I’ve talked a lot recently about “secret projects.” One of my secret projects was this essay, which was orignally written for the first volume of Yuri is My Job, by Miman, available in English in January 2019 from Kodansha Comics.
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From the Diary of a Catholic Schoolgirl –
“Dear Diary – This morning began with cheerful greetings echoing through the clear blue sky. Today we girls, dressed in our tidy uniforms, passed in ordered lines under the tall gates, greeting Maria-sama as she smiled down upon us.”
Or something like that.
As manga fans – as Yuri fans – in the west, we surely have asked ourselves “Why is Yuri so often set in a Catholic school? And why “sisters?” surprisingly, there is an answer to this question. Around the time Japan entered the international stage, schooling for adolescents of both sexes was a prominent social cause in the late 19th century. In Japan, just as in America and Europe, it was often religious organizations that oversaw this education. Single-sex schools became popular for children of the growing middle class.
In order to curb adolescent passion in these schools, traditions were founded that focused admiration-tinged-with-desire on strictly maintained hierarchies.
Influenced by sexology studies in the early part of the century, scientific research delved into the psychology of them same-sex relationships.
“As a result of our studies, we can say that there are two kinds of same-sex love {dousei no ai).The former … is a case in which the females make a vow of sisterhood and promise to be with each other in life or death. This is nothing more than a passionate friendship, and there is nothing in this relationship that is shameful or despicable. Thus, in this case, the love is a mutual love but is no more than an extremely close friendship.”
(Quoted in Yoshikawa Toyoko. 1998, from Suzuki, Michiko (August 2006). “Writing Same-Sex Love: Sexology and Literary Representation in Yoshiya Nobuko’s Early Fiction”. The Journal of Asian Studies. 65 (3): 575)
Girls’ literature of the early 20th century in Japan focused on these relationships, presenting them as passionate, yet platonic bonds of sisterhood. Intense emotional relationships between older students and younger were transformed into sisterly feelings. Japanese girl’s magazines were filled with letters and stories of these heart-pounding feelings for older or younger “sisters.”
While some Japanese feminist writers were working in the context of social change, in magazines and literary publications, like Seitō (Bluestocking) other feminist writers, such as Yoshiya Nobuko took their work to popular culture outlets including these girls’ magazines, and wrote “Class-S” stories to create a literature by and for women and girls.
Yoshiya’s 1920 novel Yaneura no Nishojo established many of the tropes we still see expressed in literature and manga. It takes place in a boarding school, run by a religious organization. The protagonists are sharing an isolated attic room, there is a piano duet, and a moment when they choose to leave that protected world and go “outside.”
Other writers pursued the ideal of passionate platonic relationship, focusing on the sisterly aspect. Kawabata Yasunari and Nakazato Tsuneko wrote Otome no Minato, a classic girl’s novel that focused on this “extremely close friendship” of an older girl and younger, modeled on the Japanese sempai-kouhai relationship, but with the added affection of “sisterhood.”
In the late 20th century, this foundation of girl’s literature became fixed as Yuri was born amidst the upheavals of the 1970s. Popular literature had detailed these affairs of the heart, mostly set in Catholic schools – so, when girls’ manga later wanted to tell this same story, immediately these tales were given the “exotic” setting of private religious schools.
The, arguably, first Yuri manga, Shiroi Heya no Futari by Yamagishi Ryoko, is set in a Catholic school in France. When passions run high, desire is not redirected into sisterly affection…with tragic consequences.
At the turn of the 21st century, Konno Oyuki’s novel series Maria-sama ga Miteru (the anime of which made it to English as Maria Watches Over Us) resurrected the concept of the intense platonic connections between “soeur” in a Catholic school. In this series, Konno gave a whole volume to the consequences of romantic love between two girls, placing “love between girls at a Catholic school” among the firmament of Yuri tropes. This launched a renaissance of Yuri at private girls school stories, both serious and parody, from Sweet Blue Flowers, to Strawberry Panic!.
In the meantime, in fandom-focused areas of Japan, maid, and then butler, cafes began to spring up. Catering to fans’ desires to be taken care of, these cafes are still a fixture in parts of Tokyo – and at fan events across the globe. Visitors to Akihabara and Ikebukuro will be greeted by cute girls and dashing young men on the street in fantasy-inspired uniforms, ready to pour tea or decorate pancakes with grace and charm.
So it makes perfect sense that Miman-sensei combined the two for a trope-filled Yuri romp in Yuri is My Job!. Welcome to a salon where maidens with pure hearts serve you delicious sweets, admire their “schwestern” and vie to be the Blüme, the most popular girl at the school.
Welcome to the salon at Liebe Gakuen, where you will always be greeted with “Gokigenyou” and able to enjoy the sisterly affection of the young women who serve you.
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Publications mentioned:
“Suzuki, Michiko (August 2006). “Writing Same-Sex Love: Sexology and Literary Representation in Yoshiya Nobuko’s Early Fiction”. The Journal of Asian Studies. 65 (3): 575 quoting Yoshikawa Toyoko. 1998, ‘Nihonhon no ‘lezubianizumu’: 1910 nendai no shōsetsu ni egakareta lezubiantachi”
[Lesbianism in Modern Japan: Lesbians Depicted in Novels of the 1910s}. In Sei gensō o kataru {Talking about the Myths of Sex/Gender),vol. 2 of Kindai o yomikaeru {Rereading Modernity}, ed. Kondō Kazuko, 75-110. Tokyo: San’ichi shobō.
