This is going to be an attempt to write down the entire history of BL, focusing on Japan.
Portraying each era and giving insight.
~Pre-Meiji era Japan (x-1868 年)
To be able to understand BL in Japan it's also important to include aspects of gay literature in general to fully understand the changes. Literature referencing gay relations had their official origins in 720 年 with the tale of Azunahi's sin (阿豆那比の罪) about two men burried together written in The Chronicles of Japan (日本書紀). And after that in the Heian-period (794–1185 年) with mentions in for example The Tale of Genji (源氏物語). The practice of Nanshoku (男色) is imported from China (in popular myth, by the monk Kuukai) and gains popularity in Buddhist temples for describing gay relations. In the Edo-period (1603-1867 年) a new practice of shudō (衆道) takes hold which is essentially often an older man taking a younger man as an apprentice and partner in intimacy due to power-dynamics of being an esteemed samurai or monk. A pretty problematic relationship dynamic from modern view. It is theorized this practice was popularized due to the lack of amount of women in places like samurai castles. Wellknown examples of this practice are: Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Kabuki as an artform developed in the Edo-period and after 1629 年 became an all-male theater due to banning women from acting. It was not uncommon for male kabuki actors to do sex work outside of their acting. In 1853 年 Matthew Perry from an American fleet arrived in Japan and forced the borders open for trade. The isolated Japan was now introduced to global politics.
~Post-Meiji era Japan (1868-1960 年)
During the first part of the Meiji-era nanshoku continued but became more and more criticized as Meiji scholars aimed for a more Western Japan. The claim was made that gay relations would lead men to become feminine and in a country intent on conquest this changed perceptions of nanshoku everywhere except in the military due to older samurai tradition. The keikan code (鶏姦) around 1873 年 criminalized homosexuality for the first time in Japan. In the military nanshoku practice persisted as far as into the Russo-Japanese wars of 1904-1905 年. Western notions of the subject of romantic love for literature entered Japan. During the Edo-period women had often been seen as inferior and tales of devoted male love were preferred. Romantic (恋愛) heterosexual stories became the new hype. Nanshoku stories remained a niche but were seen as oldfashioned. However, around 1860 a genre of literature called Tanbishugi (耽美主義) or aestheticism originates in France & England. This places the highest value on the enjoyment of beauty and decadence. It arose in response to Japan's rapid modernisation as a literary space for personal indulgences. It was a medium that had the potential to portray nanshoku/gay relations and it would years in the future for Japan in the form of tanbi. Mari Mori (森 茉莉) is born in 1908 年, becomes known as the mother of BL through her gay tanbi novels and inspires later authors like Yukio Mishima (三島由紀夫). The Taisho period (1912–1925 年) happens and one new development is the evolution of illustrations. Popular male artist Takabatake Kasho (高畠華宵) creates beautiful art of both men and women for example (also shoutout to Ishihara Gōjin (石原豪人) for his very gay illustrations a few decades later) . Manga was on the rise and would undergo a drastic evolution post-WW2. Mostly male artists start creating shōjo manga aimed at girls in the 50s and 60s. However, a group of female mangaka are about to enter the mangaka world.
~The Year 24 Group revolution (1970-1980 年)
Tanbi still continues to highlight themes of sensual enjoyment, emphasizing the meaning of life in the instinctive pursuit of sex and beauty. The 70s start off quite chaotically as Yukio Mishima (famous tanbi writer) hijacks a military building in an attempt to overtake the government of Japan but fails to convince any to join his cause. This event later goes on to inspire the first gay pink movie. In 1971 the first commercial gay magazine (before this there were members-only magazines) called Barazoku (薔薇族) starts production thanks to Bungaku Itō (伊藤 文學) . Barazoku means Rose tribe. Aesthetic/tanbi stories for a long time remain influential in the gay community similarly to the BL fandom. It's important to note that the word bara was reappropriated by Japanese gay media (similarly to the word ''queer'') in the 60s but fell out of use in the 80s for the word ''gei/gay''. It can be considered offensive to use. Meanwhile the Year 24 Group of female mangaka starts drawing shōjo manga. The stories start becoming more and more imbued with both foreign and domestic literature elements and with this also “tanbi” (aesthetic) literature. The first Shounen-ai is created in 1976 called Kaze to ki no uta by Keiko Takemiya. This story features a European setting and a tragedy storyline with young male characters. From this point forward shounen-ai stories would be mostly set in foreign countries. It's important to note that many of the shounen-ai themes would be considered problematic today and that using the word outside of the shōjo-fandom is considered creepy in Japan. A little after serious shounen-ai stories become popular the first gay gag mangas are created like Sons of Eve 1976 and Patalliro 1978. Featuring very chaotic and nonsensical storylines with androgynous gay male leads. These stories also mostly feature foreign settings similarly to shounen-ai.
