and sadistic men that make ‘women into the objects of male pleasure’ were objectionable on feminist grounds because they would lead to real harm of real women.”213 There was also concern over the potential for the material to be read by younger readers, even if it was not created for this audience. Notably, what instigated the investigation into Honey Room and its subsequent court case was the material being found in a teenager’s bedroom.214 During the time of the court case and its subsequent guilty verdict, manga’s popularity abroad surged, placing the Japanese government in a position of wanting to capitalize on this popularity to raise the country’s profile abroad. Modern Japanese literary scholar Rebecca Suter states: Beginning with the year 2000 Educational White Paper, that praised anime and manga as valuable art forms achieving popularity and recognition abroad, the Japanese government increasingly explored the advantages of enlisting these media to promote a positive image of Japan, both nationally and internationally. This resulted, among other things, in the creation of “manga studies” programs at a number of Japanese universities…215 213 Cather, 228. 214 Cather, 231, 233-35. 215 Rebecca Suter, “Reassessing Manga History, Resituating Manga in History,” in Rewriting History in Manga: Stories for the Nation, eds. Otmazgin, Nissim and Rebecca Suter (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 176. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55143-6 104 Despite this desire to highlight manga abroad, sexually explicit manga has provoked a negative impact over the goal of promoting manga as a way to increase the country’s prominence on the international stage. In 2008, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which had been calling for Japan to better regulate child pornography, pushed for a broader definition of child pornography, which would include fictional representations of children. Concurrent to this, the sexual content of manga came under greater scrutiny abroad.216 In 2010, the government of Canada prosecuted an individual entering the country with what Orbaugh describes as a “single manga- or anime-esque image judged by the Customs officer to constitute child pornography (R. v. Matheson).” Orbaugh continues “Canada Customs has taken the word “manga” to be an equivalent to ‘child pornography,’ as evidenced by the frequency with which they ask about and confiscate Japanese popular culture products at the border.”217 BL manga in particular has been targeted by Canadian law. Law and social theory professor Aleardo Zanghellini explains below how BL can be considered illegal in Canada: ‘Child pornography’ is defined to include any visual representation showing ‘a person . . . depicted as being under the age of eighteen years and . . . as engaged in explicit sexual activity’ (s. 163(1)). A work’s artistic merit is not sufficient for it to avoid criminal penalties. Rather, ‘the accused [has] to prove materials have a 216 Cather, 242; UNICEF’s original name was United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund leading to its acronym which is still used today; United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UNICEF History. https://www.unicef.org/history 217 Sharalyn Orbaugh, “Manga, Anime, and Child Pornography Law in Canada,” in The End of Cool Japan, ed. Mark McLelland (London: Routledge, 2017), 96. 105 “legitimate purpose related to . . . art” (s.163.1(6)(a)(2005)) and to further establish that the work “does not pose an undue risk of harm to minors” (s.163.1(6)(b)(2005)). This legislative scheme suggests that all but the most mainstream or ‘tame’ instances of yaoi/BL work are likely to come within the definition of ‘child pornography’ in Canada.218 While the regulation of manga with sexual content has become a topic of interest internationally, censorship of manga within Japan has also come to the fore. With regards to Honey Room itself, legal researchers had trouble accessing copies of the work, as it had not been deposited into the Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan 国立国会図書館 (National Diet Library – NDL) collection.219 In their discussion of the state of NDL’s pornography acquisitions, library and information studies scholars Kikawada Akemi 木川田朱美 and Tsuji Keita 辻慶太 maintain that while pornographic materials, like all other publications, are subject to the mandatory deposit system of having two fine copies sent to the NDL within 30 days of publication, approximately 80 percent of the pornography titles that they uncovered within Amazon Japan had yet to be deposited into the NDL collection.220 Kikawada and Tsuji assert that this is partly due to publishers associating the NDL with governmental censorship.221 218 Aleardo Zanghellini, “Underage Sex and Romance in Japanese Homoerotic Manga and Anime.” Social & Legal Studies 18, no. 2 (2009):166. 219 Kikawada Akemi 木川田朱美 and Tsuji Keita 辻慶太, “Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan ni okeru porunogurafi no nōhon jōtai” 国立国会図書館におけるポルノグラフィの納本状態, Toshokankai 図書館界 61 n. 4 (2009): 235. https://doi.org/10.20628/toshokankai.61.4_234 220 National Diet Library 国立国会図書館, National Diet Library Law. https://www.ndl.go.jp/en/aboutus/laws.html; Kikawada and Tsuji, “Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan,” 238. 221 Kikawada and Tsuji, 242. 106 Another factor may be the prominence of manga created within dōjinshi 同人誌 (self-published serials) and distributed outside of mainstream publications. While manga were big business for publishers, with astronomical sales figures through the 1990s, the self-regulation and constrained business model for manga amongst mainstream publishers led some manga enthusiasts to create and consume manga outside of the mainstream publication cycle through dōjinshi. Sharalyn Orbaugh asserts that this was facilitated by technologies such as photocopiers that allowed for the easy reproduction and sharing of stories. This inspired new possibilities for readers and writers to create their own social network that revolved around manga stories, in what Orbaugh refers to as dōjinshi culture.222 The material itself had limited distribution outside of those communities and some independent booksellers, and therefore was not subject to the typical NDL depository regulations. Established after the war, the NDL is the successor organization to the Imperial Library, and while the NDL depository system is designed to “contribute to the accumulation and utility of cultural goods,” its system of deposit is reminiscent of the Imperial Library which, as described previously, was part of the censorship process in the pre-war period.223 Kikawada and Tsuji argue that because erotic material is often excluded from the national collection, it is not subject to scholarly analysis on how women are portrayed within this 222 Sharalyn Orbaugh, “Creativity and constraint in amateur ‘manga’ production.” US-Japan Women's Journal (2003): 111-12. 223 National Diet Library, National Diet Library Law. 107 medium, and its lack of accessibility results in increased sexism. The authors also liken the situation to shunga, with the concern that if sexually explicit manga is not properly deposited and preserved in Japan, it will only become available overseas, for use by foreign scholars and researchers, and will be out of reach to scholars in Japan in future years.224 The Honey Room example involves the abstention of publishers from providing libraries with their sexually-explicit publications, thereby denying their works the longevity that being part of the library holdings would offer them. However, women-created manga with sexual content, particularly BL manga, have been actively suppressed through societal and political pressures as well. BL, which includes “male-male sex and romance” with characters that “may ‘appear to be’ minors,” is predominantly made by women and for women readers.225 In 2008, in response to complaints about BL novels, Osaka’s Sakai City removed BL novels from its library shelves. The novels include sparse but graphic illustrations, unlike manga BL titles, which include mostly illustrations. The books were pulled off the shelves, placed in closed stacks, and made available only to patrons who proved they were over eighteen. This was the result of complaints from citizens about the appropriateness of the material in the public library. Mark McLelland explains how the attempted suppression of BL 224 Kikawada and Tsuji, “Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan,” 235. 225 Mark McLelland, “Regulation of Manga Content in Japan: What is the future for BL?” in Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan, eds. Mark McLelland et al. (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2015), 254. muse.jhu.edu/book/39003 108 novels was linked to backlash against gender free initiatives that were discussed in Chapter Two. It is argued by BL detractors that it is not just the “pornographic” nature of BL materials that renders them unsuitable for minors but also the fact that same-sex sexuality is depicted. Indeed, it could be argued that the reason that social concern has only recently been focused on BL material—despite the longevity of its various genres—is because of heightened sensitivities in Japan around the supposed confusion of gender roles due to the rise of “gender-free” policies, particularly in education. Indeed, in an article reflecting on the Sakai incident published in current affairs magazine Tsukuru in May 2009, the aforementioned Ueno identified the rise in online “bashing” of feminists, sexual minorities, and “rotten girls” as symptomatic of a wider backlash against the affirmative action policies instigated by many local councils against gender discrimination.226 Discussions around whether libraries should collect materials with sexual content also extended to whether the expression of sexual desire found in these materials is acceptable at a societal level, both in terms of who is expressing that desire (who created the work) and who is the target of it (the characters in the work), as well as who is consuming, viewing, and potentially taking part in this desire (the reader). Mori Naoko 守如子 explains that while ladies’ comics critic Tashiro Mieko 田代美江子 (b.1962) may despair at the rape scenes and problematic messaging related to consent that pepper the material, and may disagree with the lack of information on contraception made available within its content, teenage and young women consumers of ladies’ comics and BL seem to have favourable outcomes vis-à-vis sexual literacy. In her research, Mori reviewed the data from the Seishōnen no sei 226 McLelland, 260. 109 zenkoku chōsa 青少年の性全国調査 (Seventh National Survey of Sexuality Among Young People), which was released in 2011 and which surveyed 7640 young people from junior high school to university. Looking at women readers who indicated that they used manga as a source for sexual knowledge, Mori’s research indicates a more positive view on masturbation, and a reduced likelihood for sexual promiscuity at the high school and university levels. These individuals also were more accepting of same-sex relationships. However, they also exhibited a view that men should take the lead on sexual relationships.227 Conclusion Regardless of governmental changes from the beginning of the Meiji period to the present, the Japanese political patriarchy has continually relegated women’s sexuality to the utilitarian function of producing offspring for the good of the nation, as well as the patriarchal family unit. Women’s sexual writing has therefore been subversive by suggesting that pleasure is an integral aspect of women’s sexuality, and it has also resisted patriarchal power by refusing to define women as a household commodity intended for the creation and development of children. In addition, women who were involved in the creation and consumption of sexual writing in the 1900s, from the moga readers to the ladies’ comics artists, did so in a context that was outside family commitments and expectations. As such, they reflect similar 227 Mori Naoko, “Joshi ga seihyōgen,” 143-144; 145, 148 & 152; 151. 110 attributes to the literary and cultural figure of the yamamba 山姥 (mountain crone) as described by Rebecca Copeland, by being “alone, unattended and thereby not contained by or confined to the family structure.”228 The ability to live independent of family constraints while existing without complete financial support of family reflects a power that goes against the patriarchal structure. Japanese women’s empowerment vis-à -vis sexual writing has been constrained by publication modes, and this was deeply influenced by patriarchal pressures from the bundan and the government. While this patriarchal control over publication choices can be seen as limiting the empowering nature of women’s writing on sexuality, women writers’ ability to overcome these constraints and produce other forms of literary production such as reader communities, indicates a substantial commitment to self-empowerment through the toppling of established patriarchal forms of writing and reading. When examining sexual fiction in the current day, where pornography is easily accessible and other online media with sexual content is ever present as a means of making profit, it is imperative to look beyond whether content is women created in order to determine whether it pushes against patriarchal notions of sex and sexuality that are detrimental to gender equity. The examples of Japanese women’s sexual writing discussed in this chapter demonstrate how women’s writing not only imparted information about women’s bodies and 228 Rebecca Copeland, “Mythical Bad Girls: The Corpse, the Crone, and the Snake,” in Bad Girls of Japan, ed. Laura Miller and Jan Bardsley, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 22. 111 experiences, but it also created alternate venues in which these discussions could take place. In this way, it subverted the patriarchal establishment of the bundan and the patriarchal state, and likely influenced the sexual writing by women authors of today. 112 Chapter Four: The R-18 Literary Prize The Significance of Literary Prizes in Japan The R-18 Literary Prize follows a long-established tradition of Japanese literary prizes stemming from literary journals. Literary scholars Kensuke Kōno and Ann Sherif describe the history of these prizes below. From the 1960s through the 1980s, a remarkable number of literary journals including Shinchō, Bungakukai, Gunzō, Bungei, Umi, and Subaru lined bookstore shelves. Each issue was voluminous (nearly three hundred pages) and was published every month, all in Tokyo. The journals stimulated further attention by establishing literary prizes. Long-standing and influential prizes such as the Akutagawa Prize and the Naoki Prize were revived in 1949. The shinjinshō, or prizes for new writers, gave publishers a central role in spotlighting the younger generation and shaping the careers of new writers.229 Shinchōsha, a Tokyo publishing house established in 1896, has followed the aforementioned model of using its literary journals to sponsor its prizes, including the R-18 Literary Prize.230 As mentioned in Chapter Three, Shinchōsha’s literary journal Shinchō published Tamura Toshiko’s “Haru no ban” (Spring Night) in 1914, a story about the aftermath of the woman protagonist’s first sexual encounter, which was out of wedlock. Shinchō has now become Japan’s longest-running literary journal.231 Shinchōsha’s standalone publications include 229 Kensuke Kōno and Ann Sherif, “Trends in postwar literature, 1945–1970,” in The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature, eds. Haruo Shirane, Tomi Suzuki and David Lurie (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 729. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781139245869 230 Shinchōsha 新潮社, Kaisha jōhō 会社情報. https://info.shinchosha.co.jp/ ; Shinchōsha’s full name in Japanese is Kabushiki-gaisha Shinchōsha 株式会社新潮社. Its full name in English is Shinchosha Publishing Company, Ltd. 231 Shinchōsha 新潮社, “Shinchō : hyōshi.” 113 literary works, predominantly popular fiction and numerous manga titles. Additionally, Shinchōsha publishes non-fiction titles including works on domestic and international politics and contemporary society. Amongst Shinchōsha’s fifteen literary prizes, some of which have been discontinued, all but one have been administered through its literary journals.232 Central to its prizes are four that are administered through the Shinchō Foundation, including the Mishima Yukio Prize.233 While the foundation’s officers include several members from Shinchōsha, many of its officers work for external businesses which are involved in printing, book selling and book binding. The remaining officers include Japanese literary scholars in addition to well-known authors, three of whom are tasked also with being part of the judging panel for the aforementioned prizes. In terms of its composition, the foundation resembles Bullock’s definition of a bundan, as it includes “public intellectuals with the ‘power’— in the form of educational capital and status, as members of the academy or publishing industry — to determine the success or failure of the literary careers of aspiring writers.” 234 232 Shinchōsha 新潮社, “Bungakushō” 文学賞. https://www.shinchosha.co.jp/prizes/ 233 Known in English as the Shincho Foundation, the Ippan zaidan hōjin Shinchō bungei shinkōkai 一般財団法人新潮文芸振興会 (literally “the General Incorporated Foundation, Shinchō Art Promotion Association”) administers the Yamamoto Shūgorō shō山本周五郎賞 (Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize), the Kobayashi Hideo Shō 小林秀雄賞 (the Kobayashi Hideo Prize), Shinchō Dokyumento Shō 新潮ドキュメント賞 (the Shinchō Document Prize) and the Mishima Yukio Shō 三島由紀夫賞 (the Mishima Yukio Prize). 234 Bullock, The Other Women’s Lib, 31 114 Similar to the make-up of a traditional bundan, the foundation is predominantly made up of men. The foundation’s officers’ names are overwhelmingly masculine, with four out of twenty-one officers presenting with feminine names, three of whom are women authors, with the remaining feminine name referring to a representative from Shinchōsha. None of the women authors sit on the prize judging panels related to the foundation. Throughout the history of Japanese literary prizes, select women writers have had the opportunity to sit on prize selection committees. However, having a women-only selection panel is a novelty. Women writers have also been much less likely to be awarded the prizes, as described in Sharalyn Orbaugh’s commentary below: Another way to grasp the gendered changes in postwar literature can be seen by looking at the distribution of the literary awards that were and continue to be significant in the insular world of Japanese publishing. One of the most prestigious is the Akutagawa Prize, given twice annually to the best piece of (high-culture) prose fiction by an emerging author and often acting as a gateway to a distinguished literary career. In the two decades between its inception in 1935 and 1954, the Akutagawa Prize went only twice to women: Nakazato Tsuneko (1909–87) in 1939 and Shibaki Yoshiko (1914–91) in 1942. Expressed as a percentage, women won the award 6 percent of the time. In the decade from 1955 to 1964, however, women were awarded the Akutagawa Prize 12.5 percent of the time, rising to 26 percent in the decade from 1965 to 1974, and again to 35 percent between 1975 and 1984. Other literary prizes had similar gendered trajectories, with women writers represented in greater numbers beginning in the late 1950s.235 235 Sharalyn Orbaugh, “Women’s Fiction in the Postwar Era,” in The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature, eds. Haruo Shirane, Tomi Suzuki and David Lurie (Cambridge University Press, 2015), 739-40. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781139245869.078 115 Further, Orbaugh also illustrates how women authors in the post-war period were not only winning more awards for their writing, but they also began sitting on adjudicating committees for literary prizes. She states “Not only were women recognized for their publications but they were also invited to join literary prize committees themselves, with Kōno Taeko (1926–2015) and Ōba Minako (1930–2007) serving on the Akutagawa Prize committee, for example.”236 Despite the gains made by post-war women authors both in terms of winning awards and through their participation in literary prize selection processes, these gains signified an encroachment onto a literary award structure that was dominated and created by men. Framing the Prize: Kannō for Women The R-18 Literary Prize is one of four literary prizes currently administered through the Shinchōsha publishing house itself (rather than the foundation), in contrast to the aforementioned four prizes that are administered through the literary and publication industry establishment. The official name of the R-18 Literary Prize is Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō 女による女のための R-18 文学賞 (By Women, For Women R-18 Literary Prize). The full name of the prize is a reflection of the underlying assertion that the prize is exclusively by and for women, and, as described below, the history and structure of the prize re-affirms this assertion. Despite the importance of this part of the title, on the 236 Orbaugh, “Women’s Fiction,” 240. 