Seitō (Bluestocking). Literary journal. Tokyo, Japan. 1911-16, Seitō-sha.
Yaneura no Nishojo. Yoshiya Nobuko,Tokyo, Japan: Kokusho Kankoukai, 2003. Originally published 1920.
Otome no Minato. Kawabata Yasunari and Nakazato Tsuneko, Tokyo, Japan. Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha, Ltd. 1938.
Shiroi Heya no Futari, Yamagishi Ryoko. Tokyo, Japan. Hana to Yume Comics 1971
Maria-sama ga Miteru, Konno Oyuki. Tokyo, Japan 1994-2012. Shueisha
Maria Watches Over Us. Grimes, Iowa, 2008-2010, RightStuf.
Sweet Blue Flowers, Shimura Takako. San Francisco, USA, 2017, Viz Media.
Strawberry Panic!, Kimino, Sakurako, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2007-8, Seven Seas Entertainment.
Strawberry Panic!, New York, NY, USA, 2007-8, Media Blasters.
There’s more than two sexes. Intersex and genderqueer/nonbinary people exist.
(I’m also genderqueer/transgender.)
It’s transphobic to say that they are different because it’s saying that trans women aren’t really women and that they are just men biologically, which is false. It’s exactly the same as misgendering them, which in itself is violent and wrong. The same goes for any other gender, or a lack of gender. Some trans women/men may say that they are MtF/FtM, some do not. Some genderqueer/nonbinary people might also use a similar wording that is more suited to their current gender (or no gender), but not everyone does.
Chromosomes and body parts do not determine one’s gender/sex. To say that I’m not really genderqueer/transgender is not only wrong, it is also very innacurate. That’s what you are implying in your writing. Like I’m just playing pretend and I’m *really* female. Like I’m being deceitful about my gender. That’s not who I am. I’m partially female, but it has more to do with how I feel inside then what’s between my legs or what my chromosomes are. In the animal kingdom there are also many variations, so why should humans be exempt from this? After all we evolved from animals.
I was, however coercively assigned female against my will. However, it is not the full picture. For me (and for many others, again it’s highly individual), they mirror each other because it’s just who I am.
Look at it this way; if doctors no longer coercively assigned a gender/sex on other people, what would they be? In other words, you (or anyone) needs to trust us when we say what gender/sex we are. I know that you may have been brought up to think in binary terms, and that’s ok, we’re all learning to break free from the binary. It’s oppressive and it hurts people both physically and mentally.
(of course it also depends on the individual and how they define their gender, but this is my reality. It also may be different for people who are intersex. Everyone is different and that is ok.)
:)
I agree, but what does any of that have to do with anything that was stated here?
I would venture to suggest that it was the answer of Nebulous Soul to your mention of the division of schools into all-female and all-male, in order to prevent “immoral relations” between teenagers.
Yes, because “explaining” gender here would totally affect religious organizations’ decisions in Japan 100 years ago.
She mentioned “both sexes” in one of the paragraphs. I understand that the concept for these schools was many years ago, but trans, genderqueer/nonbinary people have existed for millennia. They just used different words to describe their experiences. It just hurts whenever I hear or read it. Japan is so behind on this, too, so I get that.
Yes. Surely I do not have to tell you that in the 1800s and until *very* recently, schools were sex segregated for girls or for boys.
We are speaking of things as they were understood 100 years ago. There were girls’ schools and boys’ schools and no other options – not even co-ed. Those came later…as did a more nuanced understanding of sex and gender.
Yeah, I get that. It’s ok.
I love Class S and the extraordinary feeling that it gives me, so it annoys me more and more, as more and more people have recently referred to it as the Japanese version of homophobic prejudice that “lesbianism is just a teenage phase”.
I understand that in our time of ubiquitous yuri-baiting it’s hard to find really honest work, but it upsets me that people don’t understand the meaning of this genre and try to perceive any Class S inspired work as fake yuri or ship baiting.
“In this series, Konno gave a whole volume to the consequences of romantic love between two girls, placing “love between girls at a Catholic school” among the firmament of Yuri tropes.”
Do you mean the arc with Sei and her lover?
Yes, that was a reference to the novel Ibara no Mori.
Thank you for clarifying. In that case, I also wanted to ask you something.
Do I understand correctly that modern melodramatic friendship in many all-female and shoujo animes is a direct inspiration from Class S? Some works even directly refer to the relationship of girls as “love”, at the same time continuing to assert that they are “just friends”.
Yes. The whole point of this essay is to trace this connection.
Thank you very much for your answer! I really learn a lot of new interesting information thanks to you.
You’re welcome and thank you for reading!
I met and first became close to my wife at our all-girls school, so I will never get sick of that setting in yuri, perhaps especially because I didn’t understand my own feelings until well after that time. We could always use more variety, but it has a very special place in my heart. Thanks for the context.
That’s certainly reasonable. We all have tropes we like best. ^_^