Barazoku, which translates to "The Rose Tribe" was the first commercially ran gay men's magazine in Japan. I learned about it from reading Yukio Mishima, and my memory is a bit vague about how involved he was in the magazine, but, for me, he represented this type of bigger, muscular gay Asian male.
Granted, Mishima was and still is not a great role model for gay men. Seppuku and honor was all in his books, as he himself commited seppuku in a coup attempt.
But for me, a kid in his 20's who was ashamed of his sexuality, and sense of masculinity, turned to Barazoku as an ideal self and attraction. Just seeing Asian men being confident in their sexuality and just living their lives gave me hope that there was something better out there, since coming out wasn't a great experience: being laughed at, being told I'm going to Hell, being somewhat disowned and being told I was replaceable definitely changed my world view on what I believed in and the people around me.
From Mishima, I moved on to find this movement shown in manga form. And my first comic artist I followed was Jiraiya. Although Gengoroh Tagame is the big name in Bara manga, I related to Jiraiya because the representation was more human to me: couples fell in love, or couples departed in good terms, or everyone had a good laugh and grown camaraderie -- being gay wasn't a negative thing -- even if I could only imagine it at the time.
I still read Barazoku manga, and where I'm at now, the appeal of the sexual part has waned over time, but the more human parts drawn and illustrated appeals to me. However, for this month's challenge I saw something and I thought I should write about it:
This is from Gai Mizuki's, "My Lover is My Bodyguard." The term "Revolution to Heaven" inspired me to write this:
My Lover is My Bodyguard by Gai Mizuki
We are unable to protect ourselves
from ourselves: we have to trust
a contraption rotating us for
entertainment purposes. At least
we can see more of the landscape
from up here as we have to eventually
descend. This isn’t another Icarus
poem since our purpose isn’t
another allegory of reaching.
This is a love poem. Another one
where it’s just between
two people believed to be mirrored
but it’s just a window where
it takes effort to look in to see
us holding hands as we rise.
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So from here, I decided to write a poem a day on images from Bara manga that aren't the sexual parts, but still a part of the manga. For example:
Above is from Katsu from Jiraiya
Above is from Our Class Reunion by Kazuhide Ichikawa
Above is from The Tales of Tengu by Mitsuwa Building
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Now, being gay is just part of my life like enjoying being outside, hanging out with people, or continuously watching day turn to night. I haven't forgotten my past though and why I turned to Barazoku as something to aspire to. I'm still working through it to be present in the now.
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