On Androgynus - Queer Speculative Fiction, Showa Fanzines & Past Criticisms of Japan's Literary Fandom Community

 

(The cover of vol. 2 of Androgynus, a zine dedicated to SF criticism and open discussion surrounding gender identity and anti-essentialism. This zine was produced by and for queer, intersex and transgender Japanese college age individuals and was extremely underground.)

I acquired Androgynus from a used bookstore in Hyogo (one that will not be named as to respect the privacy of the owner, who initially didn't allow me to acquire any books out of fear that I was a re-seller/scalper before I explained my situation). Among many of the texts present, this book was sold alongside a third volume, though having had acquired both, the trail seemed to grow thinner and thinner. 

I managed to find only a smattering of information online after I made my purchase, and I couldn't help but laugh at myself and my whims; I'm naturally drawn to old magazines and antiquities.  Naturally, I had to pick up this book based on it's very much, or seemingly, amateur printing. The yellowed pages, scent and title drew me in like a fly to rotting meat. My mind was simply satiated with the whirlwind of emotionality that had already overcame me. Speaking with the bookstore owner, they claimed that this text was written for and by queer individuals - the title was rapt in that the surrealist ethos of Speculative fiction appealed to a small yet closely tied subset of queer college age critics, writers and fans - some of which were transgender, intersex and questioning on a spectrum. 

Speculative fiction, in itself, is typically abbreviated as SF within Japanese connotations, and based on the themes presented, the fantastical tends to break even with rather unique forms of storytelling. Where subgenres such as hard fantasy, science fiction and horror have particularly set aesthetics even, Showa era Speculative fiction proved to be an all encompassing genre that freely explored aspects of the "possible" meshing with the "impossible". Was Androgynus a ploy on the ambiguous nature of what could be Speculative fiction? Initially, it seemed the case, that is until I began to dig a bit deeper. 

General research gave me a few listings of other texts linked to Androgynus, one of which appeared to be an omnibus of sorts of texts surrounding themes of transgenderism, though I have yet to genuinely confirm if this is so. Androgynus as a zine, however, appears to have been a quarterly publication of sorts. Reading further, one instantly is bombarded with a bit of criticism that is anything but the norm. The texture of this zine is, with all due respect, primitive. I hadn't held a book like this in ages and wasn't aware of the true thinness of the manuscript (until I would meet M much later in those following days) and I wasn't exposed to the nature of real guerrilla publishing from the Showa era. I'd never held anything like Androgynus, but its primitive nature seems to be due to the fact that its contents were, at the time, both homebrew and contentious. 

("In the Middle Ages of Europe when the Christian domination began, what is the witch, whose vivid figure gradually emerges from the darkness?" From Jules Michelet's The Witches text of 1862- This quote would later surmise the tone of outsiderhood, queerness and gender identity in an all encompassing manner to address the group, contributors and readership of Androgynus.) 

The opening text present in Androgynus is Aiyu's Suicide Note by a Masatoshi Kobayashi (小林正利) a writer who I had run across in the past in regards to mid to late 1960s SF criticism. Kobayashi's works, which range from short stories to SF haikus, work appeared in titles such as Imagineer and The Core. The last note I was able to find of Kobayashi's footprints was that of a 2015 anthology compiled by Hiroyasu Amase called Poemiadori: SF Poetry & Short Poetic SF, of which was a special compilation for Imagineer. The National Diet lists Kobayashi's work with Imagineer as well as his work on Poemiadori, of which he apparently also served as an editor.

Other trails seemed to naturally run thin -  the earliest information I could source in regards to Kobayashi's works could be found in volume 6 of The Core, published in 1965 by the eponymous Core Club. While I don't have access to Kobayashi's other writings, Aiyu's Suicide Note is, in fact, a uniquely framed short poem that is inherently queer. A story about gender essentialism, suffering and cross-cultural ideologies, Aiyu poses two thoughts ala questions around these topics that are framed with both surrealist and Speculative mannerisms. Aiyu is a unique, if not melancholic, opening to the reader, one that instantly engrossed me - "If I were to die in a place I knew, I could not stop my happy life. If I become a murderer, I can't live long enough to kill everything." 

The editors note follows soon after, framing the tone for Androgynus right off the bat - "It seems that a sudden change in the social climate has come. Those who were once quiet are starting to get angry again. At the same time, everywhere we look, a great transformation in our seemingly normal life is happening. Our invisible, slumbering spirit has now turned into a white lion. I myself am not in a position to say such big things. That is why the publication of Androgynus is different. here are many things I want to write about, but all my words begin and end with the question of what the meaning of writing is."

