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A Japanese scroll painting of a Dutch ship, late 18th century. Photo Röell Fine Art. Copyright: Michiel Elsevier Stokmans

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Ahmet Oukoku Monogatari - YAMADA Mineko

Chery, tomboyish princess of the Afmet Kingdom is arranged by her parents to get married. The reason is that there’s a fire dragon in their country that wakes up every 10 years. It’s the country regulation to have a king which must also be a top level magician to rule there, and one of the king’s duties is to make the dragon fall asleep to save their country. Chery doesn’t want to get married, and one day before her future husband moves in the palace, she sneaks out to go to a concert instead. After the performance, she secretly sneaked into the band’s dressing room and overheard her favorite duo discussing about the fire dragon and is startled, which causes her to get caught. Chery is now being restrained and now has to tack along with her favorite band to the fire dragon’s lair.

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From Yamada Mineko's Run Alice! (走れアリス, Hashire Alice). Published in Hana to Yume's 1974 July and August issues. Digitally available.

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The Poe Clan box set, included post cards, Hagio Moto

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Peak yaoi is here.

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SASAYA Nanae (ささやななえ ), Dartmoor no Shounen / ダートムーアの少年

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#5 YOSHIDA AKIMI'S 1994 PUFF INTERVIEW

Please check the interviews masterpost here.

Banana Fish, her magnum opus, reached its finale at the peak of its popularity. Puff, the manga news magazine, had a special feature to commemorate the ending of the manga: “We are conveying the full scale of the readers’ reactions, go all out and get it off your chest!” This interview was given for the occasion. 

First published: 1994, Puff July issue (Zassousha)

— How was the readers’ reactions after Banana Fish ended?

Yoshida: They said “That’s awful!” and “You murderer!” to me (laughs). No matter how the ending would be, I thought I would still have regrets and I felt quite troubled, but I still chose that ending. I thought of two ending patterns: one with Ash dying and one with Ash living. Right at the end, I felt quite lost as to what to do. And River Phoenix (Ash’s model) had just died… That was such an untimely death, so very sad… It’s very cruel. It makes you think, “he was so young and handsome, but he still died”. That happened, my editor and I talked about how that was no laughing matter.

— Around when you had the ending planned in your head?

Yoshida: I had it in my head since the very beginning, but about from 6 months before the finale, I said “just a couple of more times” to myself, and drew it. But there was no end to those retakes (laughs). So I planned to end it with the 18th volume, but I had only 30 pages left. The level of uncoolness is immeasurable (laughs). This is becoming a talk about how the industry works, but usually, you continue serialization matching things up with the number of pages in a tankoubon. That is the reality. It’s not like you can draw as many pages as you like. I once worked for a company that operated that way (laughs). That still doesn’t explain the abruptness, but I decided to draw a side story. 

— Looking back now, what are your thoughts about ending the serialization?

Yoshida: It was a long ride. Yet “reality” closes in, catches up and surpasses the story. That happened, which made things quite painful at times. There were a lot of times when I thought “there’s no way something like this would happen!”. It was a story taking place during the Cold War, but right now, even the concept of East-West divide is gone, right?

— What do you want to say to Ash and Eiji?

Yoshida: Without being paid, without being fed... You’ve worked quite hard (laughs). 

— Lots of people died in the story...

Yoshida: Right, they dropped like flies. 

— Do you draw while imagining how that character would end up like?

Yoshida: No, that didn’t really happen with this story. But sometimes it does, it depends on how the story flows.

— Which character was the hardest to part with?

Yoshida: It’s gotta be Shorter Wong. I really liked that baldie (laughs). He was modeled after Sunplaza Nakano, but that must be obvious by now. It wasn’t Ide Rakkyo (laughs). 

— Is that why he makes another appearance in the side story?

Yoshida: I wanted draw the times when he still had hair (laughs). 

— Did you hate Yau-si?

Yoshida: I still hate him to this day (laughs). I can’t forgive him. I hate him, that’s why I let him live (laughs). In the end, he’s the type of guy who would be a burden to others. I hate people like him. Although I drew him, he’s just too different from me, so I don’t get him at all. 

— But in the end, Yau-si is pretty much saved thanks to Sing’s efforts, right?

