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{{short description|Japanese term for an attractive young man}} {{short description|Japanese term for an attractive young man}}
⚫ {{italic title|reason=}}
{{For|the film|Bishonen (film)}} {{For|the film|Bishonen (film)}}
{{Redirect|Bishy|the radial route in York, England|Bishy Road}} {{Redirect|Bishy|the radial route in York, England|Bishy Road}}
⚫ {{italic title|reason=}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
], a Japanese singer-songwriter, is considered to be one of the living manifestations of the Bishōnen phenomenon.<ref>{{cite book | author=American Anthropological Association | title=Abstracts of the Annual Meeting -- American Anthropological Association | year=2003 | isbn=978-1-931303-15-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NMG0AAAAIAAJ | access-date=3 June 2023 | page=336 | quote="...popular music stars such as Gackt and Hyde, will trace their beautification efforts to a domestically - produced aesthetic. The recent appearance of living specimens of the bishounen..."}}</ref><ref name="Johnson">{{cite book |last=Johnson |first=Adrienne Renee |date=2019 |title=Shōjo Across Media: Exploring "Girl" Practices in Contemporary Japan |chapter=From Shōjo to Bangya(ru): Women and Visual Kei |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OcuJDwAAQBAJ |publisher=] |pages=308, 322 |isbn=9783030014858 |quote=Laura Miller refers to Gackt, a widely recognizable Visual Kei performer (and former vocalist of Malice Mizer), for example, as a "living … specimen of bishōnen,"45 relating his "baroque, androgynous indeterminacy"46 too to The Rose of Versailles.47}}</ref>]]
]


{{nihongo||]|'''Bishōnen'''}} ({{IPA-ja|biɕoꜜːneɴ|IPA|ja-bishonen.ogg}}; also ] {{transl|ja|'''bishounen'''}}) is a ] term literally meaning "beautiful youth (boy)" and describes an ] that can be found in disparate areas in ]: a young man of ] beauty. This word originated from the ] poem '']'' by ].<ref>{{cite web |title=飲中八仙歌 | trans-title=Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup |url=https://kanbun.info/syubu/toushisen027.html |language=zh|quote=宗之瀟灑美少年 }}</ref> It has always shown the strongest manifestation in ], gaining in popularity due to the androgynous ] bands of the 1970s,<ref name=Orbaugh>{{cite book | last = Orbaugh | first =Sharalyn | editor = Sandra Buckley | title = Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture | publisher = Taylor & Francis | year = 2002 | pages = 45–56 | isbn = 0-415-14344-6 }}</ref> but it has roots in ancient ], the androsocial and androerotic ideals of the medieval ] imperial court and intellectuals, and ]n aesthetic concepts carried over from ], imported with ] to China.<ref name="encycle">{{cite book | last = Buckley | title = Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture | publisher = Taylor & Francis | year = 2002 | pages = 188, 522, 553 | isbn = 0-415-14344-6 }}</ref> Today, {{transl|ja|bishōnen}} are very popular among girls and women in Japan.<ref name="encycle"/> Reasons for this social phenomenon may include the unique male and female social relationships found within the genre. Some have theorized that {{transl|ja|bishōnen}} provide a non-traditional outlet for gender relations. Moreover, it breaks down ]s surrounding ] characters. These are often depicted with very strong ] abilities, sports talent, high intelligence, ] fashion, or comedic flair, traits that are usually assigned to the hero/].<ref name="mmsexuality">{{cite book|last=Pflugfelder|first=Gregory M.|title=Cartographies of desire: male-male sexuality in Japanese discourse, 1600-1950|publisher=University of California Press|year=1999|pages=221–234|isbn=0-520-20909-5}}</ref> {{nihongo||{{linktext|美少年}}|'''Bishōnen'''|{{IPA|ja|bʲiɕo̞ꜜːnẽ̞ɴ|IPA|ja-bishonen.ogg}}; also ] {{transliteration|ja|'''bishounen'''}}}} is a ] term literally meaning "beautiful youth (boy)" and describes an ] that can be found in disparate areas in ]: a young man of ] beauty. This word originated from the ] poem '']'' by ].<ref>{{cite web |title=飲中八仙歌 | trans-title=Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup |url=https://kanbun.info/syubu/toushisen027.html |language=zh|quote=宗之瀟灑美少年 }}</ref> It has always shown the strongest manifestation in ], gaining in popularity due to the androgynous ] bands of the 1970s,<ref name=Orbaugh>{{cite book | last = Orbaugh | first =Sharalyn | editor = Sandra Buckley | title = Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture | publisher = Taylor & Francis | year = 2002 | pages = 45–46 | isbn = 0-415-14344-6 }}</ref> but it has roots in ancient ], the androsocial and androerotic ideals of the medieval ] imperial court and intellectuals, and ]n aesthetic concepts carried over from ], imported with ] to China.<ref name="encycle">{{cite book | last = Buckley | title = Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture | publisher = Taylor & Francis | year = 2002 | pages = 188, 522, 553 | isbn = 0-415-14344-6 }}</ref>{{Failed verification|reason=None of the pages mention bishonen: page 118 is about Harajuku; page 522 is about contemporary theatre; page 553 is about village depopulation.|date=December 2023}} Today, {{transliteration|ja|bishōnen}} are very popular among girls and women in Japan.<ref name="encycle"/> Reasons for this social phenomenon may include the unique male and female social relationships found within the genre. Some have theorized that {{transliteration|ja|bishōnen}} provide a non-traditional outlet for gender relations. Moreover, it breaks down ]s surrounding ] characters. These are often depicted with very strong ] abilities, sports talent, high intelligence, ] fashion, or comedic flair, traits that are usually assigned to the hero/] role.<ref name="mmsexuality">{{cite book|last=Pflugfelder|first=Gregory M.|title=Cartographies of desire: male-male sexuality in Japanese discourse, 1600-1950|publisher=University of California Press|year=1999|pages=221–234|isbn=0-520-20909-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pbIwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA228}}</ref>