"What if, by writing, I cannot question my true self? In short, to put it bluntly, even the most life-like qualities of a person cannot be transformed into a life of devotion or a counter-revolution. I have no illusions about this. I don't think it will be any good if I did something like that. Still, I think it is possible to do one thing without being famous. And what kind of actions can I do when I want two genders? Perhaps my life is somewhere in between."

The editor's identity is, in fact, a mystery. The following page makes note of a bit of criticism around Blood for Blood (流血の抗争), a 1971 action meets crime film by Yasuharu Hasebe (長谷部安春) that stars Joe Shishido (宍戸錠) as the titular main character. Joe plays Tezuka Naoto, a rising gangster who challenges local yakuza for control over an unclaimed township. The film was shown right on time with Androgynus' publishing, which gave me a timeline in framing the thoughts and feelings of the contributors - the publication, with that in mind, made me think that this text was published months after Blood for Blood's initial release, which would have been June 10th of 1971. However, reading the back cover revealed that Androdgynus vol. 2 hails from August 1st of that year. 

Thoughts on Blood for Blood are uniquely framed - "Blood for Blood" - I'm still shaking with the thought that my opinion of this movie is not clearly defined, and that it doesn't have some kind of extraordinary feeling inside it. The story itself is simple. It's just a summary of the conflict between the local yakuza and a huge gangster organization that is devouring new major cities one after another in search of new sources of funds."

The queer subtext behind the film review soon becomes apparent in that the author wishes that the director Yasuharu Hasebe would sleep with Tatsuya Fuji (藤竜也)'s character Keiichi Ozawa. Thoughts about the film's ambitious nature are noted when Hasebe's script had "a burning desire to surpass even Suzuki Koufuku."

"No, when the restaurant chairman Komine (Togami Taro) is killed with a knife, which was directly stolen from Nagatomo's playbook, the change in the color of the floor from white to red made me think of a scene from Tokyo Drifter. Or rather, it was closer to the blood spurting that Ozawa Kei showed in the Hitokiri Tamaro series. However, this is not incomprehensible as a modernist style that director Hasedera Miyako simply is not good at. I've narrowed it down to the following three points that I found shocking, or rather, that I found particularly interesting in my evaluation."

"Bloodshed and everyday life should be connected!" from The Resistance of Blood by Hasebe Chukan is quoted by a Nukushina Yoshinori (温品善紀), a contributor. 

 

Later writings speak on the strangely homoerotic organization of yakuza films with bosses and their underlings and their relationships therein, whereas the author strictly says that some aspects of these ideas are challenging to most viewers, should they even pick up on them. Ideologies surrounding bloodshed, hierarchies and more come to light in a unique way and one that is only summarized by the would-be homoerotic beauty of the main character's final fight - "And after the fight was over, he was covered in blood and black, fine hairs. As he stepped outside, he had a dazzling look on his face." 

The tone of Androgynus is, quite frankly, nihilistic at times in tonality. There is no major break away from the rather stream of consciousness that takes place in the following pages, but a rather exemplary sign of the era towards gender and sexuality during the Showa era becomes all the more evident soon enough. To quote an author, who isn't named, the day to day livelihood of a queer individual in Showa era Japan springs forth in a manner that left me emotional. Carrying forth from watching Blood For Blood, the author begins to use their criticism as a means to express their gender and sexuality, and more so how they cannot genuinely express it. Was the author a transgender man? a gay man? One will never know, but some insights can be surmised:

"What I felt watching each scene (of Blood for Blood) was something I had never experienced before. The next day, I would go to class obediently. It was the same feeling I had when I was in a state of mind where I was able to overcome my fears and enjoy my leisure time, and my actions were connected to my everyday life and were deeply connected to the "Great Battle"-  or my everyday existence." Gender dysphoria or being closeted weighs heavily on many queer minds, though these struggles seemed ever present in the individual who watched a film that either affirmed gender euphoria or their gayness. 

"Today, the so-called struggles of our "transparent group" are perceived as "fair matters." In the end, the idea of ​​our lives being a part of an "underworld" is somewhat exaggerated, but they are actually the same. We are in a similar state of mind as the characters (in Blood For Blood.) Among the people who are in this state of mind, drinking with your boss is no different from the "bloody struggle" of the yakuza. It was Takaaki Yoshimoto who exposed the idea that "there is no such thing as a non-existent world outside of the realm of the living." He said, "In this state of action and thought, salvation is the only ceiling." And now, as I said before, I am wandering around looking for a place to die."

"First of all, I think it is a fact that such a literary movement has become necessary. I do not criticize the activities of Takahashi (nee Shoji) Ishikawa (石川商司), who contributed to the development of Japanese literature. I do not intend to deny the fact that many writers have been born and encouraged by his broad vision and excellent understanding." Criticisms are given about both popular and well established SF writers of the day, and while these works are obscure to me at the moment, the polarization of SF's literary political tones come under fire from time to time. Parts of Androgynus are notably illegible based on the printing, though I was able to pick apart some notes about Ishikawa Shoji - his actions, whatever these may have been, seem to delineate his work by the opinions given. 