Yoshida: I wouldn’t really call that “salvation”. For being “saved”, he’s still being a little bit too mean to the protagonist (laughs). Sing is a very straighforward character, and a very good boy. So I asked him to play the role of “savior”. It’s still a different kind of salvation than Eiji’s. Later, everyone ends up in misfortune, after all (laughs). 

— The final moments of Dino too...

Yoshida: The old timer was also quite brave. It really felt like “the final stand of the pure-hearted old man” (laughs). He was quite popular. I thought, “with such a face, he did quite well being so brave” (laughs).

— Did you abandon the idea of giving Ash a buzz cut (laughs)?

Yoshida: I did think that Ash with a buzz cut would be fine too. What can I say, I like baldies. 

— Which character was easy to draw? Which character was hard to draw?

Yoshida: I guess the hardest one to draw was Yau-si? When I was drawing him, there were a lot of times when I wasn't sure if I was capturing his character correctly. Eiji might have been hard to draw too. I mean, is it possible for anyone to be such a pure cluster of positivity? Really, if someone like him exists, they should be a miraculous being. 

— Are there any characters you felt emotionally attached to while drawing? 

Yoshida: Now that I can look at it from a distance, I’d say there is none. Sing might be my favorite character. I probably wouldn’t mind having a son if he’ll be like Sing (laughs).

— Who would make a good boyfriend then? (laughs)

Yoshida: Boyfriend? It might be a good idea to have the old man as your patron (laughs). I’d hate to have him as my father. 

— How about Blanca?

Yoshida: It feels like he’s trying too hard to look cool (laughs). Like “a man’s gotta keep silent and just do his thing” kind of stuff. 

— Don’t you like that type of guys?

Yoshida: Actually, I do (laughs). If I must give you my true opinion, I love them (laughs). They are a little bit of bashful, after all. I thought about how old he would be while drawing him. He must be about 32-33.

— With two protagonists and side characters, wasn’t it hard to find the right balance between them?

Yoshida: It was, because a lot of characters appeared in the story. I basically like it when the story is bustling with people. I don’t like putting an end to everything in a world for two. But the more characters I introduce into the story and the more it gets crowded, I can’t keep them all together. There were times when it felt like I laid down a too wide wrapping cloth and didn’t know how far it would expand. It’s fun to draw at times like that, but it becomes a pain later on.  

— Do you create detailed profiles for your characters even if all those details don’t make it to the manga?

Yoshida: There are manga artists who even determine the blood type of their characters, but I don’t go that far. But I at least think about their family structures. Because family has a huge impact on the formation of a person. 

— You have published an art book for Banana Fish, but the cover illustrations you did for the manga were very beautiful too. It appears that there are many people who cut them off the magazines to keep them. What were your references for the poses and the like?

Yoshida: I consulted photo albums and magazines from abroad a lot. 

— The movements of the characters in the story felt very energetic. 

Yoshida: If you asked what spurred me to draw, that would be movies. The visual aspect had an impact on me. For instance, you see a lot of landscape panels in my manga. I think it gives you the impression that you are seeing those on screen. Try as I might, I just can’t split my panels vertically. When I do, I inevitably include a lot of bust shots and long shots. I think to myself, well, now that does look like a real movie storyboard or a cut from a movie. And by movies, I mean American movies. Hollywood stuff. I’m not good with European cinema. 

— Now that you look back on it, what meaning did Banana Fish hold for you as an author?

Yoshida: I think it’s a work in which the parts of myself I’ve been hiding could be seen. The me who loves things that reeks of “common trope” (laughs). Like the parts you didn’t want to admit you have them. Well, when you are young, you just want to look a little bit cool and can’t help it, right? It felt like everything came crumbling down before everyone’s eyes (laughs). Yeah, I have come to understand that I do like corny stuff like “Do not leave my side!” in the end. And thanks to that, I’m not afraid of anything anymore (laughs). I am no longer embarrassed, about many things.

— Do you think you could draw as you wanted to?

Yoshida: Let’s see... Yes, it was as I wanted to draw it. Among my previous series, there is one called “California Monogatari.” When I read it now, I can see how I was pretending to be cool while drawing it because of how young I was. While drawing Banana Fish, I wasn’t playing at being cool at all (laughs). Because everything had spilled out already. 