==Origin== ==Origin==
] ]


The prefix ''bi'' (]) more often than not refers to feminine beauty, and '']'', literally "beautiful person", is usually, though not always, used to refer to beautiful women.<ref name="encycle" /> {{nihongo||美中年|Bichūnen}} means "beautiful middle-aged man".<ref name="imageandnarrative">{{cite web|url=http://www.imageandnarrative.be/index.php/imagenarrative/article/viewFile/130/101 |title=On The Iconic Difference between Couple Characters in ''Boys Love'' Manga |author=Febriani Sihombing}}</ref> ''Biseinen'' is to be distinguished from ''bishōnen'' as {{nihongo||青年|seinen}} is used to describe men who are of age, including those who have entered or completed tertiary education. The term ''shōnen'' is used to describe boys of middle and high school age. Last, ''bishota'' can be used to refer to a beautiful, ] male child or a childlike male.<ref name="encycle" /> Outside Japan, ''bishōnen'' is the most well-known of the three terms, and has become a generic term for all beautiful boys and young men. The prefix ''bi'' (]) more often than not refers to feminine beauty, and '']'', literally "beautiful person", is usually, though not always, used to refer to beautiful women.<ref name="encycle" /> {{nihongo||美中年|Bichūnen}} means "beautiful middle-aged man".<ref name="imageandnarrative">{{cite web |url=http://www.imageandnarrative.be/index.php/imagenarrative/article/viewFile/130/101 |title=On The Iconic Difference between Couple Characters in ''Boys Love'' Manga |author=Febriani Sihombing |access-date=25 March 2011 |archive-date=21 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721000737/http://www.imageandnarrative.be/index.php/imagenarrative/article/viewFile/130/101 |url-status=dead }}</ref> ''Biseinen'' is to be distinguished from ''bishōnen'' as {{nihongo||青年|seinen}} is used to describe men who are of age, including those who have entered or completed tertiary education. The term ''shōnen'' is used to describe boys of middle and high school age. Last, ''bishota'' can be used to refer to a beautiful, ] male child or a childlike male.<ref name="encycle" /> Outside Japan, ''bishōnen'' is the most well-known of the three terms, and has become a generic term for all beautiful boys and young men.