Meanwhile around the late 70s there was another movement happening which became a vital part of the formation of BL, the origin of yaoi. Young female fans of manga began creating fanworks with the use of printing technology at the time. Publications involved male-characters from popular manga stories (usually shounen like Captain Tsubasa) and gay romance. These stories were distributed through dōjinshi (fan magazines) and on a Comic Market for sale which was first held in 1975. The term yaoi was used in 1979 officially for the first time in ''RAPPORI: Special Yaoi Issue''. The terms originated cause female manga fans submitted their work to magazines and were criticized by the editors saying, "There is no climax" and "There is no punchline" as the stories were mainly about intimacy. The term yaoi means yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi (no climax, no point, no meaning) and is a essentially a self-deprecating term.This is also when the terms ''seme/uke'' (top/bottom) originate in the BL fandom. This fandom gathering around the term ''yaoi'' would become extremely popular in the late 80s. It is important to note here that in the Japanese gay community the terms seme/uke are not used, they have alternative terms and it is advised not to use seme/uke towards others in daily life. JUNE as a commercial magazine was launched in 1978 by Toshihiko Sagawa (佐川俊彦) and intended to sell aesthetic/tanbi stories. It carried the fandom through the transition from shounen-ai to yaoi through the next years. JUNE early stories still carried very heavy (and sometimes problematic) themes like sadism and masochism. It became such a success that the name JUNE was used as a term to refer to tragedy & beauty (tanbi) gay romance stories in general.
----Meanwhile in other territories---- Taiwanese fans of Japanese manga and animation are quick to welcome BL culture in the late 1970s due to a close connection with Japan. Political censorship for excessive nudity and/ or violent visuals did exist, but it was not rigorously applied to pirated Japanese BL content, and the regulation itself ended in 1988. Making Taiwan the place outside Japan with the most BL resource access. Fan-produced content becomes known as tongrenzhi (doujinshi).
~Yaoi, JUNE & gay film developments (1980-1990 年)
The 80s begin. Barazoku (the gay magazine) starts selling gay films from 1981 onwards and some are later featured in movie theatres. Gaining a reputation as Barazoku Eiga/movies. A few years later in 1983 the first gay pink film is directed by Genji Nakamura (中村幻児), this was published by ENKプロモーション/ENK productions. The plotline of this movie features a parody on the last days of tanbi writer Yukio Mishima where he tried to overthrow the Japanese government by forming a militia. Later one of Yukio Mishima's own tanbi novel stories would also be filmed as a gay pink film. In the same year of 1983 a wellknown actor called Oki Masaya dies from falling off a roof and leaves behind a note indicating his relationship with his male manager telling him to meet again in heaven. This causes shock in the entertainment industry and for the public at the time. His story is used for a gay pink film called Nirvana no Hito in the same year. This shows that early gay pink films were a medium to not only portray erotic content but also to show daily life and important events for the Japanese gay men at the time. In terms of the female fan community, Patalliro! (originating from a gay gag manga) is aired in 1982 on Japanese tv as the first animation with a gay main couple. The first male gay kiss in a Japanese MV is in 1982 with Ikenai rouge magic. JUNE continues its growth with tanbi vibes after a slight suspension from 1979-1981 and differentiates itself from yaoi by having ''original works that intentionally create a story that incorporates women's desires'' while most of the stories from yaoi are ''parody work that spins a new story by rereading the relationships between the male characters from an original story''. It's important to note that while yaoi stories started off as being fan-works, original stories would also be produced more and more.
Another magazine trying to get the same success of JUNE was released called Allan which focused more on textual stories but after renaming to Gekkō it became focused on dark themes. In 1988 JUNE started a cooperation with the gay magazine Sabu for publishing content a few times per year. This allowed for a contact-platform between shōjo readers and gay readers through magazines at the time. A small group of female friends start creating doujinshi (同人誌) of Captain Tsubasa and Saint Seiya, they would go on to become studio CLAMP and start creating original works in 1987. ----Meanwhile in other territories---- Korea banned the import of cultural products from Japan until the late 1990s but ACG content (Anime, comics and games) is starting to make its way into Korea through fans. Manga genres and yaoi materials are introduced to Korean fans in the 1980s. The fans formed fan circles and started circulating self-created donginji (Korean doujinshi).