— The last scene feels like a movie. It really leaves an impression on you. 

Yoshida: Now that is “Ashita no Joe” (1) (laughs). Everything fades into white. 

— You can’t tell if Ash is really dead in that scene for sure...

Yoshida: But you can tell for sure after reading the side stories (laughs).

— Shame, everyone was putting their hopes into those (laughs). There are still a lot of fans who believe Ash didn’t die. 

Yoshida: But if that didn’t kill him, now that’d be a real asspull (laughs). If I made him survive that, I would have put an end to my career as a manga artist. Even the characters in the side stories that take place in the present day keep telling “He’s dead. Yup, he’s dead.” (laughs).

— By the way, how would a finale where Ash doesn’t die would be?

Yoshida: About that... Sing makes it in the nick of time and shoots Lao dead. It was a storyline where he chooses Ash over his brother. There was this story pattern, and the one where Ash dies. My editor told me that both of them are pretty terrible (laughs). They said I was a terrible person, after all.

— If that happened and Ash was saved, would he have come to Japan with Eiji?

Yoshida: He wouldn’t have come to Japan. But whether he did or did not, I don’t think he would have had a long life. It was a matter of whether he would die now, or 5 years later. I mean, can you imagine Ash as an old man? You wouldn’t want to see Ash going “when I was young...” like in the The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, right? To begin with, he’s not the type to live long.

— What about Eiji?

Yoshida: He’s the type to live long. Because he’s an honest kid. He would silently live like an herbivore. 

— Do you have a final message for the fans?

Yoshida: The side stories are being published right now, and it’s kind of lame to say this now, but there are also 19 volumes out, so please bear with me. We have that kind of ending, so I understand everyone’s frustration at varying degrees (laughs). I hope everyone can come to terms with it. I will be in your care from now on too. Thank you so much. 

A boxing saga published in Weekly Shounen Magazine between 1968 and 1973. Written by Takamori Asao (Kajiwara Ikki) and illustrated by Chiba Tetsuya.↩︎

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This is my new favorite manga, Ginshousui (銀水晶) by Kihara Toshie. It was first published in 25 February 1988 issue of Viva Princess, and is digitally available in this book. From now on, I will show this page if I am asked what I like about old shoujo manga.

Please send energy to go through these novel-like shoujo manga with walls of text.

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Bancoran & Maraich (Patalliro!) - 1/7 scale garage kits by Adamantium Factory

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1950 calendar pages by Tatsumi Masae, originally published in the magazine 少女サロン (Shoujo Salon).

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#4 Yoshida Akimi's 1993 Monthly Kadokawa interview

Please check the interviews masterpost here.

Yoshida Akimi Special 50 Questions from Sakamoto Ryuuichi

Questions for Yoshida-sensei from Mr. Sakamoto Ryuichi, who is a big fan of Banana Fish. At the time, Mr. Sakamoto was residing in Italy, and he sent the questions to Japan. This is an extraordinary, extravagant FAX questionnaire. 

First published: 1993, Monthly Kadokawa, July issue (Kadokawa Shoten)

Sakamoto Ryuuichi: Born in 1952 in Tokyo. A musician known world-wide. First Japanese to receive an Academy Award for best original score in 1987 for his work in “The Last Emperor.”

Question 1: Have you ever been to Rome? Yoshida: I haven’t. 

Question 2: Would you like to be loved by an Italian man? Yoshida: I don’t think so. 

Question 3: Do you smoke? Yoshida: I used to when I was a student, but I don’t smoke anymore. 

Question 4: Have you even gotten angry when other people smoke on the plane and the smoke from their cigarettes gets to you? (1) Yoshida: Not so far. If anything, smoke of the gentleman sitting next to me gets on my nerves. 

Question 5: Do you like traveling? Yoshida: I do. 

Question 6: Among all the places you’ve been to, what has been your favorite? Yoshida: Seychelles, Maldives, Tahiti… It’s the southern islands for me.

Question 7: Among the places you’ve never been to, where do you want to go the most? Yoshida: Majuro. It’s an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. And Vanuatu. It’s an island in the southern Pacific (Sorry, they are all islands).