"However, even if he has encouraged many SF writers in the Japanese literary world, this does not mean that we can recognize the "night-time activities" that have been left behind today. Indeed, it is precisely for this reason that in order to consider the evaluation of S. Ishi, one must first begin with Uyama Takayoshi (宇山 孝好)'s opinions." A quote is given from Ishikawa from an alternating text in that he hoped that his science fiction "book(s) will help high school students understand how to find good books in the midst of a drunken stupor after a class. Therefore, it is more important to introduce books than to critique them."

Other scathing criticisms are given of other SF texts of the era; "Then, in issue 155 of Uchuu (Universe), we see the pathetic rhetoric of Nobumitsu Omiya (大宮 信光), "I am immortal! The mother goddess of death here," and the "reason for the darkness" that is so easily explained by the Koyama theory maniacs, is used as a pathetic gimmick that makes us mistakenly think he knows what he's talking about." Omiya, a prominent SF author and founder of Cosmic Dust/Uchūjin (宇宙塵) with Fujio Ishihara (石原 藤夫), propelled science fiction into the Japanese forefront as its deemed the very first SF magazine in the post-war environment. Founded in 1957, the tone of Uchūjin posed early questions surrounding Speculative fiction, though the editors of Androgynus seem to disagree with it being de-facto and socially driven. 

(In the afterword, an editor/writer goes on to note aspects of SF's presence in the Japanese literary world and seemingly their place in this contingent history - "In Japan, there are only two magazines that are popular (for Speculative fiction), and it is true that SF fans cannot exist without siding with one of them, or accepting the other's views. Is this the case? "Hypersexuality" is one of the questions that arise.")

Reading Androgynus proved to be both a unique yet daunting experience. Aspects of these writers' tones had unique shifts from time to time, though on the onset of drinking everything in personally, I was amazed at the breadth of experience that was held by this singular group. On the basis of accepting the status quo, there simply was no wish to do so, be it from the perspective of a marginalized group or from the mere basis of not having many resources to draw from. My initial read had taken me towards several directions. Initially, I purchased this text to see if there were any connections made to what would later become fandom tones in the SF community, though my general understanding of early Japanese Speculative fiction changed in an instant. 

For one, this text proved to be more highly involved in an adult sphere of academia versus that of the high school age anime fan club members I'd been covering. Androgynus' seemed as well, while posing queer thoughts and theory on then modern day SF works and films, touched on so many points within this breadth of experience that not just one could be singled out. There was, to some extent, simply a lot to be said that couldn't be accounted for. Among the group seemed to be a very inherent dissatisfaction with having to simply live and breathe within two schools of thought - limitations that I understand in this present day. While not addressing fandom in a typical way, the sentiment still reigns supreme as someone who personally finds themselves as an outlier in many spaces for a variety of reasons. 

The editors in the final closing pages seem to, perhaps againt themselves, absolve to accepting that they must fall into one camp or another - "Even though criticism of the self-righteous novel has become rather ridiculous, I can't find anything that matches (Takahashi) Ishikawa's writings. The only thing I can ever find is Ishikawa's writings when I look for anything else. Even though he has killed the SF fandom, there is nothing bad to be found there, and it is nowhere near the level of the author's writings." 

So it would seem that while Ishikawa was not exempt from these queer fans' criticisms, he was, to some fortune or misfortune, the golden standard. "In the world of criticism, it is safe to say that there is no public opinion in this world, and that there is no real criticism. And where there is no public opinion, there is no change or development in this sphere."

"It seems like I've been screwed. I can't help but think that I'm one of those people who have been arguing about the futility of this very fact. I was the one who was shouting about the futility of the initial debate, but I was criticizing the fact that there was no current room for change and that neither "wave" (group or groups) were coexisting and prospering together, and I thought it was pathetic." Even now, truer words could never be spoken. 

The final page of Androgynus makes an appeal to the underground queer community in which it served, though in a very straight forward manner that was intriguing. "Notices: The publication "In Search of Words" will be on hold for a while. The closest thing we'll have to this is "World-Made Words". It's okay to cry. If you would like to publish in the third issue, please let us know." An additional byline is given in that Masatoshi Kobayashi, mentioned earlier, facilitated the publishing of this text - given Androgynus' nature, many questions can be posed though they will, to the nature of my ability, be left unanswered. 

A call for the next issue states that any submissions would be published by September 28th of that year - addressed at 1249 Fukugata, Nanatsu City, Okayama. Additional details, due to printing, are simply illegible.  Some things will, so it seems, be left to mystery.