~The gay boom, birth of BL & yaoi discourse (1990-2000 年)
The amount of gay media content rose enormously in this decade, leading some to nickname it the gay boom of the 90s, allegedly started by a magazine called ''CREA''. The first live-action show with gay romance aired in 1993 and was called Dousoukai (同窓会), followed by the darker Ningen Shikkaku (1994). Film releases also happened like with Kira Kira Hikaru (1992) and Like Grains of Sand (1995). Gay pink films also kept releasing during this time and there were animated OVA of yaoi/JUNE/shoujo content. In the 90s, the female manga fans who created doujinshi in the 80s were recruited to create manga for new commercial magazines. The start of commercialized BL had begun and new magazines rapidly joined in. In 1991 Image magazine debuted with the title: ''BOY’S LOVE image COMIC'' creating a new word to latch onto. The new term had been adopted as ''JUNE'' was trademarked and ''Yaoi'' was dōjinshi (fanmade), so BL would be commercially published media. The clear preference for narratives set abroad and foreign characters like in shounen-ai or JUNE had disappeared completely. BL would focus on Japanese characters set in Japan. Many tropes originating from yaoi were brought into BL like the uke/seme dynamic. The earliest fanworks of doujinshi yaoi were about shounen shows like ''Six God Combination God Mars'', ''Captain Tsubasa'' and ''Saint Seiya''. In 1992 Kadokawa Ruby Bunko (角川ルビー文庫) launches which handles mainly BL-content novels. This was before the word ''BL'' caught on so june/yaoi/tanbi would be used to describe the content.
From 1992 till 1997 the yaoi ronsō/yaoi dispute took place forming the origin of the debate on whether BL can be viewed as ''authentically'' gay. In the magazine Choisir, gay activist Satō Masaki (佐藤雅樹) argued that the depictions of gay men in yaoi were homophobic. Now its important to note that at the time of the 80s-90s, depictions in yaoi were very much more problematic than nowadays in modern BL. This complex discussion is too large to feature here so I won't go into further detail. In the late 90s the term fujoshi (rotten woman) starts to be adopted, only gaining widespread following around 2005. Before that terms like Yaorā (ヤオラー) or やおい少女 (Yaoi Shoujo) were in use. Similarly to the term yaoi, fujoshi is a self-deprecating term used to excuse ones tastes as rotten. By already taking that identity it defends the fan from criticism or harsh comments. The male variant of this is fudanshi. It has to be mentioned that the term fujoshi/fudanshi is controversial for some international LGBT communities. So internationally the genderneutral term BL fan is preferred. In 1995 the gay magazine G-Men publishes work from gay mangaka Tagame Gengorō and changes the popular body-types for the gay community in Japan. This new ideal is very different from the slender men featured in BL and is a more hairy and bulky bodytype.
----Meanwhile in other territories---- By the late 1990s, Hong Kong saw BL spreading to the city through Taiwan, it became a bridgehead to BL’s expansion to mainland China. Mainland China adopted the term ''danmei'' (耽美 or Chinese word for tanbi) to describe BL and its development relied heavily on bootleg Japanese yaoi. Danmei refers to “decadent, highly aestheticized literary forms that can be applied to gay relationships”. Throughout Europe and the United States in the late 90s Japanese manga starts to spread and so does yaoi. Due to unawareness of Japanese BL history, shounen-ai ends up being used in the West to refer to fluffy BL and yaoi for hardcore BL manga. The terms seme/uke are also adopted directly. Korea meanwhile is getting BL-oriented manhwa (manga in Korean) magazines, such as Issue and Wink. The open-door policy to Japanese pop culture in 1998 allowed more BL to make its way to Korea. Korean fans of BL are self-nicknamed yaonyeo and more recently bunyeoja (from fujoshi). Starting in the 1990s, pirated Yaoi manga began to circulate in Thailand, especially among university students who sometimes created secret BL societies in their universities and started posting short BL stories online.
~BL in live movies for the first time (2000-2010 年)
While before this point animations were made of yaoi/BL/JUNE manga, BL started to be depicted in live-action for the first time. Often drawing inspiration from older manga.The first big movie was Boys Love (2006) which contained a lot of themes that would be seen as problematic nowadays. Eventually a more popular movie was released called ''Takumi-kun Series 1: And The Spring Breeze Whispers (2007)'' which got 4 sequels. These movies often contained very similar aesthetics and a lot of tropes and drama. After a few movies the public had already seen everything. The genre of BL movies was hitting a dead end fast.