Question 8: Do you like music? Yoshida: As much as everyone does. I don’t go out of my way to listen to music. 

Question 9: If you could choose another profession, what would you like to be? Yoshida: A race queen (Bwahaha!).

Question 10: Did you go to university? What did you study? Yoshida: I did. I studied design at a fine arts school. 

Question 11: What were you like as a student?  Yoshida: I was bad student who always worked part-time jobs. 

Question 12: What kind of part time jobs did you do as a student? Yoshida: I sold accessories on the street, worked as a promotion girl, did errands at a design office etc. 

Question 13: Are you prone to sickness? Yoshida: I would say I’m more on the healthier side, but because of work, I have started to feel my age.

Question 14: Did you go through a heavy illness when you were a child? Yoshida: I don’t remember it, but I had embolism as an infant. 

Question 15: Did you learn any art or other skills when you were a child? Yoshida: Piano.

Question 16: If you were to learn (study?) something right now, what would it be?  Yoshida: Tennis (I want to start from the basics once more, but more seriously this time).

Question 17: Do you have any hobbies now? Yoshida: I wouldn’t call it a hobby, but I like to move my body around. 

Question 18: What about sports? Yoshida: I do skiing, tennis, scuba diving etc.

Question 19: Do watch any sports? Yoshida: I watch a lot of tennis matches. 

Question 20: Where were you born? Yoshida: Tokyo, Shibuya Ward.

Question 21: Where did you grow up?  Yoshida: I lived in Kamakura until elementary school, and have been in Tokyo ever since. 

Question 22: Where do you live (you can just give a general idea)? Yoshida: Tokyo, Setagaya Ward.

Question 23: Have the places you lived had an influence on you? Yoshida: I believe they did.

Question 24: Who does your family consist of? Yoshida: My parents.

Question 25: Does your family have a big influence on you? Yoshida: I am their only daughter. Now that I think about it, they kept me quite under control.

Question 26: Why do you know so much about the USA? Yoshida: Do I really know that much? Things turned up like this somehow before I realized.

Question 27: Do you like the US? What do you like about it? Yoshida: Hmm, there is anything and everything there, that’s what I like about it.

Question 28: Have you ever been to the US? If you have, where? How many times? Yoshida: I’ve been there 4 times.

Question 29: Are you keeping up with what’s happening in the US right now? Clinton, AIDS, racism, violence etc. Yoshida: I do, but it’s only through what makes it to the news, so I can’t say much about it just going off by that. However, I feel like the US has been over the top lately. 

Question 30: What is the TV show that you saw as a kid and that’s left an impression on you? Yoshida: Astro Boy, Shounen Tanteidan, Shichinin no Keiji (Say what?).

Question 31: What is the movie that you saw as a kid and that’s left an impression on you? Yoshida: I'd say the supernatural movies. Also anime movies from Toei Animation. 

Question 32: Do you watch a lot of movies? Yoshida: I don’t think I watch that many. 

Question 33: What are the latest 3 movies you’ve seen? Yoshida: I haven’t seen any movies recently. Not at all. 

Question 34: Who are your favorite actors (Japanese, foreigner, anyone)? Yoshida: Harrison Ford, River Phoenix, Al Pacino etc.

Question 35: Have you ever wanted to try making a movie? Yoshida: No.

Question 36: Do you read the newspapers a lot? Yoshida: Yes.

Question 37: Do you keep up with what’s happening around the world right now (Bosnia, Cambodia, Somalia etc.)? Yoshida: I do as much as anyone does, so yes. 

Question 38: Are you keeping up with what’s happening in Japan right now? (Owada Masako (2), Heisei Restoration Society(3) etc.).  Yoshida: I follow those a lot on variety shows on TV. 

Question 39: Do you watch CNN a lot? Yoshida: Not really...

Question 40: Do you think that CNN is slowly changing the perception of people about the world? Yoshida: I don’t think it does, but I must admit that the media has a huge impact on people. 

Question 41: Do you use a PC/word processor etc.? Yoshida: I don’t. I can’t keep up with those. 

Question 42: When do you feel most otome-tique? Yoshida: When I’m with the person I like. 