116 covers of several of the publications that include the stories, the prize name is shortened to read R-18 bungakushō 文学賞 or R-18 Literary Prize. The R-18 Literary Prize is a shinjinshō 新人賞 (newcomer award), limiting eligibility to unpublished authors, and it was developed in 2001 by women editors at Shinchōsha.237 Initially, Shinchōsha framed the prize under the term kannō shōsetsu 官能小説. While on the surface the term seems to equate to “erotic novel,” the word kannō 官能 has an English definition of “sensual” as well as “physical [organic] functions.”238 Kannō more broadly refers to the five senses.239 For instance, kannō hyōka 官能評価 or kannō kensa 官能検査 means “sensory evaluation,” where the senses are being used to evaluate something. An example usage for this term would be in the context of wine tasting. The dictionary Nihon Kokugo Daijiten 日本国語大辞典 defines kannō as a pure reaction of the senses, without the mediating factor of reason.240 In this way, kannō shōsetsu is appropriate for descriptions of the body’s reactions to sexual stimuli, and not a simple account of sexual activity in a storyline. On the other hand, the definitions of kannō that refer to sensory functions do not necessarily imply enjoyment of these functions. The common usage for kannō in the sexual 237 Yoshida Nobuko 吉田伸子, “Iwai 20-shūnen kinen essei: R-18 bungakushō wa eien ni fugen desu!” 祝 20周年記念エッセイ：R-18 文学賞は永遠に不減です！ Shōsetsu shinchō 小説新潮 75, no. 5 (April 2021): 72. 238 Puroguresshibu Wa-Ei chūjiten プログレッシブ和英中辞典 (Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary), s.v. “Kannō” かんのう【官能】(Shōgakukan, 2011). JapanKnowledge. 239 Ōno Mitsuno 大野晋 and Hamanishi Masamitsu 浜西正人, “Kannō”【官能】 かんのう, Kadokawa ruigo shinjiten角川類語新辞典 (Kadokawa Shoten , 1981). JapanKnowledge. 240 Nihon Kokugo Daijiten 日本国語大辞典, s.v. “Kannō” かんのう【官能】(Shōgakukan 小学館). JapanKnowledge. 117 sense, however, very much includes manzoku 満足 or gratification. The beginnings of the R-18 Literary Prize made women’s gratification the central concern. Just after the first prize was awarded in 2002, Kobayashi Katsuko 小林加津子, then deputy chief editor at Shinchōsha, gave the following statement to reporter Aoki Chie 青木千恵 from the Sankei Shinbun 産経新聞 newspaper. For this and subsequent quotes in this section, I have used “erotic” as a translation for kannō. In the past number of years, the work of women erotic novelists has stood out. Those who can write erotica are fundamentally good at writing, so with the theme of writing erotica for women, we’re wondering if new talent will emerge. If you like someone, then sex is possible somewhere down the line, and that is a commonality between old and young, men and women.”241 Aoki asserts that women editors of Shinchōsha had conversations about women not being aroused by pornographic videos or sexual stories created by men and targeted towards men. This resulted in the creation of the prize.242 Literary critic Yoshida Nobuko 吉田伸子 expands on this in her commemorative essay written for the prize’s twentieth anniversary in 2021. She states that women editors at Shinchōsha were tired of witnessing descriptions of women in sexual writing created by and for men, which included seemingly sexless women being nymphomaniacs at heart, or 241 Aoki Chie 青木千恵, “Josei no tame no ‘sei no hon’ ninki” 女性のための「性の本」人気, Sankei Shimbun (Koko ga shiritai, nyūsu kaisetsu) 産経新聞 (ここが知りたいニュース解説), October 3, 2002; Translated from the original Japanese:「ここ数年、女性の官能小説家の活躍が目立ってきている。官能が書ける人は基本的に文章がうまく、女性のための官能というテーマで新しい才能が出てこないかな、と。人を好きになれば、その先にセックスがありえるのは老若男女に共通したこと」 242 Aoki, “Josei no tame.” 118 women who said ‘no’ but meant ‘yes.’243 Yoshida portrays the conversation between the women editors as going something like this: “Wrong! Completely wrong! The ‘erotic’ that we want to read is not this! What we want to see in a story is not this!”244 The ability of these women editors to create a literary prize is perhaps partly attributable to Shinchōsha’s progressive stance on women in the workplace. At present, just under half of its employees are women, and within its recruitment information provided to prospective employees, Shinchōsha states that most of its women employees stay at the company after having children. The company also highlights how women employees move up to editorial and managerial positions, including department heads and chief editors.245 While the selection of the prize name is not discussed in the aforementioned interview or essay, the term “R-18” likely was chosen to indicate the sexual theme of the prize. In 1998, the term “R-18” came into use by Eirin 映倫, Japan’s Film Classification and Rating Organization, to demarcate films classified as appropriate for an adult audience.246 This was four years prior to the establishment of the R-18 Literary Prize. 243 Yoshida, “Iwai,” 73. 244 Yoshida, 73; Translated from the original: 違う！全然違う！私たちが読みたい「官能」は、こうじゃない！物語で描いて欲しいのは、それじゃない！ 245 Shinchōsha 新潮社, Kaisha o shiru: Shinchōsha FAQ 会社を知る新潮社 FAQ. https://info.shinchosha.co.jp/recruit/faq/ 246 Liam Grealy, Catherine Driscoll and Kirsten Cather, “A history of age-based film classification in Japan,” Japan Forum (July 10, 2020), 4. https://doi.org/10.1080/09555803.2020.1778058; Eirin’s current film classifications system can be viewed on the organisation’s website https://www.eirin.jp 119 During this period, there was political pressure on the publishing industry to regulate reading material, particularly manga. This tied in with nation-wide and local government initiatives to control what types of recreational material could be distributed to minors. Freelance reporter Nagaoka Yoshiyuki 長岡義幸 maintains that in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, there was a shift around the year 2000 where municipal government employees moved from an expectation of self-regulation by publishers to government regulation of publishing output. Nagaoka states that in 1999 there was a high turnover of government employees in Tokyo’s seishōnen-ka 青少年課 (Youth Division) and he attributes this to government workers anticipating a change in direction by incoming governor Ishihara Shintarō 石原慎太郎 (1932-2022), a conservative politician and former Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) member whom Nagaoka describes as having fukenteki 父権的 (patriarchal) leanings. In response, publishing industry representatives developed the Zōningu Iinkai ゾーニング委員会 (Zoning Committee) which established the practice of marking publications with “R-18” labels to indicate to booksellers that these works were not to be sold to minors.247 Therefore, the selection of the term “R-18” was likely done to impart the connotation of adult-oriented content to potential readers while underlying the publisher’s intention to not distribute the material to those under eighteen, possibly as a proactive mechanism in case of objections from government regulators. 247 Nagaoka Yoshiyuki 長岡義幸, Manga wa naze kiseisareru no ka : “yūgai” o meguru hanseiki no kōbō マンガはなぜ規制されるのか -「有害」をめぐる半世紀の攻防, (Heibonsha, 2010), 207-209. 120 Submission Criteria Initially, the prize solicited stories that centred around the topic of sex. Shinchōsha’s website in November 2001 read as follows: Submissions are limited to women. Shinchōsha editors will be in charge of the first round of shortlisting, after which women writers Hirano Momo and Yamamoto Fumio will both serve as selection committee members, and from the shortlisted titles, they will decide on the grand prize. For readers who can’t write, but love to read, we have created the ‘Readers’ Award.’ This award will be decided by making the shortlisted titles available on the web and having exclusively women readers voting with a click. We are looking for ‘R-18,’ or works that adults can enjoy. However, we don’t have an age restriction for submissions. A mature 15-year-old or a young 80-year-old can submit their stories. Please get those submissions in.248 The announcement for the third annual prize of 2004 begins with “Reading and writing exclusive to women! The R-18 Literary Prize, which solicits erotic stories that women read with a natural feeling...” The same language is used to introduce the prize winners in subsequent years.249 248 Shinchōsha 新潮社, Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō: dokusha mo sanka dekiru! 女による女のための R-18 文学賞：読者も参加できる！(Last archived November 30, 2001). Internet Archive Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20011130132818/http://webshincho.com/; From the original Japanese: 応募は女性に限定、新潮社の女性編集者が第一次選考を担当した後、光野桃さんと山本文緒さんのおふたりの女性作家が選考委員として、選ばれた候補作品の中から大賞を決定いたします。書くことはできないけれど、読むのは大好き、という読者のために「読者賞」を設けました。Ｗｅｂ上で最終候補作品を公開し、女性読者限定でクリック投票を行った上で決まります。「Ｒ－18」、つまりあくまで大人が楽しめる作品を求めますが、応募に年齢制限はありません。15歳の熟女でも、80歳の少女でもＯＫです。ドンドン応募して下さい。 249 “Dai 7-kai Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō jushō-saku kettei happyō” 第７回女による女のための R-18 文学賞受賞作, Shōsetsu shinchō (June 2008): 304; “Dai 3-kai Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō jushō-saku happyō” 第 3回女による女のための R-18 文学賞受賞作, Shōsetsu shinchō (April 2004): 239; Translated from the original Japanese:「読むのも書くのも女性限定！女性が読んでナチュラルに感じられるエロティックな小説を募集する Rー18 文学賞・・・」 121 Although the prize’s name clearly indicates an adult-oriented focus, the prize criteria and contestants did not necessarily adhere to this connotation, with submissions said to be coming from a broad age range, from middle school students to those in their eighties.250 Phases of the Prize As noted above, the R-18 Literary Prize began with the requirement that submissions include a sexual theme, with the description “the erotic [kannō] that only women can write.”251 Ten years later in 2012, the prize pivoted to a broader set of submission criteria, which included “stories that bring out emotions for women.”252 While being a woman remained a requirement, writing sexual content was no longer necessary to submit.253 The prize has undergone another recent shift in 2022, when prospective authors were asked to create “stories that manifest the sensibility of the written word.”254 As detailed 250 Eros, onna datte kataritai SNS ga ‘honne’ kaihō. エロス、女だって語りたい SNS が「本音」解放. Asahi Shinbun 朝日新聞. Feb 16, 2013. 251 Mitsuno Momo 光野桃, Dai 1-kai R-18 bungakushō senpyō: Mitsuno Momo 第１回 R-18 文学賞選評―光野桃. Last modified 2002. https://www.shinchosha.co.jp/r18/review/no1_mitsuno.html; From the original Japanese: 女性にしか書けない官能を 252 Dejitaru daijisen purasu デジタル大辞泉プラス,“Josei nara de wa no kanjō o ikashita shōsetsu” 女性ならではの感性をいかした小説 (Shogakukan, Inc., August 2019) JapanKnowledge; From the original Japanese:『女性ならではの感性をいかした小説』 253 “‘R-18 bungakushō’ kara jitsuryoku-ha ga zokuzoku: Josei no sakuhin, josei ga senkō,”「Rー18 文学賞」から実力派が続々 女性の作品 女性が選考, Tōkyō Shinbun 東京新聞, May 27, 2013. 254 Shinchōsha 新潮社, ‘Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō’ rinyūaru ni yosete「女による女のための R-18 文学賞」リニューアルに寄せて. Last modified Summer 2022. https://www.shinchosha.co.jp/r18/what_r18.html; From the original Japanese: 書き手の感性を生かした小説 122 below, the committee structure and the allocation of prize money also changed at this juncture. Selection Committee Since the launch of the prize, the panel of judges that selects from the shortlisted stories has been comprised of established women authors. The fact that this is an all-women selection process stands out particularly in consideration of the bundan tradition that has typified literary success in Japan. With a few exceptions, the panel of judges has stayed steady, with a complete overhaul happening with each phase of the prize. Initially in 2002, Yamamoto Fumio 山本文緒 (1962–2021) was a main judge through to 2011 (the tenth prize). She was joined by Mitsuno Momo 光野桃 (b. 1956), Kakuta Mitsuyo 角田光代 (b. 1967), and Yuikawa Kei 唯川恵 (b. 1967) at various points during this period, with the exception of the fifth prize, which Kakuta judged on her own. Judges for the eleventh to twentieth prize (2012-2021) were Miura Shion 三浦しをん (b. 1976) and Tsujimura Mizuki 辻村深月 (b. 1980). The current judges (as of 2022) are writers Kubo Misumi 窪美澄 (b. 1965) and Yuzuki Asako 柚木麻子 (b. 1981), as well as manga artist Higashimura Akiko 東村アキコ (b. 1975). Kubo won the R-18 Literary Prize herself in 2008, and more recently received the 2022 Naoki Prize, indicating that winning the R-18 Literary Prize can garner success for aspiring writers. On its website, Shinchōsha introduces the new judges proclaiming that “they each have created a large number of enchanting works, and continue to create works that focus on 123 women’s empowerment,” stating also that one can look forward to seeing what kinds of stories they will end up selecting. 255 Prize Categories The R-18 Literary Prize consists of the following prize categories. Although uncommon, some authors in some years were awarded with multiple prizes for their entries. Grand Prize & Readers’ Award (Taishō 大賞) Since its inception in 2002, the two main awards offered by the R-18 Literary Prize have been the Grand Prize (Taishō 大賞) and the Readers’ Award (Dokusha-shō 読者賞). The Grand Prize has been awarded every year except for the second year, in 2003. At 300,000 yen (approximately $2000 USD), it has the highest prize value amongst all the awards and represents the top-rated submission of the judging panel. The Readers’ Award included a monetary reward of 100,000 yen (approximately $685 USD), and stemmed from reader feedback. Readers were allowed to view shortlisted stories on the prize website for approximately one month and were asked to submit their impressions of the stories. Based on this commentary, the Readers’ Award winner was determined. 255 Shinchōsha, rinyūaru; Original Japanese: それぞれに、多くの魅力的な作品、女性をエンパワーメントするような作品を生み出し続けている三人の新選考委員が応募作をどのように読まれるか、どんな作品を選ばれるか、とても楽しみです。 124 The concept of soliciting reviews and submissions from readers mimics what was done with ladies’ comics and “S” Stories discussed in Chapter Three. Readers are not only consumers but collaborators with regards to the publication of works. Although it was not a new concept in terms of women’s literature generally, having readers choose a literary prize, and using the internet to share shortlisted stories for this purpose, was a novelty.256 As of 2022, the Readers’ Award was discontinued, although readers are still able to view the shortlisted stories and post comments via the Shinchōsha site. No reason was given by Shinchōsha for discontinuing this prize. Table 1 and Table 2 below show the winning titles for these two awards. 256 Yoshida, “Iwai,” 73. 125 Table 1 – Grand Prize and Readers’ Choice Winners 2011-2023 Grand Prize Winners Readers’ Choice Winners Author Title Author Title 2023 NAKATANI Miori Hoozuki no sekku Prize discontinued 鬼灯の節句 2022 KAMIMURA Yutaka Sukuwareten ja nē yo 上村裕香 救われてんじゃねえよ 2021 MIYAJIMA Mina Arigatō Seibu Ōtsu ten MIYAJIMA Mina Arigatō Seibu Ōtsu ten 宮島未奈 ありがとう西武大津店 宮島未奈 ありがとう西武大津店 2020 AKI Hinoko Nani itten da, ima goro UMEDA Sumiko Karadakashi to 3-ji no shima 秋ひのこ 何言ってんだ、今ごろ 梅田寿美子 カラダカシと三時の鳥 2019 TSUBUKI Tomoka Akai hoshiboshi wa shizumanai KONUMA Akiha Omajinai 月吹友香 赤い星々は沈まない 小沼朗葉 おまじない 2018 SHIMIZU Yūki Tesaguri no kokyū NATSUKI Reina Sora ni ochiru umi 清水裕貴 手さぐりの呼吸 夏樹玲奈 空におちる海 2017 SHIRAO Haruka Akurosu za yunibāsu SHIRAO Haruka Akurosu za yunibāsu 白尾悠 アクロス・ザ・ ユニバース 白尾悠 アクロス・ザ・ ユニバース 2016 MACHIDA Sonoko Kamerūn no akai sakana ICHIKI Kei Nishikoku shisō shōjo 町田そのこ カメルーンの青い魚 一木けい 西国（にしこく）疾走少女 2015 AKIYOSHI Atsuki Akegata no ie KOBAYASHI Sayoko Kutabare chika aidoru 秋吉敦貴 「明け方の家」 小林早代子 くたばれ地下アイドル 2014 NAKAMURA Kazuki Tobenai chōcho TAKITA Emi Tadashikunai hito, Sakurai-san 仲村かずき とべない蝶々 滝田愛美 ただしくないひと、 桜井さん 2013 ASAKA Shiki Manga-niku to boku MORI Miki Asanagi 朝香式 マンガ肉と僕 森美樹 朝凪 2012 FUKAZAWA Ushio Kanae no Obasan KOZAWA Tamako Harō, yakusai 深沢潮 金江のおばさん こざわたまこ ハロー、厄災 2011 TANAKA Chōko Beshimi KŌZUKI Fumio Gūzen no musuko 田中兆子 べしみ 上月文青 偶然の息子 126 Table 2 – Grand Prize and Readers’ Choice Winners 2002-2010 Grand Prize Winners Readers’ Choice Winners Author Title Author Title 2010 KINA Chiren Toketara shibonda. AYASE Maru Hana ni kuramu 木爾チレン 溶けたらしぼんだ。 彩瀬まる 花に眩む 2009 KUBO Misumi Mikumari Unawarded 窪美澄 ミクマリ 2008 HIRUTA Asako Jijōjibaku no watashi YAMAUCHI Mariko In your dreams 蛭田亜紗子 自縄自縛の私 山内マリコ 2007 MIKAZUKI Hiraku Shīzun zandā suprin ISHIDA Zeze Ramune no awa to, oboreta ningyo 三日月拓 シーズンアンダースプリン 石田瀬々 ラムネの泡と、溺れた人魚 2006 MIYAGI Ayako Hanayoi dōchū Unawarded 宮木あや子 花宵道中 2005 MINAMI Ayako Natsu ga owaru MATSUDA Kei Uchū kitte shirīzu 南綾子 夏がおわる 松田桂 宇宙切手シリーズ 2004 YOSHIKAWA Toriko Nemuri hime YOSHIKAWA Toriko Nemuri hime 吉川トリコ ねむりひめ 吉川トリコ ねむりひめ 2003 Unawarded WATANABE Yayoi Soshite ore wa tohō ni kureru 渡辺やよい そして俺は途方に暮れる 2002 HINATA Yomogi Mazenta 100 TOSHIMA Miho Aozora cherī 日向蓬 マゼンタ 100 豊島ミホ 青空チェリー 127 Excellence Award (Yūshū-shō 優秀賞) This award was offered only four times between 2003 and 2007, and has since disappeared from the prize offerings. From the reviews of the selection committee, it appears that the award was given as a type of consolation prize. Table 3 – Excellence Award Winners The prize judges described how the works caused them to want to see more from the authors, but they maintained that the submissions in question did not merit the Grand Prize. It is unclear what if any compensation was given to Excellence Award winners.257 257 In their reviews of the shortlisted stories, judges Yamamoto and Kakuta indicate that it was unfortunate that none of the stories were quite good enough for the grand prize. As a result, the excellence prize can be considered to be an “honourable mention” but not a standard award; Yamamoto Fumio 山本文緒, Dai 2-kai R-18 bungakushō: Senpyō – Yamamoto Fumio-shi第 2回 R-18 文学賞 : 選評―山本文緒氏. https://www.shinchosha.co.jp/r18/review/no2_yamamoto.html; Kakuta Mitsuyo 角田 光代, Dai 2-kai R-18 bungakushō: Senpyō – Kakuta Mitsuyo-shi 第 2回 R-18 文学賞 : 選評―角田光代氏. https://www.shinchosha.co.jp/r18/review/no2_kakuta.html Author Title 2007 MIKAZUKI Hiraku Shīzun zandā suprin 三日月拓 シーズンザンダースプリン 2006 KIYOSE Mao Naku kokoro to sabishisa o 清瀬マオ なくこころとさびしさを 2005 Unawarded 2004 KANNO Ryō Haikingu 管乃了 ハイキング 2003 MASAKI Tōko Pātonā 正木陶子 パートナー 128 Table 4 – Tomochika Award Winners Tomochika Award The Tomochika Award (Tomochika-shō 友近賞) was established in 2015, and is named after Tomochika 友近 (b. 1973) a tarento (entertainer) who gained popularity on variety shows, but has also appeared in acting roles in movies and television dramas.258 Tomochika chooses the winner of this award independent of the selection committee. Up until 2021, the prize amount was 50,000 yen (approximately $340 USD); the 2022 prize was listed at 100,000 yen ($685 USD).259 258 Shinchōsha 新潮社, “Senkō iin shōkai 選考委員紹介.” https://www.shinchosha.co.jp/r18/selector.html 259 “Dai-19 kai Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō” 第 19回女による女のための R-18 文学賞, Asahi Shinbun 朝日新聞. May 13, 2020; “Dai-21 kai Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō” 第 21回女による女のための R-18 文学賞, Asahi Shinbun 朝日新聞. May 18, 2022. Tomochika Prize Author Title 2023 YOSHII Yū Gōya to chīzu no Shōryōma 義井優 ゴーヤとチーズの精霊馬 2022 KOIKE Neji Ii hito ja nai 古池ねじ いい人じゃない 2021 MIYAJIMA Mina Arigatō Seibu Ōtsu ten 宮島未奈 ありがとう西武大津店 2020 Unawarded 2019 CHIKANO Ai Ima wa mada ienai 千加野あい 今はまだ言えない 2018 YAMAMOTO Nagisa Appuru deizu 山本渚 アップル・デイズ 2017 ITŌ Maki Tsuki to ringo 伊藤万記 月と林檎 2016 ASAI Towako Kenmin ni wa kau mono ga aru 笹井都和古 県民には買うものがある 2015 AKIYOSHI Atsuki Akegata no ie 秋吉敦貴 「明け方の家」 129 Selection Process The prize is annual in nature, with prize submissions due in the fall, and winners announced in the spring. Since the prize was first announced in 2001, only online submissions have been accepted.260 The first rounds of selection, including long listing and short listing, is undertaken by women editors of Shinchōsha.261 Subsequent to this, the stories are posted online for a limited time. When the Readers’ Award was still active, readers were able to vote online for their favourite stories.262 However, readers now have the option of commenting on the stories during this period where stories are posted online, but they are unable to vote. The short-listed items are reviewed by the selection committee, which then determines the grand prize winner. As stated above, the Tomochika Award is chosen by Tomochika alone. While the R-18 Literary Prize has a selection committee made up of authors, the fact that shortlisting is undertaken by editors indicates that the publisher’s bottom line plays a large part in the selection of the winning titles. Once selected, the winning stories are highlighted in the journal Shōsetsu shinchō. 260 “Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō: Atarashii kannō shosetsu ga yomitai!” 女による女のための R-18 文学賞：新しい官能小説が読みたい！ Shōsetsu shinchō 小説新潮 (May 2002): 7. 261 Akiyoshi Atsuki 秋吉敦貴, “Dai 14-kai onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō: jushō kettei happyō!” 第１４回女による女のための R-18 文学賞：受賞作決定発表！Yom yom, 36 (2015): 273; “‘R-18 bungakushō’ kara jitsuryoku-ha,” Tōkyō Shinbun. 262 Shinchōsha 新潮社, Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō: dokusha mo sanka dekiru! 女による女のための R-18 文学賞：読者も参加できる！