----Meanwhile in other territories---- Thailand produces The Love of Siam (2007) as LGBT movie about two boys and this becomes very popular, setting the scene for the upcoming BL boom in the 2010s. In the 2000s, a lot of BL fans were writing BL fanfictions featuring their favorite male K-pop idols. Some of those fanfic works were later published as actual novels with adaptations like Nitiman. More and more original works also start being created.
~The start of the 2nd wave of BL (2010-2020 年)
After the Takumi-kun movies end in the mid 2010s, a sharp decline in interest for BL movies starts but also a divergence of traditional BL-stories. In the next years BL live-action would start to become very different. In this decade there is adaptation of darker storylines for a female audience like in the yaoi Double Mints 2017. Reminiscent of the storylines portrayed in gay pink films decades in the past. A mix of gay pink film with yaoi influences called The Shortest Distance Is Round (2019) is also made to appeal to a female audience. More experimental BL stories start being created like Candy Boys (2015) about a fantasy world with only males. But outside of BL, stories about LGBT representation are becoming more popular in general. More adult ways of portraying BL are also experimented with like in The Novelist (2018) which gains multiple sequel movies. BL has long reached the mainstream at this point and this means that opportunities to parody the genre appear. This is the case for a sketch-show called Bibari to Rui (B&L) which becomes big among fujoshi. Attempts to make a comedy of BL genre eventually lead to a production that would revive new interest in BL for the mainstream public. Ossan's Love (2016) becomes a popular movie that uses comedy in combo with romance. It's very popular and gains multiple sequels and the first BL show in 2018, leaving the way free for other more lighthearted BL shows like Kinou Nani Tabeta? (2019).
----Meanwhile in other territories---- In China the first major celebrity shipping incident takes place in 2012 after a New Years Gala performance of Leehom Wang & Yundi Li. Eventually the two publicly distance themselves. China bans BL from being filmed in 2016 thanks to the BL web-show Addicted becoming too popular. A few years later in 2019 the censored adaptation of The Untamed BL novel sets a new standard for how BL can be expressed in China. Thailand has great success with the series SOTUS 2016, 2Moons 2017 and Love By Chance 2018. Starting the domination of Thailand of the BL-show market.
~Japanese BL catches up (2020-now 年)
Thai BLs start gaining popularity among Japanese BL fans, making companies aware of the success of this model. In 2020 Japanese BL rapidly gains popularity internationally due to the success of Cherry Magic. Internationally BL starts fusing more with LGBT-culture like in Thailand. In the past a separation was made between LGBT and BL content but now considerations are often made towards sexual minorities in the content. However, in general there is still of course a long way to go for LGBT-rights in Japan. Internationally there is still a lot of misunderstanding about the diverse expressions of BL media due to Japan being decades earlier than most countries in BL creation which caused it to undergo more developments. Even today there are many developments and cultural exchanges happening between BL fandoms of different countries. Japanese BL can be both dark and lighthearted, it can feature both complex and simple stories, it can be problematic but it can also be sensitive. It's up to us as audience to distinguish what genres we want to support and use the lessons of the past to allow for representation but also lend understanding to others who like different stuff (to a certain extent). It's a complex genre that will likely continue to evolve far beyond our time and as participants lets get along as best as possible ^^
----Meanwhile in other territories---- Philippines creates their first BL shows in 2020 such as Gameboys and Like in the movies. Korea creates their first BL shows in 2020 such as Where your eyes linger.
-------------Summary------------ -Japan gets normalized gay sub-cultures for samurai and monks due to male-dominated spaces. -Meiji-era happens, Japan Westernizes and adopts Western literature which favors hetero romance.- ~1900-1950 Japanese writers use Western literature movement called aestheticism to write gay tanbi novels.
- 1970s Shounen-ai is created from Shoujo (girls manga), featuring foreign boys and a lot of tragedy and beauty.
- 1978 A magazine called JUNE starts adapting ''high-culture'' BL and other stories for women inspired by tanbi, so often tragedy and beauty.
- ~late 1970s Around the same time the fanmade yaoi genre comes into existence, often making fan-adapted works/doujinshi.
- 1990s BL is chosen as a new name by the many new magazines coming into existence and gay media becomes more popular in Japan.