Question 43: When do you feel most like an adult? Yoshida: When I’m with the person I like.

Question 44: Do you like make-up? Yoshida: I can’t say I like it so I much that I can answer “I do!”, but I’m interestad. I’m a lady, after all.

Question 45: Which magazine do you read every single page of? Yoshida: “Umi to Shima no Tabi” (Sea and Island Journey), “Diving World” etc. (Also, stuff like “Tennis Magazine”).

Question 46: Is there anything you’d like to say to Japanese men? Is there something you hate about them? Yoshida: Well, it would go for both of us, so let’s just say “it’s better left unsaid.”

Question 47: Do you like Japan? What do you like about it? Yoshida: I love the changing seasons and words with ambiguous meaning. 

Question 48: What is your favorite dish? Do you like Japanese food? Yoshida: I prefer fish over meat. That’s why I like Japanese cuisine. 

Question 49: Do you like cooking? Do you think cooking is creative work? Yoshida: Yes. I’m a glutton, after all.  

Question 50: What is the source material for your creations? Yoshida: My imagination. My curiosity. I can’t say this out too loudly, but me being a liar (only to myself though).

Back then, you could smoke on a plane.↩︎

Imperial Princess Masako, wife of the current crown prince Naruhito. After this question was posed, she got engaged to Crown Prince Naruhito on 12 April 1993, and they got married on 9 June. ↩︎

Founded by management consultant Ohmae Kenichi in 1992, a civil advocacy society that put forward propositions for political reform along with administrative reforms.↩︎

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heterophobic icon

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バレエ星 (Ballet Star) by Tani Yukiko, 1969-71.

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#3 Yoshida Akimi's 1985 The Making of Bobby's Girl interview

Please check the interviews masterpost here.

Yoshida Akimi & Matsumoto Takashi “I was brimming with curiosity and I still do”

Manga artist Yoshida Akimi and lyricist Matsumoto Takashi have a talk for the "making of book" of anime movie “Bobby ni Kubittake”. This is the first meeting of this busy pair. Yoshida-sensei, who had just gotten her driving license, and Matsumoto-san who likes motorcycles have a discussion on driving, among other things. 

Winter of 1985.

About “It started as I was gazing upon Tokyo under a cloudy sky”.

First published: 1985, “The Making of Bobby’s Girl” (Kadokawa Shoten)

Matsumoto Takashi (Lyricist) Born on 16 July 1949. He has been active in the band Happy End along with Ohtaki Eiichi, Hosono Haruomi and Suzuki Shigeru since his student days. His first work as a lyricist is “Natsuiro no Omoide” for Tulip. After that, he created many popular songs for Matsuda Seiko, KinKi Kids and Nakagawa Shouko.

Yoshida: You worked on Eiichi Ohtaki-san’s “Niagara” albums, right? Nagai Hiroshi-san did the artwork for those. Those works of yours have left a strong impression on me, Matsumoto-san.

Matsumoto: You mean “A Long Vacation”, right? That was the most natural work of mine. 

Yoshida: When you write lyrics, how does it go? Do you write them while making up a story?

Matsumoto: I don’t really know how I write them (laughs). When I’m satisfied with what I have, it’s like when only the last scene of a movie flashes before your eyes. You only have 3 minutes to sing, and I can’t write everything from 1 to 100, so I only write from 1 to 12, and if possible, those 100 lingers in my head. I like that feel the best. I can never do it that well though (laughs). More often than not, what I come up with is similar to placeholders, makeshift products.  

Yoshida: I see. 

Matsumoto: In Japanese poems and songs, there’s often a lyrical description of one’s feelings. There’s nothing descriptive or narrative, so I sometimes experiment with that. When I do, they might be vague, but I still write stories inside my head. 

— What about Yoshida-san? Do you decide on the story until its very end and then write?

Yoshida: Well, I must that... But during serializations, there are times when I don’t think about the rest of the story at the very beginning (laughs). 

Matsumoto: So you make it up as you go along (laughs)?

Yoshida: They seem to decide how long the serialization would be for other artists, but my situation is more uncertain. Nothing is decided from the beginning (laughs). The only thing I know is the fact that I will have a serialization, but I have no idea how long it would be or what it will be. So, I pretty much don’t talk to the editors about that stuff either. Because I don’t think about anything until right before the start of serialization (laughs). 