(Last archived November 30, 2001). Internet Archive Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20011130132818/http://webshincho.com/ 130 The prize originally occupied only a small space in Shinchōsha journals, with only the announcement and winning stories included. From 2012 to 2016, when the prize shifted temporarily to Yom yom, one of Shinchōsha’s other literary journals, the prize was not featured on the covers and was limited to prize winning stories and announcements. For instance, the Spring 2016 Yom yom includes just over 50 pages of content related to the prize, with no mention of either the prize or prize-winning titles and authors on its cover. However, since 2017, Shōsetsu shinchō has run a special issue of the journal every year which includes not only the announcement, but also the winning stories in full, and also features new stories from previous prize winners who are still actively writing.263 The prize dominates the annual special issues of these journals, which are published in spring, when the winners are announced. In the April 2022 volume of Shōsetsu shinchō, content related to the R-18 Literary Prize spanned 210 pages, including the stories of former prize winners. Reception of the Prize In order for the prize to re-define the genre of kannō shōsetsu, it must be able to reach beyond the readership of the journals where the stories debut. Yoshida Nobuko asserts that due to the fact that R-18 Literary Prize is a short story prize, it is not a given that the stories will be published outside of the journals as standalone publications. Many contributing 263 Shōsetsu shinchō 小説新潮 is a literary magazine which started publication in 1947. According to Shinchōsha, its goal is to offer “a magazine packed with stories for adults and enjoyment for adults.” 「大人の小説、大人の愉しみが、ぎっしり詰まった雑誌」; Shinchōsha 新潮社 “Shōsetsu shinchō to wa?” 小説新潮とは？ https://www.shinchosha.co.jp/shoushin/ 131 authors struggle to continue with writing careers and are unable to publish full-length novels or short story anthologies after winning the prize.264 It is for this reason that not all the winning stories are easily accessible or findable beyond the journals in which they debuted. However, the R-18 Literary Prize has reached an audience beyond those who have read the prize-winning stories within Shinchōsha’s journals. Several of the winners have been successful in re-publishing their winning stories in larger anthologies which can be purchased in print and sometimes digitally. Further, Shinchōsha itself has supported the authors by publishing new works of previous prize winners alongside the prize announcements in the journal issues devoted to the R-18 Literary Prize. Bungei Anemone 文芸アネモネ (Literary anemone), a short story anthology predominantly filled with new stories from past prize winners, was also created through Shinchōsha as a fundraiser for the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami. Additionally, a number of the stories turned into cinematic productions. These include two works discussed in this dissertation: Kubo Misumi’s full-length novel We Look to the Sky that re-purposes “Mikumari” as its first chapter, as well as “Manga-niku to boku” マンガ肉と僕 (Manga Meat and Me) by Asaka Shiki 朝香式 (b.1971).265 Further, Hiruta Asako 蛭田 264 Yoshida, “Iwai,” 74. 265 “Manga-niku to boku: Kyoto Elegy” マンガ肉と僕：Kyoto Elegy. https://manganikutoboku.official-movie.com/ 132 亜紗子’s 2008 Grand Prize-winning story “Jijōjibaku no watashi” 自縄自縛の私 (Caught in My Own Trap) was turned into a film under the R-18 Literary Prize branding.266 Finally, despite not winning a prize, 2012 finalist Jerīfisshu ジェリーフィッシュ (Jellyfish) by Hinakura Sarie 雛倉さりえ (b.1995) was also singled out for cinematic production.267 It includes a same-sex romance between two 16-year-old schoolgirls. Non-heteronormative romances are non-existent within the list of prize-winning stories, with the exception of “Tobenai chōcho” とべない蝶々, the 2014 Grand Prize-winning story by Nakamura Kazuki 仲村かずき (b. 1984), which includes a same-sex relationship between men. Not only were the characters in “Jellyfish” adolescents, but the author herself was 16 when she submitted her story. Distribution in Libraries Shōsetsu shinchō, where the R-18 Literary Prize stories are promoted and published, is available through mainstream Japanese bookstores, but also at numerous libraries within and outside of Japan. According to the CiNii Research database, at least forty-four academic libraries in Japan hold the publication, and according to Worldcat, at least thirty-two academic libraries outside of Japan also house at least some Shōsetsu shinchō journal 266 Yoshimoto Music Company, Ltd. 株式会社よしもとミュージック, R-18 Bungakushō Vol. 1 Jijō jibaku no watashi R-18 文学賞自縄自縛の私. http://yoshimoto-me.co.jp/artist/r-18jijoujibakunowatashi/discography_detail/656 267 Japanese Film Database 日本映画データベース, R 18 bungakushō vol 2 Jellyfish R-18 文学賞 vol.2 ジェリー・フィッシュ. https://jfdb.jp/title/3886 133 volumes.268 It is more difficult to ascertain the holdings of public libraries in Japan as Kāriru カーリル , a bibliographic database that includes access to exclusively public library records, does not readily provide this statistical information at this time.269 While the number of academic libraries subscribing to Shōsetsu shinchō is modest when compared to the very popular literary journal Bungei shunjū 文藝春秋, where Worldcat points to 159 libraries outside of Japan which hold the title and CiNii Research indicates 537 libraries within Japan hold the title, it still confirms that the R-18 Literary Prize stories are accessible throughout Japan and internationally.270 This is especially true when we factor in services like InterLibrary Loan, where select parts of the journal can be re-produced and distributed between libraries to facilitate users’ needs across countries and borders. Further, an R-18 Literary Prize story that is published post-debut as a standalone publication or as a part of an anthology may also benefit from increased distribution within library spaces due to its status as being a prize-winning title, particularly in light of the fact 268 CiNii Research (https://cir.nii.ac.jp), a bibliographic database from the Kokuritsu Jōhōgaku Kenkyūjo 国立情報学研究所 (National Institute of Informatics), provides holding information from Japan’s academic libraries alongside some public libraries; CiNii, Shōsetsu shinchō 小説新潮. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/AN10052697 Worldcat (https://worldcat.org) is a union database of libraries offered by OCLC (formerly known as the Online Computer Library Center), a non-profit organization that requires paid membership by participating libraries in order to maintain Worldcat and other services. Although not restricted to North American libraries, membership is predominantly comprised of North American institutions; WorldCat, Shōsetsu shinchō 小說新潮. https://www.worldcat.org/title/2267672 [Worldcat and employs說 in lieu of 説 in its records (as do other North American academic libraries) due to the use of MARC 8 rather than Unicode encoding for its catalogue.] 269 Kāriru カーリル (https://calil.jp ) is run by a company which harvests current library records and provides real-time information on circulation status (whether the book is currently on loan). 270 CiNii, Bungei shunjū 文藝春秋. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/AN00278208; WorldCat, Bungei shunjū 文藝春秋. https://www.worldcat.org/title/1537812 134 that the prize is awarded through the prolific Shinchōsha publishing house which, as indicated above, administers several literary prizes. In addition to increasing publishers’ sales and potentially enhancing the authors’ career prospects, literary prizes also guide library collection building. In my past experience as a librarian, when I was tasked with purchasing fictional works with a limited budget, I found that prioritizing book award winners allows libraries to purchase material in both print and, when available, electronic format. This is due to the fact that the material has already been appraised as having literary merit, and as a result, will likely receive the long-term interest of users. Ultimately, the wide availability of the R-18 Literary Prize stories within both academic and public library spaces means that they are accessible to students, researchers and the public who seek access to fictional material with sexual content. In the chapter below, I aim to demonstrate what kind of sexual knowledge R-18 Literary Prize stories may provide to these readers as compared to other sources on sexuality, specifically sexuality education curriculum. 135 Chapter Five – Stories from the First Phase of the R-18 Literary Prize Methodological Approach In this chapter and in Chapter Six, I will analyse individual prize-winning stories. Through this analysis, I hope to ascertain the level of impact of these stories vis-à-vis providing access to necessary knowledge about sex and sexuality for women in particular. I also aim to investigate how the content of each story compares with the UNESCO Guidance, and the many points outlined in that Guidance related to recommended levels of Comprehensive Sexuality Education. I will do this in order to determine whether providing access to works such as these within library shelves and elsewhere can enhance or be a substitute for curriculum-based sources on sexuality. To this end, I will adopt the following methodological and theoretical approaches via textual analysis of the individual stories: 1) Thematic Analysis Using the UNESCO Guidance as a framework, I will consider whether Japanese women’s sexual writing is reflective of comprehensive sexuality education themes which, as described in Chapter Two, aim to enhance women’s equity. Specifically, I will use a deductive approach to thematic content analysis whereby concepts derived from the UNESCO Guidance are utilised as themes, and I will search for the appearance of these themes within the text of the stories. Rather than simply searching for exact terminology that matches 136 vocabulary contained in the Japanese translation of the guidance, I will extrapolate the themes from story arcs and dialogue.271 The figure below is a pie chart derived from the concepts and topics found in the UNESCO Guidance. As part of the thematic analysis I provide for each story, I indicate the presence of a concept with the full opacity of the colour associated with the concept, and I indicate the absence of a concept by employing a lighter shade of the same colour. By using lighter colours for the areas where concepts and topics are not included within analysed stories, I hope to visually demonstrate to what extent each story reflects comprehensive sexuality education concepts found in the UNESCO Guidance. 271 The translation of the UNESCO Guidance is available here: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Kokusai sekushuaritī kyōiku gaidansu (kaisei-ban): kagakuteki konkyo ni motozuita apurōchi 国際セクシュアリティ教育ガイダンス【改訂版】: 科学的根拠に基づいたアプローチ, trans. Asai Haruo et al., 浅井春夫 et al. (Akashi Shoten 明石書店, 2020). https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374167/ 137 While the themes shown in the figure above match the UNESCO Guidance concepts and topics, in order to map the content of the texts to the themes, I will use latent in addition to semantic coding. According to psychology scholars and thematic analysis specialists Braun and Clarke, while semantic coding relies on “explicitly expressed meaning,” “latent codes RelationshipsValues, Rights, Culture & SexualityUnderstanding Gender Violence & Staying SafeSkills for Health & Well-beingThe Human Body & DevelopmentSexuality & Sexual BehaviourSexual & Reproductive Health1.1 Families1.2 Friendship, Love and Romantic Relationships1.3 Tolerance, Inclusion and Respect1.4 Long-term Commitments and Parenting2.1 Values and Sexuality2.2 Human Rights and Sexuality2.3 Culture, Society and Sexuality3.1 The Social Construction of Gender and Gender Norms3.2 Gender Equality, Stereotypes and Bias3.3 Gender-based Violence4.1 Violence4.2 Consent, Privacy and Bodily Integrity4.3 Safe Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)5.1 Norms and Peer Influence on Sexual Behaviour5.2 Decision-making5.3 Communication, Refusal and Negotiation Skills5.4 Media Literacy and Sexuality5.5 Finding Help and Support6.1 Sexual and Reproductive Anatomy and Physiology6.2 Reproduction6.3 Puberty6.4 Body Image7.1 Sex, Sexuality and the Sexual Life Cycle7.2 Sexual Behaviour and Sexual Response8.1 Pregnancy and Pregnancy Prevention8.2 HIV and AIDS Stigma, Care, Treatment and Support8.3 Understanding, Recognizingand Reducing the Risk of STIs, including HIVFigure 8 – Pie chart of concepts & topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education 138 focus on a deeper, more implicit or conceptual level of meaning, sometimes quite abstracted from the obvious content of the data.”272 In practice, I attempt to map the vocabulary of the text when relevant, such as when condoms are used and discussed explicitly, and mark the relevant colours in darker opacity to reflect the presence of these clearly-expressed concepts. Additionally, I mark as present instances where concepts are not clearly expressed within the dialogue or narrative, but which appear through the overall story arc, such as when gender roles impact the story’s characters regardless of whether “gender” is discussed explicitly within the text. Further, when the text incorporates a term that appears in the UNESCO guidance, it may not match the scope of discussion within a particular concept. For example, “Pregnancy and Pregnancy Prevention” focuses on the biological impacts of pregnancy and related concerns, as well as the tools for pregnancy prevention whereas “Long-term Commitments and Parenting” focuses on the decision to have children and the life-long commitment related to parenting. Therefore, a mention of “pregnancy” is contextualized to determine which concept(s) it relates to, and on which part(s) of the pie chart this will be reflected. Lastly, I am solely searching for the presence or absence of topics that match the themes that underly the concepts of the UNESCO guidance. I do not exclude instances where: • A topic appears within the text but lacks scientific evidence or health guidance. 272 Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide (London: Sage, 2022), 57–8. 139 • The content of the text appears to contradict the sexual education practices espoused within the guidance, such as when a character chooses not to use a condom. As discussed previously, the eight key concepts of the UNESCO Guidance aim to provide a framework for gender equity, including women’s empowerment, in the context of sex and sexuality. By comparing the content of R-18 Literary Prize stories to the concepts and learning objectives provided through the UNESCO Guidance, I will be able to consider whether this literature fills a gap in the current Japanese curriculum on sexuality education, thereby contributing to women’s empowerment through the dissemination of sexual knowledge. 2) Feminist Theory I will apply feminist theory when examining the texts, and also when considering the context in which these texts were created. Specifically, I will consider whether and how patriarchal processes were challenged with regards to not only the authorship and storylines, but also the marketing and dissemination of the texts. Understanding patriarchal processes is vital to the understanding of women’s sexual empowerment, especially when considering the linkages between sexual disempowerment of women through sexual violence. Below is the continuation of a quote from Sheila M. McMahon’s definition of feminist theory, which I pointed to in the introduction. Patriarchy, which can be defined as a sexual system of power in which the male possesses superior power and economic privilege, is often central to feminists’ 140 explanations of sexual violence. Power imbalances in gender relations, within the patriarchal system, are part of this broad approach to understanding violence against women (as opposed to a narrow, legalistic approach). In this system, men’s power, exercised through sexual, physical, psychological, and economic abuse, is a way of maintaining control over women. Feminist theory [explores] the culture, systems, and structures that make violence against women possible.273 For texts that do touch on concepts outlined within the UNESCO Guidance, it is vital to ask whether feminist values are reflected through the writing or whether the works reiterate patriarchal norms. In addition, what impact does women’s authorship have on the perception of empowerment, and how does the dissemination of these women-created works influence how these works have been consumed? Should patriarchal processes still be at play, sexual disempowerment persists, and so too does the potential for normalising sexual violence through power imbalances. The qualitative approaches above are essential to develop a full understanding of the stories and their impact. Dines et al. refer to the inadequacy of a surface analysis of terminology within their study of pornographic novels, which revealed that the penis is often described as a weapon such as a “spear, dagger, jackknife, etc.,” emphasizing the dominance of the male characters.274 This example illustrates how the patriarchal society in which pornography flourishes may not be apparent through countable factors such as words. 273 Sheila M. McMahon, “Theory, Feminist.” 274 Gail Dines, Robert Jensen and Ann Russo, Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality (New York: Routledge, 1998), 97. 141 Only a close reading and qualitative analysis of text can provide the understanding needed to associate “spear” with sexual violence or male dominance. Similarly, the sexual writing analysed in this dissertation can be reviewed for certain keywords, but an analysis of the overall messages and themes related to sexuality, and of the texts’ relationship to patriarchal processes, will provide a deeper insight into how this material does or does not communicate knowledge on sexuality that is empowering to women. At this juncture, I will look to analyse select texts from the R-18 Literary Prize. I selected stories based on the following criteria. I decided to include: - A mixture of stories that appeared within the first and second phases of the prize to demonstrate any changes over the lifetime of the prize, including the change in judges and application criteria. - Stories that were re-published outside of the journals in e-book form as I believe this is indicative of Shinchōsha’s assessment that the stories have lasting value and are representative of the R-18 Literary Prize brand. - Award-winning works from the Readers’ Choice and/or the Grand Prize categories as these categories were in existence from the debut of the award in 2002 through to the end of the second phase of the prize in 2021. I excluded the following: 142 - Stories that solely received the Tomochika Prize, as this prize involves just one judge, and I believe requires a separate analysis that involves an examination of how Tomochika herself may assess works differently than the judging panel or readers. In this chapter, I will examine short stories from the first phase (2002–2011) of the prize. During this phase, sexual storylines were a requirement for submissions. “Aozora Cherī” The first annual R-18 Literary Prize’s Readers’ Award went to Toshima Miho 豊島ミホ (b. 1982) for her short story “Aozora Cherī” 青空チェリー, which translates to “Blue Sky Cherry.”275 The story takes place on the rooftop of a yobikō 予備校, a “cram school” or preparatory school (the nature of which will be discussed further below). The story centres around an 18-year old woman named Morita Chika 森田千花, a student at the school who wishes to become a writer. Chika enjoys going to the rooftop during her breaks, where she peeps through the cracks of the school’s billboard and into the windows of the neighbouring love hotel.276 Architect and urbanist Sarah Chaplin describes Japanese love hotels as places that 275 All quotes from and references to the “Aozora cherī” are taken from the following republication of the story: Toshima Miho 豊島ミホ, “Aozora cherī” 青空チェリー (Shinchōsha 新潮社, 2007), Shincho Online Books, Kinnopy. 276 Short-term hotels that are predominantly used for sexual encounters that can happen throughout the day, as opposed to overnight stays. 143 “primarily cater for the demands of couples seeking space dedicated to sexual intimacy on a short-term basis away from their crowded, often distant home.”277 While on the roof on a particularly clear day, Chika meets Honbashi Yukio 本橋幸夫 (whom she later refers to as Honbashi-kun), a young man who also studies at the school. While surprised to see each other, the two realise that they are there for the same reason. Honbashi offers to leave so that Chika can enjoy the space by herself, but Chika excitedly encourages him to stay and masturbate next to each other, which they do. The two agree to meet there regularly at lunchtime, much to the delight of Chika. As mentioned above, the story takes place at a cram or preparatory school called yobikō. While yobikō have now evolved to teach on a variety of topics and to various age groups, university entrance exams were the primary, if not only topic of concern for the schools at the time this publication came out in 2002.278 The 1999 edition of the Encyclopedia of Japan defined yobikō as follows: Schools whose primary purpose is preparing students to pass the highly competitive entrance examinations of Japanese universities. Most cram school enrollees are recent high school graduates who are seeking admission to colleges and universities and who failed in their first sitting for the entrance examination… Since there is no effective nationwide institution in Japan charged with college and university entrance requirements and standards, the information regarding university entrance 277 Sarah Chaplin, Japanese Love Hotels (Routledge, 2007), 1. