Class S: appropriation of ‘lesbian’ subculture in modern Japanese literature and New Wave cinema

ABSTRACT

In the 1920s in Japan, girls attending single-sex secondary schools developed a girls’ culture (shōjo bunka) or subculture to insulate themselves temporarily from the pressures of patriarchal society. Part of this subculture was a practice called s kankei (s or sister relationships), also called Class S, which were same-sex romantic attachments between classmates, condoned at the time as a temporary practice relationship that would end upon graduation, followed by an arranged marriage. Although s relationships were not ‘lesbian’ in the contemporary sense, literature and film created by men in the 1920s through the 1960s appropriated aspects of girls’ culture, including exploitative representation of female homosexuality. One example is Manji (Quicksand, 1928) by Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, which depicts an s relationship as lurid and perverse. Kawabata Yasunari plagiarized from his female disciple Nakazato Tsuneko in order to publish the most popular Class S novel of the era, Otome no minato (Harbor of Girls, 1937). Kawabata also included exploitative scenes of female homosexuality in his novel Utsukushisa to kanashimi to (Beauty and Sadness, 1963). Both Tanizaki’s and Kawabata’s novels were made into films by New Wave directors, Manji in 1964 by Masumura Yasuzō and Beauty and Sadness in 1965 by Shinoda Masahiro, and featured the first depictions of ‘lesbianism’ in Japanese film. Although these films reinscribe the male gaze, they helped inspire a nascent gay culture and opened the way for more authentic gay cinema. This essay recenters girls’ culture in modern Japanese literature and film, and discusses the variable meaning of female homosexuality for different audiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Shōjo
• s relationships
• Tanizaki Jun’ichirō
• Kawabata Yasunari
• modern Japanese literature
• Japanese New Wave cinema

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Lie Kim Ai Natalie for her insights into Manji and Utsukushisa to kanashimi to as forerunners to Japanese queer cinema.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Note on contributor

Deborah Shamoon is Associate Professor in the Department of Japanese Studies at the National University of Singapore. She is the author of Passionate Friendship: The Aesthetics of Girls' Culture in Japan (University of Hawai'i Press, 2012). Her current research is on formal analysis of manga.

Notes

1 Tanizaki uses the left facing swastika (pronounced manji in Japanese) as the title, which symbolizes the four-way rival love relationship in the novel. The English translation is Quicksand; it has also been glossed as Whirlpool or Maelstrom. The film was given the title All Mixed Up when released in English speaking countries. Tanizaki’s use of the swastika in 1928 is unrelated to Nazi symbolism, which came later.

2 The novel Chijin no ai (A Fool's Love), titled Naomi in English translation, was published in 1925. Masumura Yasuzo directed a film adaptation in 1967.

3 Tomioka Taeko in a roundtable discussion titled ‘On men’s literature: Ueno Chizuko, Ogura Chikako, and Tomioka Taeko’ (2006, p. 215).

4 Masumura wrote this in response to criticism that the film was too intellectual compared to the novel (Yomota and Saito 2003, p. 68).

5 There is also a European film based on the novel Manji, released under the title The Berlin Affair (Interno Berlinese, 1985, dir. Liliana Cavali). The story is set in Berlin of 1938, with Sonoko reimagined as a German woman and Mitsuko as the daughter of a Japanese ambassador. For analysis of this film, see Marrone (2000, pp. 140–158).