Matsumoto: Do you only decide on the opening setting and the characters?

Yoshida: Yes, I can’t do without those, so I make sure to at least present them. 

Matsumoto: Was it California Monogatari? That was pretty long. 

Yoshida: That was the same, I hadn’t decided on anything at the beginning. They asked me if I could wrap things up in 4 chapters or so, and I drew it with that in mind. When it got popular, they asked me if I could continue, and that’s how it got longer and longer. And then, it abrubtly ended. When I said I would be ending it in the next month’s issue, my editor was like “What?”. I ended it with this single sentence: “But there is nothing left to draw!” (laughs) I was like, if you don’t like it, you can try drawing it yourself (laughs). 

Matsumoto: You are harsh. 

Yoshida: Have you ever had a writer’s block?

Matsumoto: I have one all year round (laughs). 

— You have deadlines, don’t you?

Matsumoto: No work can truly begin without deadlines. So, sometimes people say “bring it when you’re done”. Then I would not get it done for eternity. I prioritize those who pester me the most.

Yoshida: You’re right. I’m the same. I start with the ones who call me the most frequently.

— What are you like when you are at the end of your rope? For instance, what do you do have a change of mood?

Yoshida: Hopping in my car and going for a drive is nice. Ideas keep coming to mind when I’m about to get into an accident (laughs). 

Matsumoto: Do you like cars?

Yoshida: I just got my driver’s license, that’s why I find it fun. Many unexpected things happen. 

Matsumoto: Do you go on drives alone?

Yoshida: I used to go alone. But now my friends live in my neighborhood, so I have them come with me, or they take me along.

Matsumoto: Where you go? Hakone?

Yoshida: We don’t go all the way there. We stop at Shonan. We only do short drives.

Matsumoto: At night?

Yoshida: Right, at night. 

Matsumoto: We are doing the same thing (laughs).

— Matsumoto-san, do you also getthe sudden urge to go on drives at night?

Matsumoto: Yes, but of course, I can’t do that in winter (laughs). But I do in summer. Because I’m into motorcycles too. 

Yoshida: How nice! I’m thinking of getting a driving license for motorcycles. 

Matsumoto: I think you shouldn’t. 

Yoshida: I shouldn’t? Is it that scary?

Matsumoto: It is dangerous. That’s why I never recommend it to anyone. It’s just like smoking and how you tell people who have never smoked to never try it. There’s nothing to be done about people who already ride bikes. Telling people who ride motorcycles to stop is hard (laughs). I can’t stop either. 

Yoshida: Kataoka-san said the same. After driving a car, I have started to think that driving is indeed dangerous. Like, you can get trapped in the car. 

Matsumoto: When you are in a car, if someone were to slam into you from the side, only the car would be crashed in. But when you are on a motorcycle, in case someone crashes into you from the side, you’d fly away about 5 meters. If you’re careless enough to use the front brakes, you’ll overturn.

Yoshida: The back wheel would be up in the air. 

Matsumoto: Even if you were to crash into a stopping car, you would still be flying in the sky (laughs), depending on your speed. 

Yoshida: Now that’d be a disaster. One of my friends crashed into a stopping truck, and she was severely injured. She was wearing her helmet, but she says as she was thinking “wow, I’m swimming through midair”, the next thing she knew was that she was lying on a hospital bed. 

Matsumoto: That’s what I’m talking about. I had two accidents myself. It was the other party’s fault though. 

— Did you also fly?

Matsumoto: I did. It was only 2-3 meters, but I thought, “yeah, I am flying” (laughs). 

Yoshida: Even when you are wearing your helmet, if you hit your head, you would still lose your memories, right?

Matsumoto: When I was a first grade student, I was hit by a motorcycle. I almost died back then, but when I came to, my mother and father were looking at me. 

— Were you scared of motorbikes after that?

Matsumoto: I was so scared of them. I began to ride them only recently. After reading Kataoka-san’s “Kare no Ootobai, Kanojo no Shima” (His Motorbike, Her Island), I thought they were interesting. 

Yoshida: When you read Kataoka-san’s novels about motorcycles, you start to want to ride one. They say the wind smells different on a motorcycle, right?