- 2000s First live-action BL movies start being made. -2010s Ossans Love show becomes a success opening the possibility for more BL shows.
- 2020s Japanese BL shows become internationally popular.
References
Part 1:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_Japan (contains NSFW!)
Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan (Mark McLelland)
https://www.tofugu.com/japan/gay-samurai/
https://intojapanwaraku.com/culture/87711/
Part 2:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%80%BD%E7%BE%8E%E4%B8%BB%E7%BE%A9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_Mori
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_Japan (contains NSFW!)
Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan (Mark McLelland)
Part 3:
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hant/%E4%B8%89%E5%B2%9B%E7%94%B1%E7%BA%AA%E5%A4%AB
Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan (Mark McLelland)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bara_(genre)
https://www.academia.edu/50890114/The_past_present_and_future_of_Boys_Love_BL_cultures_in_East_Asia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaoi
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/JUNE_(%E9%9B%91%E8%AA%8C)
https://www.bookbang.jp/review/article/639384#:~:text=%E5%A0%80%20BL%E3%81%AF%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E7%99%BA%E7%A5%A5,%E6%8F%8F%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8C%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%81%8D%E3%81%BE%E3%81%99%E3%80%82
Part 4:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barazoku
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B2%96%E9%9B%85%E4%B9%9F
https://boysslove.wordpress.com/2020/11/20/beautiful-mystery-1983/
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E6%9D%91%E5%B9%BB%E5%85%90
https://www.academia.edu/50890114/The_past_present_and_future_of_Boys_Love_BL_cultures_in_East_Asia
Kimbergt, Sébastien (2008). "Ces mangas qui utilisent le yaoi pour doper leurs ventes". In Brient, Hervé (ed.). Homosexualité et manga : le yaoi. Manga: 10000 images (in French). Editions H. pp. 113–115. ISBN 978-2-9531781-0-4.
Part 5:
https://www.academia.edu/41817329/Queer_desire_in_Japanese_TV_series
https://bllogia.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/blchronicle_20160322.pdf
Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan (Mark McLelland)
https://www.academia.edu/25044799/Japanese_gay_mens_attitudes_towards_gay_manga_and_the_problem_of_genre
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%85%90%E5%A5%B3%E5%AD%90
https://jff.jpf.go.jp/ja/read/interview/queerfilms/
https://www.academia.edu/50890114/The_past_present_and_future_of_Boys_Love_BL_cultures_in_East_Asia
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%84%E3%81%8A%E3%81%84
https://namu.wiki/w/%EB%B3%B4%EC%9D%B4%EC%A6%88%20%EB%9F%AC%EB%B8%8C
https://karela.chil-chil.net/newsDetail/25560/
https://web.archive.org/web/20120210031630/http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue12/lunsing.html
https://www-centralboyslove-com.translate.goog/2020/09/o-bl-na-tailandia-um-pouco-de-historia.html?m=1&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=it&_x_tr_pto=wapp
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A7%92%E5%B7%9D%E3%83%AB%E3%83%93%E3%83%BC%E6%96%87%E5%BA%AB
https://ameblo.jp/172925/entry-10882072832.html
Part 6:
https://www-centralboyslove-com.translate.goog/2020/09/o-bl-na-tailandia-um-pouco-de-historia.html?m=1&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=it&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Part 7:
https://www.academia.edu/50890114/The_past_present_and_future_of_Boys_Love_BL_cultures_in_East_Asia
Extra
--Current situation of BL Worldwide--
Japan:
Both yaoi and BL continue to survive in modern Japan. BL live-action shows are now allowed on tv to some extent. However, Japans role as leading the Asian BL scene has ended as they have had to join a competitive scene. Quite similarly to what happened with jpops influence.
Taiwan:
Still closely follows Japanese BL tropes in their own stories. Became one of the most progressive areas in Asia for LGBT.
Korea:
Kept strong censorship for LGBT-content on tv. Often BL was instead used as a tool in the form of shipping for advertisement of pop culture, which they copied from Japanese pop culture. They chose a more wholesome approach for initial BL webshow-adaptations.
Mainland China:
Developed likely the largest BL fanbase, often create dark&toxic storylines but they consume a lot of international BLs too.
Thailand:
Created shows that appealed to a more diverse audience and went international with their success.
Philippines:
Attempted to create a better mix of LGBT & BL similarly to Thai BL but after initial success the shows in the years afterwards failed to gain international traction.
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