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203962428 278 Tezuka Takehiko 手塚武彦 and Nishine Kazuo 西根和雄, “Yobikō” 予備校, in Nihon daihyakka zensho (Nipponica) 日本大百科全書（ニッポニカ）, Shōgakukan 小学館. JapanKnowledge. 144 examinations provided by the major yobikō is indispensable not only to their enrolled students but to all prospective test takers.279 Therefore, the yobikō has been a place where students acquire practical knowledge that prepare them to move forward to university where high school curriculum alone proves insufficient. In “Aozora Cherī,” Chika and Honbashi use the roof of the yobikō to learn about sex and sexual pleasure, which would also have been absent from their high school learning. The term “aozora” means “blue sky,” and the clear blue sky is brought up several times in the story. It is mentioned in the context of the freedom of sexual activity that Chika seeks, and that she sees within the love hotel. She is excited about the clarity by which she can see the sexual encounters in the love hotel when the sky is clear. She also imagines that the individuals who leave the drapes open may be doing so because of wanting to have sex under the clear blue sky. This sexual freedom is juxtaposed against how the blue sky is viewed by the school itself. The school bans the use of the rooftop by students, citing that students who fail their exams have a propensity for suicide, and that viewing the clear blue sky from a high place encourages individuals to commit suicide. The windows of the school are also frosted, and Chika suspects this is to further hide the blue sky from students. In a similar fashion to how the educational system in Japan is devoid of open discussion on sexuality despite a desire from students to learn more on the subject, Chika looks towards the limitless blue sky to 279 Encyclopedia of Japan, s.v. “Yobikō” 予備校 (Kodansha, 1999). JapanKnowledge. 145 expose and enhance sexual pleasure, while the yobikō obscures the blue sky as a dangerous entity, deciding instead to keep students inside so that they can focus on regimented curriculum related to passing exams. Due to a continuous run of good weather, Chika and Honbashi manage to meet often during the month of May, and they begin to pair their sexual activity with conversations related to family and career aspirations. They also talk about sex, and what it would feel like to be peeped on, leading to an admission from Chika that she is a virgin. When a rainy day arrives about a month later, it coincides with the beginning of Chika’s menstrual period and the first rumblings of the rainy season. Chika decides to take the day off due to menstrual pain. The only food she agrees to eat are cherries that her mother washes for her, and that were sent from her uncle’s home in Yamagata prefecture. In this scene, Chika refers to cherries as “sakuranbo,” the Japanese term for the fruit. In contrast, in the story’s title, the term “cherry” is written in katakana as “cherī,” a transliteration of the English term “cherry,” which can also refer to virginity.280 Chika eats the cherries within her home and amongst her family, re-connecting with her virginal identity. Returning to the rooftop on the next clear day, Chika meets Honbashi, where he confesses to her that he had gone there regularly to masturbate in the rain, but he did so 280 The Oxford English Dictionary includes virginity as a figurative definition of “cherry,” and so too does Shogakukan Random House English-Japanese translation dictionary; OED Online, s.v. “cherry, n.” Oxford University Press, September 2022. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/31341; Shogakukan Random House English-Japanese Dictionary, 2nd Edition 小学館 ランダムハウス英和大辞典 第 2版, s.v. “cherry.” (Shōgakukan 小学館, 1994). JapanKnowledge, 2003. 146 thinking of her, and not while peeping in the windows. They profess their love for each other and immediately try and have intercourse, but this turns out to be a failure. Penetration proves to be too painful for Chika. Embarrassed, she says: “I didn’t think anything of it. I thought that for me it would be fine.”281 She then goes on to say “There’s no way there would be any pain for someone like me – I was caught off guard. I’m an idiot.”282 Despite Chika’s confidence regarding peeping, and comfort with masturbation and sexual pleasure, Chika’s naiveté and assumptions regarding her body catch her by surprise. She assumed that due to her interest in sex, she would easily have intercourse, but is faced with the reality that her body reacts differently when it interacts with another body. Finally, the couple decide to try intercourse again, but arrange to do so at the love hotel. This is where the story ends. In this way, the couple leaves the hentai “perversion,” which is relegated to the rooftop of the school, and moves to the love hotel space, where sex is normalized and expected. Throughout the story, Chika views herself and Honbashi as hentai 変態, or perverts. Hentai seems a fitting term for someone peeping in on couples engaged in sexual activity. However, there is another definition for the term, which is metamorphosis. The two young 281 Original Japanese:「だって、考えてなかったの。あたしならきっと平気っておもってた」 282 Original Japanese:「あたしなら、痛いことなんてあるわけないって、油断してたの。あたしが馬鹿なの」頬からくちびるにつたう涙でまた塩味が。「ごめんなさい」 147 adults are crossing the border between high school and adulthood and the story sees them move from their hentai personas to an adult world of sex within an established relationship. This metamorphosis can also evoke a caterpillar turning into a butterfly that can fly high into the blue sky, versus a distraught student falling to their death. In this sense, the theme of empowerment is clearly established. While “Aozora Cherī” was selected for the Readers’ Award, the judges Yamamoto Fumio and Mitsuno Momo also gave author Toshima, who was herself nineteen years old when she wrote the story, high marks for the originality of the story and for its light-hearted description of masturbation. They did not award her the Grand Prize due to the prose lacking polish and feeling too informal, with Yamamoto comparing it to something you might see in an email or chat message to a friend.283 UNESCO Guidance and “Aozora Cherī” “Aozora Cherī” touches on several areas of the UNESCO Guidance, without using the terms in the guidance. Thematically, the story encompasses all the key concepts, with the exception of Skills for Health & Wellbeing. Most notably, the story directly addresses the aspects related to sexual behaviour and response which are forbidden topics of discussion in the Japanese sexuality education curriculum. 283 Yamamoto Fumio 山本文緒, Dai 1-kai R-18 bungakushō Senpyō — Yamamoto Fumio-shi 第 1回 R-18 文学賞 選評―山本文氏. https://www.shinchosha.co.jp/r18/review/no1_yamamoto.html; Mitsuno, Senpyō dai 1-kai. 148 However, while the story brings up consent in terms of Chika declaring that she would be very embarrassed were she ever to be peeped on, and through the apologies Chika says in her head when she herself peeps in on others, the problematic nature of peeping is never really unpacked. There is an underlying tone of blame towards the individuals in the love RelationshipsValues, Rights, Culture & SexualityUnderstanding Gender Violence & Staying SafeSkills for Health & Well-beingThe Human Body & DevelopmentSexuality & Sexual BehaviourSexual & Reproductive Health1.1 Families1.2 Friendship, Love and Romantic Relationships1.3 Tolerance, Inclusion and Respect1.4 Long-term Commitments and Parenting2.1 Values and Sexuality2.2 Human Rights and Sexuality2.3 Culture, Society and Sexuality3.1 The Social Construction of Gender and Gender Norms3.2 Gender Equality, Stereotypes and Bias3.3 Gender-based Violence4.1 Violence4.2 Consent, Privacy and Bodily Integrity4.3 Safe Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)5.1 Norms and Peer Influence on Sexual Behaviour5.2 Decision-making5.3 Communication, Refusal and Negotiation Skills5.4 Media Literacy and Sexuality5.5 Finding Help and Support6.1 Sexual and Reproductive Anatomy and Physiology6.2 Reproduction6.3 Puberty6.4 Body Image7.1 Sex, Sexuality and the Sexual Life Cycle7.2 Sexual Behaviour and Sexual Response8.1 Pregnancy and Pregnancy Prevention8.2 HIV and AIDS Stigma, Care, Treatment and Support8.3 Understanding, Recognizingand Reducing the Risk of STIs, including HIVFigure 9 – Pie chart of concepts and topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education with topics included in “Aozora Cherī” indicated with a darker fill colour and excluded topics with lighter fill. 149 hotel, who purposely leave their curtains open. Chika’s use of the term hentai also points to this voyeurism, and she presents the term as humorous in the context of her being a virgin. Yet, going back to the UNESCO Guidance, an understanding of sexual violence would require an acknowledgment that voyeurism can be used as a form of sexual violence, and this is certainly not discussed within the story. Thus, in terms of its educational merit, the empowering aspects of the story that are related to sexual enjoyment are tempered by the light-hearted way voyeurism is discussed and illustrated within the story. “Magenta 100” The 2002 debut Grand Prize winner for the R-18 Literary Prize was Hinata Yomogi 日向蓬 (b.1969) for her story “Mazenta 100” マゼンタ 100, which translates to “Magenta 100.”284 The story is set in Japan’s bubble era, which took place from 1985 to 1991, when Japanese banks kept interest rates low and liberally lent out money to stock and real estate investors. This caused both individuals and corporations to spend money they didn’t have on increasingly overvalued land and other investments.285 The story begins with its unnamed protagonist and narrator, described as being under the legal drinking age of twenty, dating a man named Shō-chan 将ちゃん, who is two decades her senior. Shō-chan introduces her to 284 All quotes from and references to the “Mazenta 100” are taken from the following republication of the story: Hinata Yomogi 日向蓬, “Mazenta 100” マゼンタ 100 (Kadokawa shoten 角川書店, 2008), Kadokawa e-bunko 角川 e-文庫 (Kadokawa e-books), Kinnopy. 285 Jennifer Amyx, Japan’s Financial Crisis: Institutional Rigidity and Reluctant Change (Princeton University Press, 2004), 1. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400849635 150 the term “magenta 100,” which is pronounced “mazenta 100” in Japanese. However, he mispronounces the term as “mazenda 100.” “Magenta 100” refers to when only magenta is used (100% magenta) within CMYK colour production, which is the preferred type of colour space for commercial printing.286 The narrator considers Shō-chan an expert in these types of matters due to his owning what appears to be a very successful design company. Shō-chan is all about excess. He owns two BMWs and takes the narrator to fancy restaurants, saying that having good taste and cooking well in later years hinges on having good things to eat in one’s youth. Shō-chan also takes her to newly-built foreign-owned hotels, where their sexual encounters take place. Initially, sex is described in terms of nausea-invoking foreplay or acrobatic sexual positions with little evidence of pleasure or enjoyment. Further into the story, however, the narrator describes Shō-chan’s proficiency in oral sex, and the pleasure she extracts from it. This is in contrast to her own lack of expertise, which does nothing to arouse Shō-chan. However, after three months of dating, her technique improves considerably, and to demonstrate her newfound wisdom with regards to fellatio, she recounts how Shō-chan reaches orgasm. Describing his ejaculate as “inochi no moto,” which translates to “life’s 286 According to computer graphics trainer Sandee Cohen “The acronym CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and a key color which is most always black… CMYK colours are also called process colours. Because the press uses these four inks to create all the color an image needs, printing with CMYK is called four-color printing, or process printing.” Sandee Cohen, “Computer colour modes: CMYK Mode,” in From Design into Print: Preparing Graphics and Text for Professional Printing (Berkley: Peachpit Press, 2009; O’Reilly Ebook). 151 essence,” she states, “I slowly drink up Shō-chan’s ejaculated life’s essence. I’m thirsty for life, and my throat is bone dry.”287 The narrator wants to fully experience all that she can of adulthood, and as such, she takes pleasure from being in Shō-chan’s orbit, and being part of the excess that he carries with him. Shō-chan brings that same intensity and excess to their sexual encounters, where he endlessly tries new positions to the point that the narrator worries that he may tire himself out. The narrator’s enjoyment of their relationship shifts one summer day when, for the first time, Shō-chan takes her to a love hotel, where they have sex under a giant ceiling mirror. She says the following about what she sees reflected from above: When I looked closely, there were lots of small spots in and around Shō-chan’s shoulders, and there was a lot more white in his hair than I had noticed previously. I realised I hadn’t paid real attention to his back before. Also, when I glanced at the bird’s eye view of our tangled bodies, I was at a loss for words.288 After leaving the love hotel, the narrator admits to herself that for the first time, she feels resentful about her relationship with Shō-chan. While the narrator never hides the fact that Shō-chan is considerably older than she is, she is continuously distracted by the lavish lifestyle that encompasses him. When faced with the stark reality of his unfiltered naked 287 Original Japanese: あたしは将ちゃんが放った命の元をゆっくりと飲み干す。私は命に飢えて、のどがからからだ。 288 Original Japanese: よく見ると、将ちゃんの肩のあたりには小さなシミがいっぱいあって、髪の毛も思ってたより白髪が多くて、私はそれまでこうして将ちゃんの背中をまじまじと見たことがなかったことに気が付いた。そして、こんなふうにして絡み合う自分達の鳥瞰図を目の当たりにして、あたしは言葉を失った。 152 body within the less-than-glamourous environment of the love hotel, the narrator’s enjoyment of the relationship dissipates. Soon after this encounter, Shō-chan hurriedly pays a visit to the narrator’s apartment, letting her know that his wife is expecting a child, signalling a need to break up. Years go by before the story picks up again, sometime after the economic bubble bursts.289 The narrator is now working for a small advertising agency that “does everything from designing ads to doing the electrical work in show windows.” She realizes that it is only the older men who do billboards that call magenta colour “mazenda” and that young designers use the correct pronunciation and say “mazenta.” When she unexpectedly comes across Shō-chan with a towel around his head creating window-dressings for stores in the middle of the night, she becomes upset. Shō-chan notices the narrator’s presence in the advertising field, and he contacts her in the hope of pressuring her into helping his struggling company. However, being relatively junior in her own company, she can only produce a purchase order for 100,000 yen (about $685 USD), which infuriates Shō-chan, who believes he should be paid 1,000,000 yen (about $6850 USD) for the job. 289 David Edgington describes how the bubble economy burst after “excessive speculation was finally curbed in 1989 and 1990 with increased interest rates and a ceiling on bank finance for real-estate purchases.” This resulted in drastic drops in both stock market value and land prices and proved destructive to banks and businesses that had previously benefited from the bubble. David Edgington, “bubble economy,” Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture, ed. Sandra Buckley (London & New York: Routledge, 2001), 49. 153 They go again without speaking, and years later the narrator’s friends question why she tends to select lovers that they describe as “balding, fat, intellectual yakuza.”290 She then recounts what took place the previous day, when she walked by a store window only to realise that it was filled with Shō-chan’s work. The background was covered corner to corner with magenta 100. She thinks about how the colour is full of vitality and heat, and closing out the story she states “… I finally and honestly started to realise what attracted me to Shō-chan.”291 The narrator craves the intensity that she had received from Shō-chan, but it was and continues to be window-dressing. While she likes the idea of the world he presents to her, his true body and his true work and profession displease her. Just as with a financial bubble, the comfort that it produces is unsustainable and artificial, revealing ugliness when it bursts. With regard to the judging panel, both Yamamoto and Mitsuno’s critique of the story indicate that the quality of prose resulted in its selection for the Grand Prize, with Yamamoto adding that she found the sex scenes amusing.292 Both judges also mentioned that the book reminded them of another work of fiction that revolves around a young woman falling in love during the bubble period, namely Bogichinぼぎちん by Yokomori Rika横森理香 (b.1963). 290 Original Japanese: ハゲでデブのインテリヤクザ 291 Original Japanese: …あたしは自分が将ちゃんの何に惹かれていたのか、やっとほんとに、わかったような気がした。 292 Yamamoto, Dai 1-kai. 154 Although sex is an essential component of the story, “Magenta 100” shows itself as a reflection of Japanese society during the bubble economy and its collapse, and of the resulting impact on gender roles and norms. Shō-chan does not fit the standard definition of a salaryman in that he owns his own business while a salaryman would typically be a lifetime employee of a business. However, he still embodies the same type of expectations vis-à-vis masculinity and labour dynamics. Japanese studies scholar Romit Dasgupta explains: … over the postwar decades accompanying Japan’s transition to a global industrial power, the discourse of masculinity surrounding the salaryman emerged as the hegemonic form of masculinity. This was despite the fact that even at the high point of Japan’s economic success story in the 1960s and 1970s, only a limited number of men would have fallen under the strictest definitional rubric of the term salaryman. Rather… it was the ideology (of gender, of sexuality, of class, of nation) embodied in the salaryman that was far more extensive in its reach. At the core of this ideology was the equation of masculinity with the public work sphere, and femininity with the private, household sphere. 293 With the bubble bursting, things changed for Shō-chan, just as for the typical salaryman. Regarding this phenomenon in the real world, Dasgupta states: Many of the earlier assumptions associated with the salaryman – the guarantee of employment for life, promotion tied to length of employment rather than merit, and a paternalistic regard for the employee, for instance – became increasingly redundant as a consequence of the corporate downsizings and restructurings of the post-Bubble years.294 293 Romit Dasgupta, Re-Reading the Salaryman in Japan: Crafting Masculinities (New York: Routledge, 2013), 155. 294 Dasgupta, 3. 155 Shō-chan transitions from being the glitzy entrepreneur, able to live in excess, to a father needing to ask a woman two decades his junior for help so that he can carry on financially. The shift is substantial as the traditional lay of the land with regards to salarymen and business standards would dictate that an older man working in an industry would automatically get paid more and be more valuable than someone his junior, regardless of merit or talent. There would normally be no comparison with a woman employee as a woman would never reach to the same height as a man within the labour market. Shō-chan’s authority is further diminished as his knowledge and understanding of the industry is called into question when it is revealed that he has been mispronouncing the colour magenta as “mazenda,” while the young designers that the narrator now works with pronounce it correctly. Meanwhile, we are presented with a woman narrator who initially seems to be a naïve toy for Shō-chan, but as the story advances, it becomes clear that she is infatuated with consuming the riches of the city that Shō-chan offered at the beginning of the book. She continues to pursue middle-aged men hoping that they will produce what she seeks, only to be disappointed. This is encapsulated by her admission that she has had a series of lovers who are balding and overweight, but she now makes sure to have intercourse facing away from sex partners so that, rather than looking at them, she can look out into the cityscape from the window. Just as she was not keen on seeing Shō-chan for who he was, with his wrinkles and spots reflected in the love hotel mirror, she focuses her attention on the superficial surroundings rather than the reality of the lover she is with. 156 UNESCO Guidance and “Magenta 100” While “gender” is not a term that is explicitly mentioned, a discussion of gender norms weaves its way throughout the story. Due to the changing social landscape stemming from the collapse of the bubble economy, the story describes a power shift between the narrator and Shō-chan, one that results in the narrator not being as financially insecure or concerned as Shō-chan appears to be. These issues relate to some of the aspects that fall under the “understanding gender” and “values, rights, culture & sexuality” concepts of the UNESCO Guidance. In addition to the narrator not relying on Shō-chan for financial support, she is not adhering to social norms with regards to marriage or motherhood. Since the timeline is missing exact years, it is difficult to determine the age of the narrator at the end of the story; however, she reveals that she is beyond the typical marrying age. There is also no hint of her wishing to pursue marriage or procreation. The only child mentioned in the story is not hers but Shō-chan’s. In this way, the narrator chooses to forego social expectations vis-à-vis her gender role. She chooses to have sex without conforming to the idea that the sex she has should take place within a marriage, and without adhering to societal pressures with regards to having sex for the purpose of having a child. 