On "The Domestic Yapoo" : Shotaro Ishinomori's Adaptation of an Anti-Colonial Masterpiece.
Warning: this piece contains themes of BDSM, racism, colonialism, as well as images that display graphic depictions of sex & body horror. This piece also contains criticism as well as spoilers on both the manga and novelization of Yapoo. If these images or themes make you uncomfortable, please take that into consideration before proceeding.
This is part 1 and 2 of a 6 part opinion piece.
When The Domestic Yapoo was originally published in 1956, it caused an instant and much deserved stir. Readers were introduced to the surrealist tale of Rinichiro Sebe, a young, impressionable Japanese man, who's staunch pride and ego help carve him out as ideal Japanese male - profoundly intellectual, patriotic, and a master at martial arts, Rinichiro somehow exceeds that of the ordinary. Rinichiro is engaged to the beautiful Clara von Cotwick, a former member of German aristocracy, who is noted to be 'wise beyond her years and the queen of the university'.
These characters, who's initial back and forth via dialogue is exceptionally tame and tepid, exist comfortably and unchallenged within their romantic relationship. Their dynamic is relatively vanilla and traditionalist; Rinichiro is dubbed as Clara's proverbial Knight in shining armor due to the fact that Rinichiro uses his exceptional judo skills to defend Clara from a group of 'good for nothings'. Clara, Rinichiro's devoted, meek partner, is enthralled by both Rinichiro and his country without being Orientalist.
However, upon ascending up a mountain while on tour in Germany, Clara's eyes cast themselves to Rinichiro before uttering rather contemplatively, "Was wird aus ihm?", or "What will become of him?". That sheer notion soon presents itself rather unabashedly - through a series of traumatic, wildly dehumanizing events, both Clara and Rinichiro find themselves embroiled within a strictly controlled, race driven BDSM dynamic. This shift in their relationship occurs against the sumptuous yet desolate backdrop of a fascist future in which White women rule supreme.
While the setting of Yapoo was exceptionally uncommon its readership, the themes of BDSM were not. Published first in Kitan Club (奇譚クラブ), or Mystery Story Club, readers were already entrenched within the world of dominance and control, be it actively or passively. Kitan Club was a publication dedicated to the world of the sexual 'other', and it would be through this publication that readers of Yapoo would engage with it. Kitan quite famously provided a space for those involved in sexually alternative lifestyles to have access to content stepped in the world of said fetishism, and while the editors and contributors of Kitan curated materials, such as short stories and lithographs of works by John Willie, other aspects of the journal became more pervasive socially. Aside from its basic offerings, Kitan also served the underground gay male community by publishing correspondence, classified ads, and editorials that acted as under the table advertisements. Articles were notably run within the journal's publication history that shared the voices of both stern dominatrices as well as homosexual escorts working in Japan, who, under the veil of anonymity, were able to speak freely and without legal recourse - all while gaining an client or admirer (or two).
With interest of readers piqued, Yapoo captivated Kitan's devout audience with thrilling depictions of social taboos, sexual violence and humiliation enacted by dominant women. While first praised for its depictions of sexualized, grotesque violence on the onset, there soon was presented one caveat that would ultimately set Yapoo apart from the traditional erotic fiction published within Kitan.
Readers soon began to send impassioned letters to Kitan's editors. While Kitan Club continued to differentiate itself from similar publications with its unique content, many of the letters received in the following months were not about these offerings. Rather, they were suddenly addressed strictly to the author of Yapoo. With mountains of praise stacked towards the penman of Yapoo, questions flooded forth as well about another topic that slowly began to present itself within the work. The novel itself began as a fix up, or a compilation of short stories, before taking on a stronger, linear narrative - one that began to abstractly explore the themes, ideals, and preoccupations of anti-colonialist theory. The author proved to be elusive, mysterious, if not ephemeral, and were only billed to the public as Shozo Numa.
As Numa's narrative progressed in subsequent issues of Kitan, The Domestic Yapoo's under Numa's hand began to explore an even sinister ethos. First, Shozo's transformative setting of Yapoo laid the groundwork for anti-colonialist sentiment. While Rinichiro and Clara continue their travels through the mountain ranges of Germany, they both have a near-death accident with an extraterrestrial space craft. While the two are left reeling from the aftershock of the events, they soon meet the pilot of the space craft; the tall, goddess-like Pauline.
Pauline, described as being Amazonian in stature and exceptionally Anglo in appearance, is found in the wreckage wearing clothing and accessories that are otherworldly. All the same, she appears to be just the same as a regular human woman, though is noted to have near 'perfect' features - "Her flowing blonde hair laid out beneath her like a halo. Her bust was ample; a thin waist and wide hips gave her the appearance of a mature woman". Rinichiro, utterly smitten by the sight of Pauline, compares her subconsciously to that of Clara, and quietly lusts after her. However, as the narrative progresses, its revealed that Pauline is a member of the EHS, or the Empire of One Hundred Suns, an aristocratic society at the head of the British Space Empire.
Pauline, one revived and treated from the wreckage, first sets her sights on Clara. Upon Pauline's awakening, she claims to come from the future, and assumes that Clara is one of her very own race thanks to Clara's blonde hair and blue eyes. To thank Clara for her help, Pauline becomes fiercely devoted to protecting and preserving Clara's 'Whiteness', and as a reward offers for Clara to come along with her back to the world that she 'comes from', versus staying on planet Earth, which she deems filthy.
