Love and Sexuality in Postwar Girls' Culture: Examining Tomishima Takeo's Junior Fiction

The 1960s and 1970s saw an inundation of novels called "junior fiction" (junia shōsetsu) that dealt with teenage romance. Novelist Tomishima Takeo (1931–98) was a pioneer, driving force, and quintessential author of the genre. He unabashedly depicted the sexual desires of both boys and girls. In so doing, he broke the taboo of girls' magazine stories, which had not touched upon heterosexual love prior to the end of World War II. For him, depicting sexuality was a powerful means of challenging conservativism and educational control of youth. Tomishima introduced sexual love to junior fiction and appeared to have released girl readers from the necessity of conforming to ideals of being proper shōjo (girls) who should not read and talk about sex. However, Tomishima did not advocate changing patriarchal gender norms or advocate for gender equality. This article analyzes how this contradiction influenced his junior fiction.