157 This freedom and power come at the expense of Shō-chan, not only with regard to his economic status, but also with regard to how his body is viewed and depicted. While Shō-chan ridicules the narrator for gaining weight due to her penchant for all-you-can eat cake RelationshipsValues, Rights, Culture & SexualityUnderstanding Gender Violence & Staying SafeSkills for Health & Well-beingThe Human Body & DevelopmentSexuality & Sexual BehaviourSexual & Reproductive Health1.1 Families1.2 Friendship, Love and Romantic Relationships1.3 Tolerance, Inclusion and Respect1.4 Long-term Commitments and Parenting2.1 Values and Sexuality2.2 Human Rights and Sexuality2.3 Culture, Society and Sexuality3.1 The Social Construction of Gender and Gender Norms3.2 Gender Equality, Stereotypes and Bias3.3 Gender-based Violence4.1 Violence4.2 Consent, Privacy and Bodily Integrity4.3 Safe Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)5.1 Norms and Peer Influence on Sexual Behaviour5.2 Decision-making5.3 Communication, Refusal and Negotiation Skills5.4 Media Literacy and Sexuality5.5 Finding Help and Support6.1 Sexual and Reproductive Anatomy and Physiology6.2 Reproduction6.3 Puberty6.4 Body Image7.1 Sex, Sexuality and the Sexual Life Cycle7.2 Sexual Behaviour and Sexual Response8.1 Pregnancy and Pregnancy Prevention8.2 HIV and AIDS Stigma, Care, Treatment and Support8.3 Understanding, Recognizingand Reducing the Risk of STIs, including HIVFigure 10 – Pie chart of concepts and topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education with topics included in “Magenta 100” indicated with a darker fill colour and excluded topics with lighter fill. 158 buffets, this does not seem to lessen her attractiveness for him. The narrator, on the other hand, has a very negative reaction to Shō-chan’s body when she finally takes a good look at it. Despite this repulsion against Shō-chan’s physical appearance, the narrator enjoys the intensity of his sexual advances. Similarly, the depiction of her drinking up his “life essence” suggests that it is the intensity of the sex, and not the person who is offering it, that she is thirsty for. “Mikumari” For the eighth annual R-18 Literary Prize in 2009, the Readers’ Award was not conferred due to what was described as “various circumstances.” 295 The Grand Prize was awarded to Kubo Misumi 窪美澄 for her work “Mikumari” ミクマリ.296 This story was professionally translated by Polly Barton in 2017, and the translated quotes here have been taken from that work. The story is narrated by a male high school student with the last name Saitō 斉藤, who is trying to navigate through a sexual relationship with Anzu あんず, a married woman twelve 295 The phrase “shohan no jijō”「諸般の事情」was used to explain the absence of the Readers’ Award. “Dai 8-kai Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakushō jushō-saku kettei happyō” 第 8回女による女のための R-18 文学賞受賞作決定発表. Shōsetsu shinchō 小説新潮 (June 2009): 221. 296 All references to the original Japanese script of “Mikumari” are taken from the following republication of the story: Kubo Misumi 窪美澄 , Mikumari ミクマリ (Shinchōsha 新潮社, 2009). Kinnopy. The story was originally published in Shōsetsu shinchō: Kubo Misumi 窪美澄 , “Mikumari” ミクマリ, Shōsetsu shinchō 小説新潮 63, no. 6 (June 2009): 222-234. 159 years his senior. Anzu had picked Saitō up at a cosplay convention that his friends dragged him to, despite his lack of interest in anime. 297 The story is set in the summer months when school is out, and takes place primarily in Anzu’s home, at his own home with his mother, and outside, near the river. At Anzu’s home, sex and sexuality is a show – a production where the characters are fake, and the script is pre-determined. Saitō becomes Anzu’s plaything and possession. He must dress as the anime character she has selected, and he must say the lines that she has prepared for him beforehand. He says “I didn’t watch anime or TV, so I didn’t know what most of the stuff Anzu said was supposed to mean. What I did know was that, as long as I was in this room, I wasn’t allowed to be my real self. I had to put on the cosplay outfits that Anzu had prepared for me.”298 Anzu also dresses up, and “Anzu” is not her real name. Saitō eventually breaks things off with Anzu in order to be with Matsunaga, his high school crush who works at the pool where he is employed for the summer as a lifeguard. The pair also have a physical relationship, but this does not appear to go as far as intercourse, and it does not involve costumes and artificial dialogue. Lacking any private space, the two meet 297 Cosplay is a term derived from the words “costume play,” which Hancock and Crawfard describe as “typically about individuals taking on (certain aspects of) the appearance (and to some extent mannerism and characteristics) of characters from manga, comics, graphic novels, video games, films, or similar.” Garry Crawford and David Hancock, Cosplay and the Art of Play (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 5. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15966-5_1 298 Kubo Misumi, Mikumari, trans. Polly Barton, (Norwich: Strangers Press, UEA Publishing Project, 2017), 12; Original Japanese: おれはアニメもテレビも見ないから、あんずの言っていることはほとんど意味がわからない。この部屋にいるときは、素のおれでいることは許されず、おれはあんずが用意したたくさんのコスプレ衣装をとっかえひっかえ着せられた。 160 outside near the river bridge. Saitō recounts “We’d lie down in the tall grass, and I would feel her up like crazy.”299 The descriptions of sexual interaction are vastly different when it comes to the two women. The sex scenes with Anzu are described in explicit detail, with body parts labelled and limited flowery language. In contrast, Saitō’s interactions with Matsunaga are vaguely described. Matsunaga is also depicted in terms of her cleanliness and her youth, while Anzu is portrayed as a dishevelled, ageing mess. At the other end of the spectrum of modesty and sexuality we find the women that occupy Saitō’s home, who also take up space within the narrative. His mother is a midwife, and he assists her clients by massaging them or offering drinks as they are about to give birth. Labouring mothers are described by their screams, which he compares to the sounds of orgasmic women. At his home, Saitō sees the female body without the filter of costume or modesty. It is the reality of the mechanics of sex and the consequence of it that are on display. Saitō recounts how he grew up in the presence of medical texts ripe with imagery of female anatomy thanks to his mother’s study of the subject. Beyond having a grasp of women’s anatomy thanks to his mother’s profession, Saitō also benefits from his mother’s 299 Original Japanese: …草が生い茂った場所に身をひそめるようにして、松永の体にさわりまくった; Kubo, trans. Barton, 19. 161 direct guidance on sexual matters. Finding three packs of condoms sitting on his desk one day when he returns home, he confronts his mother angrily: “What the hell are these?” “Use them,” my mother said, without raising her head. “Who gets given condoms by his own mother?” I shouted. She looked up, grinned at me in the way she did when she discovered a secret of mine, and held out her hand. “If you don’t want them, give them back.” As I was standing there at a loss for words, she added, “It’s not just about pregnancy, you know. You can end up with a penis like a cauliflower if you’re not careful!”300 As Saitō leaves with the condoms still in his possession she cries out: “I’m not ready to be a grandma yet, you know!”301 Despite this open conversation on contraception, and Saitō’s understanding of the ramifications of sex, he doesn’t use condoms with Anzu, as she claims she is unable to have children. In addition to the consequences of sex in relation to procreation and sexually transmitted disease (through the euphemism of the cauliflower penis), the mental health consequences of sexual relationships are also illustrated in the story. Saitō suddenly returns to Anzu’s residence in an apparent inability to stifle his attraction to her. After having sex, Anzu reveals that she is going to the US to move ahead with a plan to have a baby by surrogate, 300 Kubo, trans. Barton, 16; From the original Japanese: 「なんだよこれ」というと「使いなよ」と書類から顔も上げずに言った。「自分の顔にコンドーム用意してもらう息子がどこにいるんだよっ」と大きな声を出すと、「いらないなら返して」と、おれの秘密をつかんだときに見せるにゃにや顔で手のひらを差し出した。うっと言葉につまっていると、「妊娠だけじゃないよあんた、しないとペニスがカリフラワーみたいになっちゃうこともあるんだよ！」と大きな声を出した。 301 Kubo, trans. Barton, 16; Original Japanese「まだ、ばーさんにはなりたくないから！」 162 and she tells Saitō that it is time for him to go. Upon leaving, Saitō stands in the middle of the bridge contemplating what would happen to him if he jumped. He then notices the mountains and the river flowing down it and finds himself lost in his memories of how his father and mother took him to the mountain river separately as a child, just before his father left him and his mother for a lover. Afterwards, he recalls how his mother would take him to a shrine called Mikumari, which was on the mountain. Mikumari 水分 refers to when a mountain stream splits into two, just as the river in this particular mountain is split, and the kanji for the term has the alternate pronunciation of “suibun,” meaning moisture.302 Saitō reflects “From where I stood on the bridge, I could see how the river had split into two streams, there maybe not being enough water. I could see the dry white riverbed between the two streams, and then, further on, the streams joined together again into one stream, still a pretty measly river.”303 The splitting and merging of water is a recurring theme in the story. If we look at the main stream as a parent stream and child stream we see the broken relationship between father and son reflected here. There are also the babies being born, being cut off from their mothers’ wombs. Further, fluids and the merger of fluids are described in detail during sex 302 Nihonkokugo daijiten 日本国語大辞典, s.v. “Mikumari” みくまり【水分】(Shōgakukan 小学館). JapanKnowledge. 303 Kubo, trans. Barton, 29; Original Japanese: …川は途中で二つに分かれ、その中央に白い川底を晒し、そして、またその先で合流してひとつの細い川になっている。 163 scenes between Anzu and Saitō. Their breakup marks a painful emotional split for Saitō as well. Ultimately, the position Saitō was in as a hurt child is juxtaposed against his current dilemma of being hurt by a sexual partner. We are reminded that Saitō is still a child and is still vulnerable to the actions of the adults around him. This power imbalance is underscored by Anzu’s relentless pursuit of Saitō at the beginning of the story, her anger when he tries to break things off with her, and her actions related to the sex itself, when she choreographs the entire sexual interaction while oftentimes giving Saitō money at the end of their encounters. This manipulation by Anzu leaves Saitō unable to forge a relationship with Matsunaga, his crush and the person who shows an interest in him without costumes or script. Thus, the physical pleasure of sex is tempered by the anguish surrounding relationships and self-discovery, and there is no happy ending to this story. UNESCO Guidance and “Mikumari” “Mikumari” involves several elements of the UNESCO Guidance above and beyond its graphic depictions of sexuality using anatomically accurate vocabulary rather than using only 164 euphemisms to describe body parts. Reproduction, safe sex practices, and relationships both sexual and familial are touched upon in this story. RelationshipsValues, Rights, Culture & SexualityUnderstanding Gender Violence & Staying SafeSkills for Health & Well-beingThe Human Body & DevelopmentSexuality & Sexual BehaviourSexual & Reproductive Health1.1 Families1.2 Friendship, Love and Romantic Relationships1.3 Tolerance, Inclusion and Respect1.4 Long-term Commitments and Parenting2.1 Values and Sexuality2.2 Human Rights and Sexuality2.3 Culture, Society and Sexuality3.1 The Social Construction of Gender and Gender Norms3.2 Gender Equality, Stereotypes and Bias3.3 Gender-based Violence4.1 Violence4.2 Consent, Privacy and Bodily Integrity4.3 Safe Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)5.1 Norms and Peer Influence on Sexual Behaviour5.2 Decision-making5.3 Communication, Refusal and Negotiation Skills5.4 Media Literacy and Sexuality5.5 Finding Help and Support6.1 Sexual and Reproductive Anatomy and Physiology6.2 Reproduction6.3 Puberty6.4 Body Image7.1 Sex, Sexuality and the Sexual Life Cycle7.2 Sexual Behaviour and Sexual Response8.1 Pregnancy and Pregnancy Prevention8.2 HIV and AIDS Stigma, Care, Treatment and Support8.3 Understanding, Recognizingand Reducing the Risk of STIs, including HIVFigure 11 – Pie chart of concepts and topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education with topics included in “Mikumari” indicated with a darker fill colour and excluded topics with lighter fill. 165 Additionally, peripheral issues related to safety and sexuality are also touched on. Specifically, when Saitō initially leaves Anzu, he begins to fear the possibility of her retaliating by publicly sharing intimate photos of the two. As stated earlier, Kubo Misumi later went on to win the 2022 Naoki Prize for Yoru ni hoshi o hanatsu 夜に星を放つ (Shooting stars in the night). Before this, she won the twenty-fourth Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize for the book Fugainai boku wa sora o mita ふがいない僕は空を見た, an expansion of “Mikumari” which uses the story as its first chapter. An English translation of the work, entitled So We Look to the Sky (also by Polly Barton) was published in 2021. In that publication, Saitō’s nightmare scenario of having his pictures distributed to classmates and family members materialises. While in “Mikumari” this scenario is described only as a possibility and not as something that actually took place, the story at least skims over issues related to privacy and exploitation. Finally, reproduction is looked at from multiple perspectives. During Saitō’s childhood visit to Mikumari Shrine, his mother explains to him that she is praying “For all the children that are going to be born, and all of them who couldn’t be. Children who are alive, children who are dead. All children.”304 Similarly, always hanging over the plot is the desire for children and the potential for children. This is borne out through the exquisite pain of women delivering children that they have managed to create, in contrast to the desperate 304 Kubo, trans. Barton, 29; Original Japanese: 「全部のこども。これから生まれてくる子も、生まれてこられなかった子も。生きている子も死んだ子もぜんぶ」 166 desire of Anzu to become more fertile and the sadness which she exhibits when she is seen looking longingly at baby socks. Juxtaposed against this need to procreate, there is the active attempt by Saitō’s mother to prevent her son from procreating, and to avoid becoming a grandmother. Further, Saitō reveals his visceral disgust at women’s anatomy, saying that he thought of cockroach eggs when he discovered that women were born with millions of primordial eggs, and that he was no longer able to eat fish roe due to this. Thus, reproduction is shown to be desired at certain points in life and unwanted in other phases; however, it is never shown as an easy outcome, and pain is a necessary element. The story, therefore, appears to go beyond a superficial account of sexual pleasure, and delves into many elements that make up the UNESCO Guidance and comprehensive sexuality education more broadly. 167 Chapter Six – Stories from the Second Phase of the R-18 Literary Prize As discussed earlier, from 2012 onwards, the R-18 prize pivoted to a format where sexual content was no longer a requirement to the prize. Instead, submissions were to include “stories that bring out emotions for women.” This chapter will focus on two stories from the second phase of the R-18 prize (2012–2021), where this submission criteria was in place. “Manga Niku to Boku” In 2013, Asaka Shiki 朝香式 (b.1971) won the R-18 Literary Prize’s twelfth grand prize for “Manga-niku to boku” マンガ肉と僕 (Manga Meat and Me).305 The story opens with the narrator, looking for manga-niku マンガ肉 (meat on the bone), which looks like a drumstick of an extremely large animal, that is often comically depicted in animations set in the Stone Age. It is 2002, and the narrator is scouring various convenience stores looking for the favourite flavour of “manga-niku” of a woman he calls niku-onna 肉女 (Meat Woman). Meat Woman and the narrator, who we later discover are named Kumahori Satomi 熊堀サトミ and Watabe ワタベ respectively, meet at a university German class, where Watabe and his classmates actively try and avoid Kumahori. Unfortunately for him, she ends up sitting right next to him one day and she insists on borrowing his favourite mechanical 305 All quotes from and references to the “Manga-niku to boku” are taken from the following republication of the story: Asaka Shiki 朝香式, “Manga-niku to Boku” マンガ肉と僕, in Mītsu gāruミーツ・ガール, (Shinchōsha 新潮社, 2020) [original print publication 2019], Kinnopy. The story was originally published in the Shinchōsha literary journal Yom yom: Asaka Shiki 朝香式, “Manga-niku to Boku” マンガ肉と僕, Yom yom ヨムヨム 28 (Spring 2013): 468-483. 168 pencil. In their first conversation that takes place after class, Meat Woman asks Watabe if he eats meat, and this leads to the following dialogue: “The whites of your eyes are blueish. You’re not getting enough meat. You don’t suppose you’re becoming female? Right now, in the rivers out in the country, there are only female fish. Did you know that? The males are turning female. It seems like the same thing is taking place in humans.” I forced a grin. But she guessed right about my not eating much meat.306 This conversation and the various meat-related episodes of the book relate to a theme of sōshokukei danshi 草食系男子 (herbivorous man) and nikushokukei joshi 肉食系女子 (carnivorous woman). The “herbivorous man” is a term that became popular after it was coined in 2006 by columnist Fukuzawa Maki 深澤真紀 in Nikkei Bijinesu Online 日経ビジネスオンライン, a business e-magazine. It later became popularised in 2008 and beyond in women’s fashion magazines and other media. The “herbivorous man” refers to men who lack assertiveness in sex and love, and who are generally passive and unambitious. In contrast, the term “carnivorous woman” refers to a woman who is a go-getter with regards to love, marriage and career.307 In “Manga-niku to boku” Meat Woman knows what she wants and is not afraid to ask for it. If Watabe fails to produce what she has requested, she will make sure he understands her 306 Original Japanese:「白目、青いよあんた。肉足りてない。メス化してんじゃないの。今、田舎の川の魚ってメスばっかりなんだって。知ってた？オスがメス化しちゃってんの。人間も同じことが起こってるらしいよ、マジで。苦笑する僕。でも、肉をあまり食べないのは図星だった。 307 Shakai, Ryūkō-go 社会・流行語, s.v. “Sōshoku-kei Danshi” 草食系男子 Asahi Shinbun Database 朝日新聞クロスサーチ. 169 displeasure. Watabe, meanwhile, has a revulsion towards Meat Woman, but is unable to avoid her or keep her from invading his space and his life. After their encounter in class, Meat Woman intercepts Watabe on his way home from his part-time job at the convenience store, stating that she wants to treat him to manga meat as a thank you for letting her borrow his mechanical pencil. After following him to his apartment and eating her fill, she falls asleep on his sofa and continues to stay with him thereafter, even stealing his spare key so that she can easily access the apartment. While aggressive, Meat Woman does not seem to be sexually interested in Watabe. For his part, Watabe describes Meat Woman in horrified tones, depicting her smelly hair, overdone perfume, and most of all, her overweight and unwashed body. The physical depictions of Meat Woman are not only unflattering, but de-humanising. For example, describing her in his apartment, he states: “As she sat on the sofa, what looked like two pigs for legs stretched out from her skirt.”308 At other points in the story he describes her as “a creature resembling a white dolphin” and a hyena eating manga meat.309 Watabe describes his preferred type of intimate partner as someone with a small frame and who “does not devour this and that” — a far cry from his impression of Meat Woman.310 He ends up pursuing Honda Nako 本多菜子, whose name he says in full throughout the 308 Original Japanese:ソファに腰掛けた奴の短いスカートから、二匹の豚みたいな両脚が伸びている 309 Original Japanese: 白イルカみたいな生き物 310 Original Japanese for “someone who does not take to devouring this and that”: いろんなことにガツガツしていない. 