As for her lover? There is no reward. Rather, Rinichiro is left perturbed and utterly confused due a sudden, vicious onslaught of race driven, misandrist rhetoric touted by Pauline towards him and all of his 'kind'. He is, upon her declaration, merely a 'yapoo' - or, animals besides humans who form societies. As a yapoo, he hails from Japan, and is within Pauline's timeline a tool, underling, and subhuman object that is to serve and bolster the edifice of the white supremacist society that she hails from. To Pauline, Rinichiro has not been tamed, and while he is attached to Clara, she is obligated to help Clara tame her lover, who is a mere yapoo. Not given any further choice in the matter of coming along, Clara and Rinichiro are soon swiftly abducted, thus ushering in Numa's ideals on perversity, degradation, and sociopolitical theory.
Part 2: Yapoo's Literary Success and Subsequent Controversies
The Domestic Yapoo's success soon lied in the anti-colonialist narratives touted Numa's use of sex and sexuality. These themes, while being merely allegorical tools, refuse to frustrate themselves as being anything other than that. As Rinichiro, a proud, Japanese man, is forced into mental and sexual subjugation by his White female captor, he in introduced to other 'processed' yapoo, all of which are transformed into subservient, often times grotesque, humanoid creatures. "He had ear holes but no external ears; his nose was only two holes (like) the protuberance had been shaved off; his eyes were open but the cloudy nature of their pupils suggested the dwarf had limited eyesight. He had not a single hair either on his head, nor eyelashes or eyebrows. He was surprised by their presence of course and his mouth hung open revealing that all his teeth were gone." Rinichiro, disgusted at the sight of what has become of Japanese men in Pauline's timeline, becomes extremely defiant and wishes to go home - these simply were not the proud, Japanese men that he was accustomed to.
The metaphorical quality entrapment, subservience, and mutilation soon proved to be far more relatable and felt at the time of its publication. Shozo's writings would conflate sexual domination with the anti-colonial sentimentality shared among the Japanese populace of the post-WW2 era. With that in mind, it wouldn't be long before Numa's Yapoo was being compared to that of the Marquis de Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom. From its rhetorical questions surrounding social morality to its striking portrayal of sadomasochism, sex and social ideology worked in a rather bleak, Brutalist cohesion.
The sexual subjugation of the masculine by the feminine however would be laced ever so tightly by Shozo not dissimilarly to the patent leather boots worn by Pauline - this only further supported the staunch criticisms made. Subjugation to Shozo was painful; the sudden, controlling means in which Allied powers seized Japan after the war felt similarly humiliating. To Shozo, Japan as a nation was similarly owned and collared by the Allied forces just as Rinichiro is later within the text. Riveted by these sorely felt correlations, readers of Kitan Club simply could not put Yapoo away. Besides, could BDSM as literary medium even be used as a critique on post-war colonialist interests?
Among the readership of Kitan Club were none other than the burgeoning, glittering Japanese literati of the post-war era. Writers such as Yukio Mishima (Confessions of a Mask, Spring Snow) and Tatsuhiko Shibusawa (The Song of the Eradication, Cynopolis), both were devout readers of Kitan Club, and subsequently praised the work for both its eroticism and social criticisms against Anglo influences that proliferated post-war Japan.
Yukio Mishima would soon dub Yapoo as "(the) greatest masterpiece of ideological novels" due to its tackling of the subject at large with its coy interplay of the mind/body submission via masochism. Emboldened by the unabashed way in which Shozo depicted the infantilized, socially castrated Japanese male (a sentiment that was rife within Mishima's own works), Mishima would go on to share Yapoo with his colleagues, who too would become enamored with the novel in their very own way.
Other writers outside of Mishima's own literary circle shared their thoughts on Yapoo, though often via the press. Editorial after editorial would be authored that lauded Numa's work as being "raptly socially important". Even within the context of what acts Shozo Numa depicted in Yapoo, these sadomasochistic themes did not absolve both the public intrigue and revulsion that the text garnered. Themes, such as scat torture and fantastical body mutilation, were simply discussed for their allegorical qualities, rather than their usual erotic applications. With the press backing Yapoo, independently to some extent, the novel would be touted as a literary classic within mere months, if not weeks, after its original releases within Kitan Club.
The social environment of post-war Japan seemingly understood the message behind The Domestic Yapoo's proposed ideologies, having already had clear, lived experience to make informed considerations about these allegorical topics. Controversies, however, were soon to present themselves in the wake of both Numa and Yapoo's skyrocketing success, some of which would follow the novel for years to come. The most impactful controversy bloomed out of the question surrounding Yapoo's authorship. Readers of Yapoo deduced that the name author's name, Shozo Numa , was simply a pseudonym. While suddenly discussed with much fervor and revere, Shozo Numa could not nor want to be identified. Some understood this passively considering the nature of Yapoo, others couldn't comprehend how a text that, with its tongue-in-cheek interplay of both Japanese folklore and Dominas, could be shrouded in anonymity. Was it for the sake of social scandal? It certainly became as much. Opinions, while on polarizing ends, aimed to deduce who the man, or woman, behind such a cynical text was.
Even as Yapoo was published in several publications after its original run in Kitan Club, the knowledge surrounding who was behind the novel remained dubious at best for many years to come. Several people scrambled to the forefront to declare themselves the original author of Yapoo - sometimes with the mores of a jokester for quick publicity, while others took credit in immediate seriousness only to be refuted by evidence that proved otherwise. During several instances within Yapoo's publication history, both Mishima and Shibusawa were attributed to actually being Shozo Numa. Shibusawa had translated the works of Marquis de Sade and wrote theory on the sexuality teeming within Demonology. Mishima had already released such works as Forbidden Colors and Sun and Steel, inundating his narratives with themes of homosexuality and politics. While both garnered attention from this socially assumptive correlation, it would be Yapoo's attribution to Takuji Kurata that would become the most polemic.
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