Matsumoto: Do you go to Tanzawa in your car?

Yoshida: I’ve never been to Tanzawa. 

Matsumoto: I was going there quite often about 3 years ago, Tanzawa is fun. 

Yoshida: But aren’t mountain roads scary if you’re not used to them?

Matsumoto: They are. When you go there in winter, the road suddenly freezes and all. Those roads are in forests, after all. 

Yoshida: Oh, so there’s that kind of roads there. 

Matsumoto: At first, I bought a 50 cc off-road on impulse, and went to Tanzawa with that. In the middle of the night (laughs).

Yoshida: In the middle of the night!

Matsumoto: I am a weirdo, aren’t I (laughs). The off-road part starts after climbing to the top of the mountain. But the thing is, by the time you reach the top, the motorcycle overheats (laughs). So, I stopped right there. The lights had gone out of sight, and it was pitch black. It’s a forest road, so there are no vehicles passing by. The moon was blindingly shining, and I was thinking to myself, “wait, weren’t there bears on Tanzawa?”. 

Yoshida: Were you not afraid? When your engine didn’t work? 

Matsumoto: Of course I was. My engine was not running no matter what I did. But it was my first time riding so it was fun, so there was nothing to be done. 

Yoshida: I see. It’s like a toy, isn’t it? I was also scared. When I went to Hakone, I thought that mountain roads were super scary. You can’t tell what lies ahead. And everyone’s using their high beams. When you turn on curves, the lights flash directly in your eyes, and you can’t see the center line (laughs). When I was turning at the curves, I was making sounds with my tires (laughs). That was so scary. 

Matsumoto: How many years have it been since you got your driver’s license?  

Yoshida: Not years, it’s just been a couple of months (laughs). 

Matsumoto: Okay, that’d be scary then. The first two years are dangerous.

Yoshida: Yeah, then you get used to it. 

Matsumoto: Yes, real big accidents happen after 5 years pass. And after 10 years, pretty much nothing happens. I got my driver’s license when I was 18. It was pretty terrible until I turned 20. I was driving 100 km/h in Shonan on a rainy day and I did a spin, I thought I’d die that day. 

Matsumoto: You have a manga called “Kawa yori mo Nagaku, Yuruyaka ni” (1). Is it still ongoing?

Yoshida: Yes, but I’m on a break right now. 

Matsumoto: When I read it, I remember my boyhood days (laughs). Did you imagine it all?

Yoshida: No. Part of it is made-up though. Of course, I have listened to stories of my male friends who went to all-boys schools too.  

Matsumoto: Ah, I see.  

Yoshida: But if you ask Shibuya Youichi-san (2), it’s “a story about an all-girls high school disguised as an all-boys high school”. When I stopped and thought about it, I said maybe he could be right. For starters, I am a woman, so I don’t know the world of men. I’ve always been worried that I was merely reflecting their world as seen by the eyes of a woman. But I also think that boys and girls are not much different in that regard, during those years of life.

Matsumoto: Yes, they aren’t much different. What I write are mostly songs for men, aren’t they (laughs)? They tell me I really understand women’s feelings, that’s really embarrassing (laughs). What I’m doing is also only changing the pronouns. 

Yoshida: The essence of it all doesn’t really change.

Matsumoto: When I was in high school, our school trip was really fun, because I was in an all-boys school. When we arrived, junior college students from Tokyo were staying at the inn next door. So we sneaked out through the bath while holding our shoes, and followed the river.

Yoshida: To peep on them? 

Matsumoto: Not to peep on them, but to hang out with them (laughs). When you pass the bridge, you wave your hands, right? Someone yelled “We are going out to play!”, and we just slipped out, but there was no one in the room that was our target (laughs). Then someone said, “let’s check the neighboring room!”, and then we went to a completely unrelated room. We hit it off with them, and went to a bar. We did some cheek-to-cheek dance, and returned (laughs). I have lots of heroic tales like that. And then, you also have to have a smoke. If we smoked at a café, we would be found out right away because our teacher was doing the rounds. We said that would be too dumb, so where do you think we went?

Yoshida: Huh, no? Where did you go?

Matsumoto: We went inside a beauty parlor. 