170 story. As per his type, she lacks assertiveness. When she has trouble choosing a dessert on their first date, he remarks “Girls have to go to and fro about something until they make a decision, and I heard a rumour that one shouldn’t interfere with this. When I saw Honda Nako, I thought this is clearly true.”311 Watabe is physically aroused by Honda Nako, and he realises that he needs to rid Meat Woman from his house in order to be able to have sex with her. He therefore tells Meat Woman that he wants her to leave, and as he physically tries to stop her from getting beer from the fridge, she takes a bad fall, which results in a bloody nose. At this point she leaves after having spent three months in his home, stating that she is more hisshi 必死 (desperate) than he is. The story breaks and we re-join Watabe ten years later, when he is working as a judicial scrivener, or accredited legal document specialist.312 He provides insight into his love life, describing his breakup from Honda Nako after six years of dating, causing her to seek help in a psychiatric clinic away from the city. He also describes wanting to break things off with his current girlfriend, who has started to hassle him over not returning her emails and not seeing her often. He describes both women as mendōkusai 面倒臭い or too much trouble, or 311 Original Japanese: 結論を出すまでに何度も行きつ戻りつするのが女の子であって、それを邪魔してはいけないらしいと噂で聞いていたのだが、本多菜子を見ていると噂は本当だとしみじみ思った. 312 Shihō shoshi司法書士 translates to someone responsible for creating documentation related to registries, deposits and judicial work; Ikejiri Ikuo 池尻郁夫, “Shihō shoshi” 司法書士, Nihon daihyakka zensho (Nipponica) 日本大百科全書（ニッポニカ）. JapanKnowledge; Puroguresshibu bijinesu Eigo jiten プログレッシブビジネス英語辞典, s.v. “accredited legal document specialist.” JapanKnowledge. 171 literally “to reek” (kusai) of trouble (mendō). Mendō can also mean to care for something or someone, such as when one cares for a child or family member who is ill. Watabe finds it irritating to care for his girlfriends or to take care of their mental wellbeing. When a friend from his university days comes to visit, he is given news about Meat Woman, who he starts to refer to by name, Kumahori Satomi. Kumahori has opened a successful bar, which was featured in a popular blog. Watabe subsequently goes to the bar and is recognised right away by Kumahori who has lost twenty-eight kilos. They agree to leave together after closing, and when she hears that he has kept the sofa that she used to sleep on, they go to his place, where they have sex all night like arasou wani 争う鰐 (fighting crocodiles). When they finish in the wee hours of the morning, Kumahori confesses that she had taken refuge in his apartment during their university days as a way to escape her home. She recounts how her mother’s lover had raped her in her last year of high school, and that she had gained weight and purposely kept her hair unwashed as part of a plan to keep the man from raping her again. There’s nothing for it, right? He’s like an animal. Regardless of what I say it’s not going to change. I just have to figure something out for myself. That’s why I thought about what I should do so that I wouldn’t be mounted again.313 313Original Japanese: どうしようもないよね。相手は動物みたいなもんだし。あれこれ言ったってしょうがない。自分でなんとかするしかないじゃん。でね、二度と乗っかられないようにするには、って考えたわけよ。 172 In addition to using the term “mount” to describe the rape, Kumahori depicts the rapist as “an animal.” Meanwhile, Watabe no longer likens Kumahori or her body to animal characteristics. Instead, he describes her hair as smelling like an amai kakuteru 甘いカクテル (sweet cocktail), fancy and refined. While Kumahori succeeded in repelling the rapist’s sexual advances, she still lived with him, and he began physically and verbally abusing her, kicking her and calling her debu デブ (fat) and busu ブス (ugly), which, while better than being sexually abused, weighed down on her. Not feeling safe in her house, she wanted to escape, but with no internet cafes or similar places to seek refuge, she struggled. She states: “… as you know, no one wants to help a fatso smelly woman, right?”314 She continues: So, I set my eyes on you. You seemed to be weak, without much sexual appetite. On the other hand, the whites of your eyes were blue, and it was like this feeling of “Is he ok?” I really felt like you should eat meat.315 The story ends with Watabe coming to the conclusion that he was sacrificed so that Kumahori could survive. When she gets up to leave, he reflects on the phrase ikinokoru kotai 生き残る個体 (the being that survives), and realises that he will never be as strong as she is. Unlike the self-centered, shallow Watabe whose choices are based on what will cause him the least amount of mendō or trouble, the story ends with Kumahori being portrayed as 314 Original Japanese: …ご存知のとおりデブで臭い女なんて、誰も助けてくれないでしょ？ 315 Original Japanese: それで、ワタベ君に目をつけたの。なんか気が弱そうで、性欲とかあんまりなさそうだったし。でも逆に、なんか白目とか青くて、コイツ大丈夫？って感じだったけどね。肉食べなよ、ってあれ、本心だから」 173 a resilient and awe-inspiring character. This is a far cry from how the story began, where Kumahori’s aggressiveness was portrayed with repulsion, and Watabe described himself as a victim. Now, Watabe is left to self-reflect, asking the question “I wonder what kind of being I am?”316 UNESCO Guidance and “Manga Niku to Boku” The inclusion of violence in this story brings the violence and safety aspects of the UNESCO Guidance to the fore. While it is only at the end of the story that we are told of Kumahori’s experience with sexual violence in addition to physical and verbal abuse, the revelation of this violence sheds light on and opens the window of empathy for Kumahori’s previous actions in the story. Further, while the link between Kumahori’s weight gain and her determination to stop the sexual abuse is described in an overly-simplistic way, the statement that no one would help a “fatso smelly woman” relates to the challenges that women encounter due to social norms and body image ideals when attempting to be heard or viewed with empathy. 316 Original Japanese: 僕はどんな生き物なのだろう？ 174 The story also elicits questions around what are desired or socially acceptable feminine and masculine characteristics. In addition to her physical attributes running counter to expectations for women, Kumahori’s brash way of speaking and her uninhibited style of RelationshipsValues, Rights, Culture & SexualityUnderstanding Gender Violence & Staying SafeSkills for Health & Well-beingThe Human Body & DevelopmentSexuality & Sexual BehaviourSexual & Reproductive Health1.1 Families1.2 Friendship, Love and Romantic Relationships1.3 Tolerance, Inclusion and Respect1.4 Long-term Commitments and Parenting2.1 Values and Sexuality2.2 Human Rights and Sexuality2.3 Culture, Society and Sexuality3.1 The Social Construction of Gender and Gender Norms3.2 Gender Equality, Stereotypes and Bias3.3 Gender-based Violence4.1 Violence4.2 Consent, Privacy and Bodily Integrity4.3 Safe Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)5.1 Norms and Peer Influence on Sexual Behaviour5.2 Decision-making5.3 Communication, Refusal and Negotiation Skills5.4 Media Literacy and Sexuality5.5 Finding Help and Support6.1 Sexual and Reproductive Anatomy and Physiology6.2 Reproduction6.3 Puberty6.4 Body Image7.1 Sex, Sexuality and the Sexual Life Cycle7.2 Sexual Behaviour and Sexual Response8.1 Pregnancy and Pregnancy Prevention8.2 HIV and AIDS Stigma, Care, Treatment and Support8.3 Understanding, Recognizingand Reducing the Risk of STIs, including HIVFigure 12 – Pie chart of concepts and topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education with topics included in “Manga Niku to Boku” indicated with a darker fill colour and excluded topics with lighter fill. 175 getting what she wants defies what Watabe has heard to be true of women “going to and fro” about things. On the other hand, “Manga Niku to Boku” offers very little in terms of explicit depictions of the body or sexual interactions. Descriptions of physiology are not a component of the sexual acts in the book, and the brief description of purchasing condoms and ultimately not using them during the final sex scene barely touches on the idea of pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease prevention. Finally, reproduction itself, which is one of the few points where Japanese sexuality education intersects with the UNESCO Guidance, is neatly excluded from the story. The only mention of children is tangentially from Watabe’s friend, who is keen to cheat on his pregnant wife. In sum, “Manga Niku to Boku” is a cautionary tale about turning away from someone due to social norms or gender expectations, and the possibility of missing out on fulfilling sexual intimacy and meaningful relationships as a result. “Across The Universe” In 2017, Shirao Haruka 白尾悠 (n.d.) won both the Grand Prize and Readers’ Award for her work “Akurosu za unibāsu” アクロス・ザ・ユニバース (Across the Universe). The story later had a title change to “Yoru o tobikoete” 夜を跳びこえて (Flying across the evening).317 317 All quotes from and references to the “Across the Universe” are taken from the following republication of the story: Shirao Haruka 白尾悠, “Yoru o tobikoete” 夜を跳びこえて, in Ima wa, sora shika mienai いまは、空しか見えない (Shinchōsha 新潮社, 2018), Shincho Online Books, Kinoppy. The story was originally published in the Shōsetsu shinchō: Shirao Haruka 白尾悠, “Akurosu za unibāsu” アクロス・ザ・ユニバース (Across the Universe), Shōsetsu shinchō 71 no.5 (May 2017): 38–52. 176 The story follows Tomoka 智佳, who is in her final year of high school, and is studying for her university entrance exams. We initially learn about the type of person her father is: his disdain over the young people who hang out around the station in the evenings and his sensitivity to sounds, causing Tomoka and her mother to wear special noise-deadening felt slippers. He also has a temper, such as when she returned to the house at 9:00 p.m., resulting in him hurling abuses at her, leaving her unable to go to the bathroom until he fell asleep. Telling her father that she is headed to the library, Tomoka secretly boards a bus for a long trip from her small town in Yamanashi prefecture to Tokyo. Soon after she gets on the bus, Yūa 優亜, who attends the same high school as Tomoka, boards as well. Although they are in the same grade, Yūa and Tomoka are in different classes, and rarely meet outside of physical education class. Tomoka labels Yūa demeaningly as a “baka gyaru” バカギャル (stupid gal) and describes her as looking ill and smelling like perfume, alcohol and cigarettes.318 It is very clear that Tomoka is annoyed to have Yūa around her during her secret outing, which she explains away as a campus tour of a private university in Tokyo. Tomoka tries unsuccessfully to separate herself from Yūa after getting off the bus. Yūa insists on following her to the university. Eventually, Tomoka admits to the real reason why 318 Derived from the word “gal,” the term gyaru was popularised in Japan in the 1970s, after it was used in advertisements for Wrangler women’s jeans. Translated to “gal; a frivolous (young) girl” in Shogakukan’s Progressive Japanese English Dictionary, the term gyaru has a negative connotation in “Across the Universe.” However, it also refers to young women who are social and fashionable; Puroguresshibu Wa-Ei chūjiten プログレッシブ和英中辞典 (Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary), s.v. “Gyaru”ギャル (Shōgakukan, 2011). JapanKnowledge; Nihon kokugo daijiten 日本国語大辞典, s.v. “Gyaru” ギャル (Shōgakukan, 2002). JapanKnowledge. 177 she has gone to the university, which is to listen to a special lecture by a famous horror film director whom she idolizes. Saying that she doesn’t have plans until the evening, Yūa attends the lecture as well. Tomoka listens intently and takes notes, faltering only when the director touches on the genre of erotic horror. She thinks back to how she was unable to access the erotic films at the library, and was too shy to ask the librarian for them. She subsequently decided to loiter around the restricted area of the video store looking for the films, but never actually took them out. When the director asks that those in attendance consider the last time their “honnō” 本能 or instincts were laid bare, for which he gives spur-of-the-moment sex as an example, Tomoka writes “sex” down in her notebook, but quickly crosses it out. The lecture ends with an announcement that the director will be leading a special seminar in the following academic year, open to any of the university’s students. Although Tomoka instantly feels the need to attend the university, she despairs at the expectation of her father’s disapproval. Realizing Tomoka’s excitement over the lecture and the horror film genre, Yūa asks Tomoka to help her seek revenge from Motoki, a man living in Tokyo who she says has dumped her. Unable to resist the idea of creating a horror scene of her own, Tomoka purchases supplies, and provides Yūa with a script of what to do. They tie their wrists up with bandages, under which they stuff raw meat, and clutch stuffed animals in the shape of rabbits, and scissors. Within the planned scene, both girls drop their heads to the side, cut up rabbit stuffies, and sing the children’s song kagome kagome (Bird-in-the-cage, bird-in-the-cage). The song 178 and its related game date back to the Edo period. During the song, children are to hold hands and form a ring. One child is labeled the oni 鬼 (ogre) and crouches in the middle with their hands covering their eyes. Literary scholar Endō Sachiko 遠藤幸子 provides the following translation for the song’s lyrics: Birdie basket, birdie cage Birdie, Birdie, in the cage When will you come out of the cage? In the evening of one night, A crane and a turtle slipped and slid. Who is at the back of you?319 As the song finishes, the child in the middle must guess which child is directly behind them. They then change places, and this child is now the ogre.320 Tsukuba University scholar Iijima Yoshiharu 飯島吉晴 explains that the song and associated game have religious roots. He states: This game is widely held in ethnological circles to be a child’s imitation of the fairly widespread seance, a relic of an earlier ritual now passed on by children as a game. Indeed, the rituals known as Jizo-asobi or “invoking Jizo” (the guardian deity of 319 Endō Sachiko 遠藤幸子, “Eigo de utau Nihon no warabe-uta” 英語で歌う日本のわらべうた, Tōkyo Toshi Daigaku Ningen Kagaku-bu kiyō 東京都市大学人間科学部紀要 1 (2010): 50. 320 Maruyama Hisako 丸山久子, “kagome, kagome” かごめかごめ, Nihon Daihyakka Zensho (Nipponica)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ), JapanKnowledge. 179 children) that were practised until recently in parts of the Tohoku area (in northern Japan) may be regarded as the origin of bird-in-the-cage.321 There are also many interpretations of the game that include anecdotal theories relating to prostitution, miscarriage or convicts about to be executed.322 At the base of it, however, Tomoka seems to have selected this song and game to provide the necessary creepiness of a child’s song set against the goriness of deranged beings roaming around cutting up stuffed animals. The game itself also provides the sense of being surrounded and threatened. Yūa and Tomoka intercept Motoki on his way to his part-time job at an izakaya, a pub-like eating and drinking establishment, in an eerily quiet section of Tokyo. With Tomoka hiding, and while wearing a white mask, Yūa begins to play out the script; however, to Tomoka’s annoyance, instead of singing, Yūa takes the mask off and confronts Motoki: “I didn’t want to do that.” “I can’t hear you! Anyway, that was fornication — FOR-NI-CA-TION. It was by mutual consent, do you understand what consent means?” “…. but, I said stop….” “Stop playing, Bitch!” 321 Iijima Yoshiharu, “Folk Culture and the Liminality of Children,” Current Anthropology 28, no. 4 (1987): S46. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2743429 322 Hisamori Hiroaki 久森洋昭, Furutani Akio 古谷昭雄, Nishimura Junichi 西村純一 and Sawa Isao沢勲, “Music Settings of Japan and Hebrew and its Culture in International Relations: Lyrics of Kimigayo, Lyrics of Soran, Kagome song lyrics, Awa song lyrics, Ise Ondo” 国際関係における日本とヘブライ語の音楽設定と文化 —君が代の歌詞、ソーラン節、かごめ歌、あわの歌と伊勢音頭の歌詞, Dōkutsu kankyō NET Gakkai Kiyō 洞窟環境 Net 学会紀要 11 (2020): 141-156; Wikipedia contributors, “Kagome Kagome,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kagome_Kagome&oldid=1096912977 (accessed October 27, 2022). 180 Tomoka flinched upon hearing the sudden coarse angry yelling. Yūa’s shoulders shook with shock. A vulgar laugh emanated from Motoki’s lips. “Yeah right, and you got all wet and moaning.” “…. you’re wrong…. You threatened me and ordered me to make noise….”323 When a young woman comes out of the izakaya looking to see what’s going on, she suggests that Motoki call the police. Tomoka reveals herself, yelling in a manner she had never done before: “We’re the ones who should be calling the police! Rapist Monster! Rapist Jerk! Criminal! Apologize to this girl!”324 Throwing the meat and scissors at Motoki, the girls run off and catch the bus departing for Yamanashi. In the bus, Yūa reveals that she had told the police about the rape. Questioning why she had put herself in the situation of being alone with him, they told her it had taken her too long to report it and there would be no evidence. This part of the story illustrates how Yūa has fallen short of social expectations of what a good girl is meant to be and do. Meanwhile, Tomoka, who throughout the story demonstrates bias and disdain over Yūa’s appearance and character, is also unable to exonerate Yūa for choosing to visit Motoki’s place, and keeps silent as Yūa expresses guilt, calling herself baka 馬鹿 (stupid). Yūa then 323 Original Japanese:「聞こえねーよ。とにかくあれは和姦だよ、ワ・カ・ン。合意の上、合意って意味わかるか？」突然の野太い怒声に、智佳は身がすくむ。優亜の肩もびくりと震えた。モトキの口元に、ゆっくりと下卑た笑いが広がっていく。「ちょー濡らして、よがってたくせに」「……ちがうっ……声出せって、おどし……」 324 Original Japanese:「け、警察呼ぶのはこっち！ 強姦魔！ レイプ野郎！ 犯罪者！ この子に謝れ！」 181 buries her face in her hands and, unsure what to say, Tomoka stays quiet and puts her hand on Yūa’s back to comfort her. Here the story reflects back to the kagome kagome game. Yūa is in the same position as a child in the middle of a kagome kagome circle, with her hands covering her eyes, and Tomoka is the child who is directly behind her. After Yūa leaves the bus, Tomoka no longer runs into Yūa at school, and hears nothing from her. Tomoka is then effectively tagged into the centre of the circle as the “oni” when the story moves its focus to Tomoka, and the violence she faces. During his birthday celebration at home, Tomoka’s father gossips about the neighbourhood daughters choosing to go to university in Tokyo and flaunting how much money they have. Her mother declares: “No matter how wealthy, that kind of thing is no good. A family that is together, living peacefully is the best. A modest house, a garden with a dog. A smart daughter who shows filial piety, who gives you such a heart-felt celebration. You can’t have more happiness than this.”325 Thinking it a good time to bring it up, Tomoka reveals that she would like to apply for the private university in Tokyo, and she is hit by the harsh wave of her father’s rage. She thinks to herself “I’ve experienced this again and again until now. Father’s fury will be 325 Original Japanese:「いくら金持ちでも、ああいうのはダメだ。家族はみんな一緒に、穏やかに暮らすのが一番だよな。ささやかな家と、庭には犬。娘は賢くて親孝行、こうして心のこもったお祝いもしてくれる。お父さんはこんな幸せなことはないと思うよ」 182 unstoppable.” Intertwined with Tomoka’s father’s tirade about her disrespecting him, are self-deprecating statements about his socio-economic status. He states: “Are you making fun of me now? Is that it? You’re ridiculing a good-for-nothing father who can’t even put it together for a Tokyo university?!”326 Tomoka’s wish to follow her dreams and be autonomous is seen as an insult to her father and to the patriarchal order that he represents. Tomoka’s parents clearly feel that girls should not stray far from home. In their critiques about children going to universities in Tokyo, they are critical about daughters specifically, and do not mention the sons that make similar choices. She is falling short of what good girls are expected to do, and is villainized for it. Both Tomoka’s father and Motoki violently suppress the voices of women characters. Motoki completely stifles the word that Yūa uttered at the time of the rape (“stop”) by forcing her to instead make noises that indicate enjoyment of the sexual assault. Tomoka’s words regarding her dreams and aspirations are met with her father’s verbal abuse. By extinguishing the girls’ voices, Tomoka’s father and Motoki refuse to acknowledge the autonomy that these voices represent. The men are irritated and angered by this autonomy, and for Tomoka’s dad, it is a noise that needs to be silenced. The game kagome kagome is significant in that it reflects this perspective of the men vis-à-vis the girls – they are the oni. On the other hand, we have the origin of the song, which 326 Original Japanese: 「それとも何か、お前はわざと冗談言ってお父さんをバカにしているのか？ そうなんだな、東京の大学にもやれない甲斐性のない父親だと、バカにしたいのか?!」 183 centres around the Jizō figure that is responsible for protecting children. It is this side of the game that plays out at the end of the story. Tomoka’s mother tries to diffuse Tomoka’s father’s rage by blaming Tomoka’s behaviour on being tired from studying, and she forces Tomoka to apologise, which she does, saying “gomennasai” or sorry. After being banished to her room, Tomoka says sorry repeatedly, and then realises what she should have said to Yūa that day in the bus. Tomoka suddenly feels ashamed. She manages to throw her mattress out the window into the garden and jumps down on to it while imaging herself killing her father in a gruesome horror scene. She then runs to the cemetery that Yūa had told her about, where her grandmother is buried. The reader discovers that Yūa has died through the revelation that she is lying in the cemetery alongside her grandmother. No details are given about how she has died, and her absence at school is the only clue given that something may have happened to her. As she runs to the cemetery, Tomoka lets out a roar “to Yūa, to herself, to the world” proclaiming “You have done nothing wrong. Nothing at all.”327 Instead of stifling her choices and admonishing Yūa for hers, Tomoka decides to protect and defend their autonomy by no longer staying quiet. And by saying that they have “done nothing wrong” she emphasizes that the girls are innocent, just like the innocent children Jizō is meant to protect. 327 Original Japanese: 智佳は優亜に向けて、自分自身に向けて、世界中に向けて、咆哮を上げた。あんたは、悪くない。ぜんぜん、悪くない。 184 UNESCO Guidance and “Across the Universe” The story provides very little in terms of graphic descriptions of sexual anatomy or response. The only detail relating to this that is mentioned is from Motoki’s perverse interpretation of Yūa’s wetness during the rape. However, the story links to the UNESCO Guidance in several ways. It provides much content with regard to relationships and social values, reflecting on how familial ties and friendships impact our sexual wellbeing. Tomoka’s family environment is restrictive and staunchly patriarchal, complicating her ability to express her needs and desires. This has a knock-on effect vis-à-vis sexuality, where Tomoka has difficulty expressing or even accepting the topic of sexuality. She crosses out the word “sex” in her lecture notes and she is reticent to approach the librarian about wanting to take the director’s erotic films out. While she is attracted to the director delivering the lecture, it is Yūa, not Tomoka, who acknowledges that he is attractive. The development of friendship and how it is impacted by social norms is also highlighted. Throughout the story, Tomoka emphasizes that she and Yūa are not friends, while Yūa consistently approaches Tomoka with the warmth and interest of a friend. Once Tomoka refutes her father’s expectations around her behaviour, she is able to run towards Yūa as a friend. Were Yūa still alive, this could have resulted in support for her to recover from the sexual violence she was dealing with. 185 Gender issues highlighted in the UNESCO Guidance also run deep in the story. The patriarchal underpinnings of Tomoka’s family dynamic taint her characterization of herself and of Yūa. The sexual violence towards Yūa, her self-blame and the blame that was placed RelationshipsValues, Rights, Culture & SexualityUnderstanding Gender Violence & Staying SafeSkills for Health & Well-beingThe Human Body & DevelopmentSexuality & Sexual BehaviourSexual & Reproductive Health1.1 Families1.2 Friendship, Love and Romantic Relationships1.3 Tolerance, Inclusion and Respect1.4 Long-term Commitments and Parenting2.1 Values and Sexuality2.2 Human Rights and Sexuality2.3 Culture, Society and Sexuality3.1 The Social Construction of Gender and Gender Norms3.2 Gender Equality, Stereotypes and Bias3.3 Gender-based Violence4.1 Violence4.2 Consent, Privacy and Bodily Integrity4.3 Safe Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)5.1 Norms and Peer Influence on Sexual Behaviour5.2 Decision-making5.3 Communication, Refusal and Negotiation Skills5.4 Media Literacy and Sexuality5.5 Finding Help and Support6.1 Sexual and Reproductive Anatomy and Physiology6.2 Reproduction6.3 Puberty6.4 Body Image7.1 Sex, Sexuality and the Sexual Life Cycle7.2 Sexual Behaviour and Sexual Response8.1 Pregnancy and Pregnancy Prevention8.2 HIV and AIDS Stigma, Care, Treatment and Support8.3 Understanding, Recognizingand Reducing the Risk of STIs, including HIVFigure 13 – Pie chart of concepts and topics from UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education with topics included in “Across the Universe” indicated with a darker fill colour and excluded topics with lighter fill. 186 on her not only by Motoki, but by the police and Tomoka, are also wrapped up in gender-based assumptions on what constitutes good girl behaviour within society. Because Yūa dressed in gyaru fashion, because she ventured out of her home and sought a romantic relationship, she was seen as someone at least partly to blame for the sexual encounter that she said “no” to. With regards to Tomoka, her mother mentions oyakōko or filial piety. This cannot be achieved without Tomoka stifling her autonomy with regards to how she chooses to move forward with her life. Just like the family dog, Tomoka is viewed as part of the property, and she must stay on that property (rather than going to Tokyo) for the sake of the household. Finally, the story illustrates a spectrum of sexual and verbal violence targeted at girls as they become women. It discusses what constitutes consent, and the complications of understanding consent in a patriarchal structure. With regard to seeking support, the story examines how Yūa sought support and how she was denied this support. While Tomoka responded to Yūa’s request to help scare Motoki, she was ill-equipped to provide the words that Yūa needed to hear until after her death. Meanwhile, Yūa was refused support from the state through the police, and there is no mention of her being referred to any sort of mental health support. While the story never explicitly states how Yūa has died, one can easily hypothesize that she committed suicide due to this lack of support. 187 Chapter Seven: Conclusion The R-18 Prize Genre vs. Pornography The women editors from Shinchōsha who developed the R-18 Literary Prize did so out of frustration with publications that described sex in ways that they considered to be incompatible with the needs of women. Their idea was to solicit stories by and for women that would reflect women’s sexual desires. After more than twenty years’ worth of prize-winning stories, have these stories accomplished the goal of providing an antidote to androcentric sexual media such as pornography? As discussed in Chapter 4, the term kannō shōsetsu 官能小説 was frequently used to describe the type of sexual writing that was expected within the R-18 Literary Prize submissions. Kannō is tied to sensory and sensual descriptions of sexuality. While some of the prize stories examined in this dissertation embody these characteristics, others do not. From the stories examined here, the three that were from the first phase of the prize (2002–2011) all included explicit content with sensory imagery. “Mikumari” and “Magenta 100” depict explicit sex scenes or snippets of explicit sexual activity from the protagonist’s point of view, providing a sense of what is seen or heard during the encounters. “Aozora cherī” also includes explicit depictions of sex, but mostly from the perspective of voyeurism, resulting in an obscured view of what is taking place on the other side of the window. For the second phase stories (2012–2021), while sexual encounters continue to be central to the plot of the stories, they only provide brief glimpses into the characters’ sensory experiences during or 188 adjacent to the encounters. In “Manga-niku to Boku” smells are discussed regularly, including the repugnant smell of Kumahori’s hair at the beginning of the story, and the off-putting smell of her stepfather, who moves into her home and subsequently rapes her. The sexual activity that happens at the end of the story between Watabe and Kumahori is devoid of sensory detail, but Watabe remarks that Kumahori’s hair smells like a “sweet cocktail” as they lie in bed together after copulation. Within “Across the Universe” it is only Motoki’s crass and deceptive retelling of the rape that includes sensory detail. Apart from that, Yūa discusses the rape only in terms of where and when it took place, and recounts the added trauma of reporting the crime. Additionally, for both “Manga Niku to Boku” and “Across the Universe” the sexual encounters that take place do not necessarily correspond to sexual gratification. Both stories include non-consensual encounters with painful consequences. Therefore, while there are some parts to some of the stories that may fit the definition of kannō both in terms of graphic, sensory detail and sexual gratification, other stories do not fit within the definitions of kannō, and therefore are not well categorized under the genre kannō shōsetsu. The prize’s shift from phase one to phase two, and the lifting of the requirement of sexual content may have impacted the type of submissions received and the titles awarded; however, even after this change in 2012, the prize has continued to be framed under the category of kannō shōsetsu. For instance, in 2013, as part of her explanation on why the prize was gaining recognition, Shinchōsha employee Nishi Masako 西麻沙子, who is the current Chief Editor of Shōsetsu shinchō, stated to the Asahi Shinbun 朝日新聞 newspaper that 189 “Taboos surrounding kannō or sex have weakened, and it’s become part of our daily lives and our environment.”328 Clearly kannō was still a term that came to mind for Shinchōsha staff when considering the prize. Further, R-18 Literary Prize winners have published later works under the kannō shōsetsu genre. Minami Ayako 南綾子 (b. 1981) and Hiruta Asako 蛭田 亜紗子 (b. 1979) have stories in volumes one and two of Juppunkan no kannō shōsetsushū 10分間の官能小説集 (Ten minute sensual story collection), a short story anthology series featuring works by women and men that are categorised as kannō shōsetsu.329 If the R-18 Literary Prize is indeed a prize for stories under the genre kannō shōsetsu, is it, by virtue of its “by women, for women” construction, a feminist, empowering version of the erotic as described by Audre Lorde and discussed in the introduction? Several segments of the sample prize stories examined in this dissertation fall within the parameters and definitions of kannō shōsetsu as they include explicit content, with descriptions of the sights, sounds and smells that occur during sex, and represent both sexual gratification and sexual desire. However, in many cases the women characters’ sexual gratification that is described within these stories is at the cost of someone else’s rights, bodily integrity, or mental wellbeing. 328 Original Japanese: 官能や性のタブーが薄まり、生活や風景の一つになった」と いう; “Eros, onna datte kataritai SNS ga ‘honne’ kaihō” エロス、女だって語りたい SNS が「本音」解放. Asahi Shinbun 朝日新聞. Feb 16, 2013. 329 Ishida Ira石田衣良, ed. Juppunkan no kannō shōsetsu-shū 10分間の官能小説集 (Kōdansha 講談社, 2012–2014). 190 For example, in Mikumari, Anzu is not harming Saitō physically, but their sexual encounters include the power imbalance with her as an adult enticing him to have sex, often under her exact parameters and control. She provides a script and costume, and sometimes offers a monetary reward. This complicates Saitō’s ability to create and maintain a stable relationship with his high school crush, and it causes him overall anguish. In “Aozora Cherī,” Chika experiences much sexual gratification through her masturbatory practices, but this involves voyeurism, and the invasion of privacy that takes place when the pair peek in on couples copulating in the love hotel across from their school. The sample stories in the second phase of the prize (2012–2021) include experiences of sexual violence, and in these stories, there is no flipping of dominance and subjugation – the girls and women who are hurt here do not then turn around and hurt men for sexual gratification. However, the women characters do push back to ensure that their subjugation no longer continues. With regards to “Manga-niku to Boku” Kumahori fights back against her stepfather’s sexual violence by changing her appearance and removing herself from the home. The excess weight that she gains reduces her risk of being seen as delicate. Susan Brownmiller asserts, “Pressure on women to be slight and small is driven by men’s desire to dominate.”330 These heteronormative standards around gendered physical traits support gender role 330 Susan Brownmiller as cited in Sarah Grogan, Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women, and Children, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2007), 52. 191 expectations that are evident in mainstream heterosexual pornography, namely male dominance and female submission. While Watabe also sees Kumahori as domineering for how she speaks and acts, her size provides her with another layer of protection by refuting the notion that she is weak and fragile. Finally, “Across the Universe” describes girls who refuse to be silent and who refuse to follow the script that is laid out by the patriarchy that surrounds them and that attempts to suppress them. Yūa was told to moan while being raped. Tomoka is forced to say sorry. But they speak out and disrupt the power and control of the men in the story. Neither of these phase 2 stories depict sexual gratification as a central issue for the women protagonists. However, they also do not follow the heteronormative framework of incorporating male dominance as a requirement for sexual gratification. While the R-18 Literary Prize gives control of the writing and publishing process to women, the means of sexual gratification continues to be based on taking advantage of a power imbalance so that the other person’s ability to consent is diminished (such as in “Mikumari” where Anzu takes advantage of Saitō’s youth and inexperience, knowing he does not have the maturity to consent), or precluding the other person’s ability to choose (such as in “Aozora Cherī” when the individuals that the students watch from the rooftops are not given a choice, notwithstanding the open curtains). As such, the stories continue to use a male-dominated framework of what sexual gratification must entail — the subjugation of the other. In sum, the framework of the sexual depictions found within the stories continues to mimic themes of sexual dominance that are seen in sexual media for men, with only the roles 192 of men and women at times being switched. These hegemonic practices within the sex scenes of the stories persist despite the fact that these stories are selected within a women-only publication environment, with women editors and a women-only judging panel. Although the individual stories do not tear down patriarchal norms entirely, literary critic Enomoto Masaki 榎本正樹 likens the prize to a new wave literary movement stemming from its women-only positioning. He asserts that the prize winners themselves and their associates could represent a bundan such as the daisan no shinjin and naikō no sedai which took root in previous generations.331 These particular bundans are associated with established men authors whose stories focused on the individual and on the personal. While popular enough to gain them recognition, these authors were also criticized by some members of the literary establishment.332 With regards to the R-18 Literary Prize, the prize winners and the judges have made their own literary community. There are several instances where prize-winning authors are interviewed outside of the main Shōsetsu shinchō publication to talk about sexual writing. 331 “‘R-18 bungakushō’ kara jitsuryoku-ha,” Tōkyō Shinbun. 332 Daisan no shinjin 第三の新人 is a term coined by critic Yamamoto Kenkichi 山本健吉, referring to bundan authors including Akutagawa prize winners such as Yasuoka Shōtarō 安岡章太郎. They were active roughly from 1955 onwards and had experienced their youth during World War II; Kuritsubo Yoshiki 栗坪良樹, “Daisan no shinjin” 第三の新人, Nihon daihyakka zensho 日本大百科全書. JapanKnowledge. Naikō no sedai 内向の世代 refers to a group of authors who debuted after 1970, who literary critic Odagiri Hideo 小田切秀雄 described as taking an introverted stance in their work, refusing to confront the outside world, and instead looking inward and reflecting on personal issues in their literature. Kawamura Minato 川村湊, “Naikō no sedai (bungei)” 内向の世代 [文芸], Jōhō, chishiki imidas 情報・知識 imidas (March 2008). JapanKnowledge [no longer accessible from site]. 193 Additionally, the prize website provides opportunities for involvement throughout the prize life cycle, as readers are notified of the results of the different rounds of shortlisting, and then have a chance to read and review the works from the finalists.333 Further, a summary of each judge’s critiques is made available on the site. At the same time, while readers were actively involved in voting for and selecting the Readers’ Award recipient, since this prize was discontinued as of 2022, the participation from readers has been reduced to providing comments only. Regardless, the contributions of readers, judges, writers and editors have created a bundan-like environment, where potential writers can submit their works knowing that they will be reviewed and critiqued, which may eventually lead to a career pathway as a professional writer. Empowerment through Sexual Knowledge It is clear that the stories examined in this dissertation touch on several aspects of the UNESCO Guidance, regardless of whether or not they include explicit sexual scenes. Every story broaches issues that are deemed to be essential for understanding sexuality, and for developing strong sexuality-related skills. Therefore, the R-18 Literary Prize stories depict far more than individual sexual encounters. At the same time, there is no scientific, comprehensive introduction to any of the topics, most especially in relation to contraception. Nonetheless, the stories demonstrate to readers 333 The R-18 Literary Prize website URL: https://www.shinchosha.co.jp/r18/ 194 the importance of numerous issues that intersect with women’s sexuality, and that are absent from the Japanese sexuality education curriculum, such as sexual violence, gender norms and relationships. Furthermore, the prize stories are effective and impactful – they are chosen for being well written and relatable. Looking through the reviews and discussions of the prize judges that are available online, it is clear that there is a deliberate attempt by the judging panel to choose stories that reflect realistic language nuances and plotlines, while depicting sexual relationships that are believable and relatable. Thus, the judges have traditionally chosen stories that will relate to readers’ own experiences and realities. Also, the prize has always highlighted within its promotional material its requirement of being available only to women writers and readers, underscoring the shared reality of both writers and readers as women. The emphasis on realistic depictions and the shared experience of womanhood increases the potential educational impact of the messages embedded in the prize stories. While formal educational curriculum is overseen by boards of education or governmental organizations, these texts may seem far removed from the day-to-day realities of individuals, particularly when the demographic of those creating the curriculum or influencing its content is either unclear or very different to that of the intended audience. In the case of Japan, formal educational standards are subjected to governmental policies and ideology, and this has had a direct impact on sexuality education curriculum. How impactful can sexuality education curriculum for young women be when it is structured by governmental bodies that are influenced by organizations that are dominated by men and that are rooted in patriarchy? 