Yoshida: A beauty parlor?

Matsumoto: We had our hairs washed, and we smoked all the while. 

Yoshida: Just because you wanted to smoke?

Matsumoto: We also did a tour of all-girls high schools’ cultural festivals (laughs). I did festival hopping with my friends.

Yoshida: We went to other schools’ festivals a lot too. 

Matsumoto: We each had a quota, and you were required to get an invitation to such-and-such school’s festival. That’s how it worked. Everyone got invitations for one or two festivals, and when we got together as a group of 3-4 guys, we could pretty much cover everything. There were popular schools. 

Yoshida: Like ones who has the cutest girls (laughs)? Right, that must be the reason why pick those (laughs). 

Matsumoto: Yes (laughs)!

Yoshida: Guys from my school too went to all-girls schools’ festivals a lot. They said stuff like the girls of co-ed schools were no good. We wouldn’t let them back into the class after saying things like that (laughs). 

Matsumoto: Co-ed schools are much more interesting, right?

Yoshida: Yes, it was so much fun. Ours was a metropolitan high school, so we didn’t have a uniform. It felt more like a university. You could even go to cafés dressed like that. 

Matsumoto: When our classes ended early and we wanted to ask friends from other classes out, we used to yell out the name of the jazz café at Jiyuugaoka in the hallway (laughs). The others were still in class, mind you (laughs). “We’re waiting for you there!” (laughs). And they would get the message.

Yoshida: That brings back memories. Speaking of Jiyuugaoka, when I was commuting to school back in elementary school, on my way back, don’t forget I was in elementary school, I got off the train there and went into cafés (laughs). 

Matsumoto: How scary (laughs). 

Yoshida: Now that I think about it, it is indeed scary. But I still did it. Of course, I didn’t smoke. 

Matsumoto: But of course (laughs)!

— Did you just walk in and drink coffee or something?

Yoshida: Yes, like on the second floor of the building facing Peacock. Or like Mont Blanc. Imagine 5-6 elementary school students going in as a pack, and ordering coffee or black tea…

—How old were you then?

Yoshida: I was in the 6th grade of elementary school. Well, you should be scared of city girls (laughs).

Matsumoto: Yes, you should (laughs). When I was in junior high, we had short pants for our uniforms. 

Yoshida: Oh, really?

Matsumoto: I believe it is abolished now. So, when we wore coats in winter, we looked so pitiful (laughs). 

Yoshida: I think I somehow understand that.  

Matsumoto: And my grandma still asks me what's with me showing my legs (laughs). And when I tell her the reason why, she gets angry.

Yoshida: Why does she get angry?

Matsumoto: I wonder why… Short pants are weird, I guess. They might look rebellious to her (laughs). Anyway, they are lame. They weren’t even shorts, they were right above your knees.

Yoshida: They give an impression of Britain’s public schools. 

Matsumoto: Yes, but from the first year of junior high and onward, everyone has hairy legs (laughs). That wasn’t a nice sight to behold. Everyone only wore them seriously for 6 months or so at first. In high school, we had a uniform with a stand-up collar. 

Yoshida: Many different styles were in fashion back then, weren’t they? 

Matsumoto: They were frying hats on frying pans (laughs), and flattening them.

Yoshida: Carrying slim bags were so popular, we were flattening our bags with all out might. We did all sorts of stuff. 

A manga that has won the 29th Shogakukan Manga Award. Published in Petit Flower and June between 1983 and 1985. Taking place in a city modeled after the military base city Fussa, it is the realistic and comedic story that portrays the life of a high school boy. ↩︎ 

Born in Tokyo in 1951. A music critic. An editor. Founder of rockin’on Corp. His works include “Rock Best Album Selection”, “Rock Bibunhou” (Rock Differentiation). ↩︎

[asnowperson]

Peonies and Birds

牡丹に小禽図

Kano Kyûi

latter half of the 19th century

MEDIUM/TECHNIQUEHanging scroll; ink and color on silk

DIMENSIONSImage: 119.7 x 54.2 cm (47 1/8 x 21 5/16 in.)

CREDIT LINEWilliam Sturgis Bigelow Collection

[asnowperson]

Manimani Kaiba figures