195 The UNESCO Guidance’s assertion that sexuality education must be curriculum-based assumes that governments are committed to supporting the mental and physical wellbeing of the people they represent. However, Japan’s example shows how easily power and influence within and outside of a political system can destroy the chances of CSE being delivered through structured public education. In contrast, the R-18 Literary Prize provides an example of how a women-led movement sitting outside of this government structure has been able to introduce topics that correspond with CSE. While the winning stories do not fall under the science and curriculum-based framework that the UNESCO Guidance prefers, they do offer a window into topics that are meaningful to women. Although the descriptions of sex within the stories have a tendency to replicate hegemonic ideas of sexuality, the stories taken as a whole, and the recognition of the prize as mainstream, is empowering. It is empowering through the acknowledgement that sex, and its intersection with relationships, violence and rights, is a topic that can be broached by women and that are of interest and value to women. These stories can help normalize the idea that sexual knowledge is important for women’s understanding of self, for forging intimate and familial relationships throughout women’s lives, and for understanding women’s rights vis-à-vis their sexuality in order to achieve equity, autonomy and freedom. The result could be the attitudinal change required for there to be more acceptance of the 196 dissemination of sexual knowledge in other realms. In this way, the prize stories achieve Lorde’s definition of “the erotic as a source of power and information.”334 Skirting Potential Censors Unlike BL manga and earlier literary works within women’s magazines mentioned in Chapter 3, the R-18 Literary Prize seems to have avoided governmental censorship as well as general criticism in media and society. There may be multiple reasons for this lack of reaction from the anti-gender free contingent. Firstly, while the R-18 Literary Prize stories are subversive in their acknowledgement of women’s desire and agency in terms of creating and consuming sexual writing, the material is privileged as it is predominantly set within a heterosexual framework. The women characters in the stories may be taking part in sexual relationships that fall outside of married life and procreation, but for the most part, the potential for marriage and children within a heteronormative framework still exists once the story comes to an end. So, it is not necessarily detrimental to the notion of nation-building and procreation as a way of supporting patriarchal structures. Secondly, even when the stories themselves include explicit scenes, the illustrations that surround the stories are typically lacking in sexual content. Instead, illustrations of high heels and flowers are commonplace on the covers of the special R-18 Literary Prize issues, 334 Lorde, 340. 197 and the illustrations accompanying the stories themselves have no explicit content, and are typically non-sexual in nature. These make the stories less noticeable than manga with sexually graphic illustrations. Additionally, as a result of the prize’s placement within Shinchōsha’s mainstream literary publications that carry conventional literature from various genres, the prize-winning stories are hidden amongst works from other authors, including well-known men writers. Therefore, the stories appear less threatening to social norms than if they were to appear in an entire publication full of sexual writing for and by women. Shinchōsha journals are also targeted towards adults, which perhaps allays potential fears that the material can become available to a younger audience. As discussed in Chapter 4, “R-18” clearly demarcates the material as not for children, although it should be noted that the prize does accept and shortlist submissions from those under eighteen. Also, the placement of Shōsetsu shinchō in bookstores and libraries provide the prize and its stories with the visibility and availability that gives it a presumption of social acceptability. The legal case between Little Sister’s Book and Art Emporium and the Canadian government, which was highlighted in the Introduction, includes mention of Vancouver Public Library’s holdings of the same material that was confiscated from Little Sister’s. The fact that the library was able to keep and make accessible material that was identical to what confiscated from the bookstore made it doubtful that “community standards” were being breached through the possession and distribution of the material, and instead proved that 198 Little Sister’s was targeted for differential treatment.335 As discussed in Chapter 3, when BL novels in Sakai City’s library system were pulled off the shelves in 2008 due to outrage from individuals who maintained that the material was inappropriate for the public library, it was the community’s counter-protest that solidified BL’s placement in the library as meeting “community standards.” It was through the efforts of residents, local women councillors and scholars who rallied to have the books returned to the shelves without age restrictions in place that provoked the library to return the items to the open stacks.336 While the pornographic holdings of the National Diet Library remain in closed stacks, as mentioned in Chapter Four, Shōsetsu shinchō, where the R-18 Literary Prize is announced and winning stories are published, is available in both academic and public libraries within and outside of Japan. Therefore, simply by ensuring the placement of the journals and consequently the stories in the stacks, libraries afford legitimacy to the prize stories while protecting the works from hateful backlash on the premise that they have no place in society. Especially for libraries that are publicly funded, this type of protection can seem precarious given the potential influence from governmental officials who determine funding levels to these libraries. This tension exists not only in Japan, but anywhere with a public library or public educational system which provides library services, including in Canada. 335 Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Canada (Minister of Justice), 2000 SCC 69, [2000] 2 S.C.R. 1120 (Can.). 336 McLelland, “Regulation of Manga,” 258. 199 Controversy over sexual content in books has caused debate within British Columbia in recent months. Bruce Banman, a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of British Columbia and member of the right-leaning United BC party made the following statement during the October 4, 2023 debates of the legislature: I stand here today as a distraught father and grandfather. I stand here with parents in Abbotsford who are deeply concerned about sexually graphic and explicit content available in certain fictional books within our public school libraries to children as young as 11 years of age.337 One book that Banman brought up in the debate is a prize-winning young adult fiction work by Rainbow Rowell (b.1973) entitled Eleanor and Park. The passage in question that Banman later reads out loud features demeaning language towards the girl protagonist. While Banman refers to school libraries in particular, it is important to highlight that it is his role as a father and grandfather that has instigated his outrage. Further, it is not instructional material but “certain fictional books” that are of central concern. Another instance of challenged material has been linked to protests by hard right organizations over the implementation of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) curriculum in British Columbia. Titles housed in school libraries in Chilliwack, British Columbia were reported to local law enforcement as potentially including child pornography. The Chilliwack Detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police released a 337 British Columbia, Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Draft Report of Debates 4 October 2023. https://www.leg.bc.ca/documents-data/debate-transcripts/42nd-parliament/4th-session/20231004pm-House-Blues 200 statement in February 2023 indicating that the material did not meet the legal definition of child pornography.338 While the majority of the fiction and non-fiction titles brought forth in the complaint were for young adults and related to sexual and gender identity, the list also included The Bluest Eye by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison (1931-2019).339 In an interview with the Tyee independent online newspaper, teacher-librarian Tammy Le discusses the incident with reporter Katie Hyslop. [Hyslop]: Why should people outside of the education system care when groups or individuals talk about banning books from schools? [Le]: Because it impacts everyone. Ultimately, when you start having book bans, you’re restricting people from learning about certain ideologies, topics, whatever it is, and in the long run that could affect everybody, right? It’s preventing people from being educated about certain ideas instead of being more open-minded to it. For example, religious groups might want you to be teaching abstinence only, and never talking about other forms of protection. So the same thing with banning a book is now you’re trying to omit that topic so that other people will never be able to learn about it.340 Similar protests over books have arisen in Japan, and while concerns are frequently tied to children’s education, their relevance and impact has been far-reaching, underscoring a desire to maintain patriarchal values and traditions across Japanese society. 338 Canada, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, “Chilliwack RCMP investigation determines that content of books in schools does not meet the definition of child pornography” (February 22, 2023). https://bc-cb.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=2087&languageId=1&contentId=78590 339 Simon Little, “No, books in Chilliwack school libraries aren’t child pornography, RCMP says,” Global News (February 22, 2023). https://globalnews.ca/news/9505240/chilliwack-school-books-not-child-pornography/ 340 Katie Hyslop, “What a BC Librarian Thinks about Calls to Ban Books,” The Tyee (March 22, 2023). https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/03/22/What-A-BC-Librarian-Thinks-About-Book-Bans/ 201 Sexual Freedom: Enemy of the Church On May 26, 2005, the project team of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which was tasked with investigating “gender free” and sexuality education of Japan, held a symposium where then Party Chair Abe Shinzō denounced “gender free” education and “radical sex education.” Abe stated: “The characteristic trait of people who are pushing gender free is that they do not recognise the value of country, of family. This is the destruction of society and of culture.”341 The following year, Abe became prime minister of Japan, receiving support from many women in the Japanese electorate. At that time, renowned feminist and University of Tokyo sociologist Ueno Chizuko 上野千鶴子 (b.1948) provided the following analysis of Abe’s stance on women’s issues and how he structured his government in response to this stance: It’s incomprehensible why Prime Minister Abe is so popular among females… Upon taking office last month, Abe gave the gender equality portfolio to arch conservative Sanae Takaichi, who opposes a draft bill to allow women to retain their surnames when they marry. Another high-level female appointee, Eriko Yamatani, is a vocal opponent of “gender-neutral” education who has said that approach, which seeks to instill in both sexes a sense that they can play equal roles in society, ignores differences between males and females. She was chosen as special adviser in charge of educational reform. Abe, who previously headed a Liberal Democratic Party project team that has called for a re- examination of the gender-neutral approach in education, is known as a strong supporter of traditional family values. He has, for example, opposed sex education that shows students condoms and uses anatomically correct dolls to teach the subject, denouncing it as “gender-free fascism…”342 341 “Jimin, jendā furī o shinpojiumu de hihan” 自民、ジェンダーフリーをシンポジウムで批判、 Asahi Shinbun 朝日新聞, May 27, 2005; Original Japanese: 「ジェンダーフリーを進めている人たちは、国家、家族の価値を認めないのが特徴。社会、文化の破壊にもつながる」 342 Jun Hongo, “Abe’s Hold on Women Stumps Feminists: Reactionary Views, Appointments Obscured by His ‘Gentle’ Exterior?” Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News, 2006. 202 Following the conclusion of his terms as Prime Minister in 2020, Abe continued to be a high ranking, influential member of the LDP through to July 2022, when he was shot and killed by an assassin for his perceived ties with the Unification Church, known as the Tōitsu kyōkai 統一教会. The following month, in the aftermath of Abe’s death, the LDP released a survey to its Diet members asking about their ties to the Unification Church. The resulting report indicated that 179 out of 379 members had admitted to links to the church. In September 2022, journalists criticised the insufficient nature of the survey, as it only solicited responses from sitting members, and therefore failed to take into account Abe’s own ties to the church and its possible influence on the LDP’s governance of Japan during his days in power.343 One of the strongest links between the church and the party membership relates to the Japanese government’s approach on gender equity, which, as reflected in the 2005 symposium mentioned above, is associated with the LDP’s stance on Japanese sexuality education. Prominent politician and LDP member Yamatani Eriko 山谷えり子 (b. 1950), whom Ueno describes above as a “vocal opponent of ‘gender-neutral’ education” was not listed in the LDP’s survey results. This has raised questions about the validity of the survey since researchers have discovered that the church had thrown their support behind her as a jūten kōho 重点候補 (important candidate) and she also appeared within the church’s 343 Imanishi Noriyuki 今西憲之 and Yoshizaki [first name Romanization unknown] 吉崎洋夫, “‘Ozanari’ chōsa de wa mienai Jimintō / Tōitsu kyōkai ‘hontō no naka,’”「おざなり」調査では見えない 自民党・旧統一教会「本当の仲」, Shūkan Asahi 週刊朝日 (September 30, 2022): 26. Asahi News Database. 203 publication Sekai Nippō 世界日報 (World Daily). One church follower who was assigned to assist in Yamatani’s campaign explained how she received a manual with key slogans including “Against Radical Sex Education,” “Against Gender Free” and “Rebuilding Families.”344 A September 6, 2022 editorial of the English-language edition of Asahi Shimbun newspaper maintains that “the [LDP] should also answer questions about whether the church’s creeds, which place importance on traditional family values and object to the promotion of gender equality, have affected its own policy agenda.” 345 In her book on the Unification Church, sociologist Kathleen Lowney states the following with regards to the Church’s view on sexuality: For Church members, human sexual interaction should only occur when a couple has been blessed in marriage before God and before other Church witnesses. Thus heterosexual intercourse within marriage is the sole norm for Unification sexuality. Any other form of sexual expression would violate God’s law. Non-heterosexual forms of expression are thus forbidden, as are extra-marital relationships. In particular, intercourse before marriage is a sin against God’s commandments, for it would replicate the sin committed by Eve and Adam in the Garden of Eden instead of heal it.346 Further, in their article “Atrocity Tales, the Unification Church, and the Social Construction of Evil,” sociologists Bromley, Shupe, and Ventimiglia argue the following: 344 Original Japanese:「過度な性教育に反対」「ジェンダーフリーの反対」「家庭の再 建」; Imanishi and Yoshizaki. 345 “LDP Needs to Tell the Truth about Deep Unification Church Ties,” editorial, Asahi Shimbun, September 6, 2022. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14711898 346 Kathleen S. Lowney. Passport to Heaven: Gender Roles in the Unification Church. Vol. 3 (London, New York: Routledge, 2015), 72. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315743837 204 Church doctrines produce a morbid preoccupation with illusory sins, weakening personality integration by harming the person’s otherwise relatively consistent sense of positive self… Conventional heterosexual behavior, even at the relatively “innocent” level of unspoken interest in another person, is forbidden by the Unification Church, and stories told by ex-members emphasize the relentless pangs of guilt which tormented them. Such atrocity tales cut across several values by providing families with evidence that the Unification Church is forbidding culturally accepted heterosexual contact and thereby stifling normal human development.347 The Unification Church has a clearly defined view of sexuality as belonging only within heterosexual married space, and that sexual activity outside of these parameters should simply not exist. In consideration of the level of support given to LDP politicians by the Church, it is not surprising that these Church values have made their way into the policies that have shaped Japan’s sexuality education curriculum. It is important to note that the Unification Church was also implicated in the library censorship of BL novels, discussed in Chapter Three. Human rights researcher and gender and sexuality studies scholar Hori Akiko 堀あきこ asserts that complaints received by the library at this time reflected anxieties about women’s chastity that were being amplified by the Unification Church.348 The church’s World News site highlighted the case, quoting a complainant within an article published at the time. Further, the same year that BL titles 347 David G. Bromley, Anson D. Shupe Jr., and J. C. Ventimiglia, “Atrocity Tales, the Unification Church, and the Social Construction of Evil,” Journal of Communication 29, no. 3 (1979): 47. 348 Hori Akiko 堀あきこ, “BL tosho haijo jiken to BL yūgai tosho shitei kara miru seikihan no hitai shūsei: josei no kairaku ni chakumoku shite” BL 図書排除事件と BL有害図書指定からみる性規範の非対称性 : 女性の快楽に着目して (Asymmetric Sexual Norms in Removal and Designation as Harmful of BL Books: Thinking from Women’s Pleasure), Manga kenkyū マンガ研究 21 (March 2015): 89-90. 205 were removed in Sakai City’s libraries, the church was facilitating chastity pledges for teens throughout the country.349 Women, Life, Freedom As discussed in the introduction, Shinchōsha editors who conceived of the R-18 Literary Prize had hoped that it would push against sexual media that they considered to be “stupid” and that centred around men. While they succeeded in creating a space for women’s sexual expression, the prize’s greatest achievement may be its subversion of a powerful chastity narrative that has influenced governmental policy with regards to sexuality education in Japan. As outlined in this dissertation, chastity ideals have been challenged by women’s writing as well as women’s reading choices throughout early modern and modern Japanese literary history, from the enjoyment of shunga to the authorship of stories on sexuality within women’s magazines to the more recent surge in BL manga popularity amongst women. Much governmental censorship has been focused on sexually-explicit media and the perceived detrimental impact on its audience. However, while the link between detrimental health outcomes and viewing pornographic material has not been well established through research, studies point to physical and mental hardships borne by women through chastity movements. For example, women and gender studies scholar Breanne Fahs describes 349 Hori Akiko, 90; UC-Japan, Junketsu undō “pyua rabu 2008 in Hokkaidō” tōitsu undo 純潔運動 「ピュア ラブ ２００８ in 北海道」 統一運動（天宙平和運動）ニュース. https://web.archive.org/web/20081228075756/https://www.uc-japan.org/news.aspx?id=447 206 Chastity Clubs, such as those instituted by the Unification Church, as “a social space that normalizes the oppression of women’s bodies via severe control over their developing sexual expression.”350 In addition, nursing and midwifery scholars Christianson, Teiler and Eriksson maintain that “honour codes,” which appear in several areas across the globe, can result in severe suppression and violence against women who do not conform.351 Chastity was also a lethal factor in the September 16, 2022 murder in Tehran of Kurdish-Iranian Jina (Mahsa) Amini, who was killed after being mistreated during an arrest for wearing a hijab in a manner that allowed for some hair to be visible. The arrest was made by the Guidance Patrols, otherwise known as the morality police, which are empowered through Iranian legal codes that regulate chastity.352 The ensuing protests have resulted in thousands of instances of violence, torture, imprisonment, and murder against those who are contesting restrictions on women in particular, and on society more broadly.353 350 Breanne Fahs, “Daddy’s Little Girls: On the Perils of Chastity Clubs, Purity Balls, and Ritualized Abstinence,” Frontiers (Boulder) 31, no. 3 (2010): 118. 351 Monica Christianson, Åsa Teiler, and Carola Eriksson, “‘A Woman’s Honor Tumbles Down on all of Us in the Family, but a Man's Honor is Only His’: Young Women’s Experiences of Patriarchal Chastity Norms,” International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being 16, no. 1 (2021): 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2020.1862480 352 United Nations, “UN Experts Strongly Condemn Death of Mahsa Amini, ‘victim of Iran’s sustained repression,’” UN News, September 22, 2022. https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/09/1127471; Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, “Iranian President Signs Decree Further Restricting How Women Can Dress,” August 15, 2022. https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-women-dress-restrictions-raisi/31989759.html 353 Center for Human Rights in Iran, “Iran Protests: Children Killed and Tortured to Crush Dissent,” December 13, 2022. https://iranhumanrights.org/2022/12/iran-protests-children-killed-and-tortured-to-crush-dissent/ 207 In a world where climate change and the ramifications of war require urgent attention, governmental views on chastity and its origins may seem relatively minor. 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Thesis/Dissertation
eng
Asian Studies
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Graduate
Orbaugh, Sharalyn
Accessing power and knowledge through women's sexual writing in modern Japan : education, recreation, and the R-18 Literary Prize
Text