The aesthetic of the ''bishōnen'' began as an ideal of a young lover, originally embodied in the {{nihongo||若衆|]|extra=literally "young person", although only used for boys}}, or adolescent boy, and was influenced by the ] who played female characters in ]. The term arose in the ], in part to replace the by then obsolete erotic meaning of the older term ''wakashū'', whose general meaning of "adolescent boy" had by this point been supplanted by the new term ].<ref name="mmsexuality" /> The ''bishōnen'' was conceived of as "aesthetically different from both women and men both the antithesis and the antecedent of adult masculinity".<ref>{{cite book|last=Pflugfelder|first=Gregory M.|title=Cartographies of desire: male-male sexuality in Japanese discourse, 1600-1950|publisher=University of California Press|year=1999|page=228|isbn=0-520-20909-5}}</ref> The aesthetic of the ''bishōnen'' began as an ideal of a young lover, originally embodied in the {{nihongo||若衆|]|extra=literally "young person", although only used for boys}}, or adolescent boy, and was influenced by the ] who played female characters in ]. The term arose in the ], in part to replace the by then obsolete erotic meaning of the older term ''wakashū'', whose general meaning of "adolescent boy" had by this point been supplanted by the new term ].<ref name="mmsexuality" /> The ''bishōnen'' was conceived of as "aesthetically different from both women and men both the antithesis and the antecedent of adult masculinity".<ref name="mmsexuality" />


The ''bishōnen'' typically has the same traits as idealized female beauties in Japan: lustrous black hair, opaque skin, red cheeks, etc., but simultaneously retains a male body, making them aesthetically different from both men and women.<ref name="mmsexuality" /> Western audiences may perceive bishonen as effeminate, but Japanese see them as something like angels, wholly male and female.<ref>{{cite web | title=Bishounen | website=Tofugu | date=26 September 2014 | url=https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bishounen/ | access-date=3 June 2023 |quote="Western readers may perceive bishounen ambiguity as effeminate, but that is a misreading. Bishounen as perceived by the Japanese audience are neither effeminate nor ambiguous; rather, they are seen as "something like angels, wholly male and female." Thus the character is sexually liberated, or is it the Japanese reader who is freed from their own traditional social restraints?"}}</ref>
The ''bishōnen'' is typically slender, with clear skin, stylish hair, and distinctly feminine facial features (such as high cheekbones), but simultaneously retains a male body. This androgynous appearance is akin to the depiction of ] in Western ], with similar social roots for this aesthetic.<ref name="mmsexuality" />


] and ] have been identified as historical ''bishōnen''.<ref>Drazen, Patrick (October 2002). '"A Very Pure Thing": Gay and Pseudo-Gay Themes' in '']'' Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press pp.91-94. {{ISBN|1-880656-72-8}}.</ref> ] notes that Yoshitsune was considered by contemporaries to be not physically prepossessing, but that his legend later grew and due to this, he became depicted with good looks.<ref>{{cite book|last=Buruma|first=Ian|author-link=Ian Buruma|title=A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Culture|publisher=Penguin Books|location=Great Britain|year=1985|orig-year=1984|isbn=978-0-14-007498-7|pages=132–135}}</ref> ] was depicted according to the standards of a Heian-era middle-aged man, but since 1989 he has been depicted as a modern-style ''bishōnen''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Miller|first=Laura|title=Extreme Makeover for a Heian-Era Wizard|journal=]|year=2008|volume=3|issue=1|pages=30–45|doi=10.1353/mec.0.0034|s2cid=121434600|url=https://umsl.academia.edu/LauraMiller/Papers/83064/Extreme_Makeover_for_a_Heian-Era_Wizard}}</ref> ] and ] have been identified as historical ''bishōnen''.<ref>Drazen, Patrick (October 2002). '"A Very Pure Thing": Gay and Pseudo-Gay Themes' in '']'' Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press pp.91-94. {{ISBN|1-880656-72-8}}.</ref> ] notes that Yoshitsune was considered by contemporaries to be not physically prepossessing, but that his legend later grew and due to this, he became depicted with good looks.<ref>{{cite book|last=Buruma|first=Ian|author-link=Ian Buruma|title=A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Culture|publisher=Penguin Books|location=Great Britain|year=1985|orig-year=1984|isbn=978-0-14-007498-7|pages=132–135}}</ref> ] was depicted according to the standards of a Heian-era middle-aged man, but since 1989 he has been depicted as a modern-style ''bishōnen''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Miller|first=Laura|title=Extreme Makeover for a Heian-Era Wizard|journal=]|year=2008|volume=3|issue=1|pages=30–45|doi=10.1353/mec.0.0034|s2cid=121434600|url=https://umsl.academia.edu/LauraMiller/Papers/83064/Extreme_Makeover_for_a_Heian-Era_Wizard}}</ref>
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==Popular culture== ==Popular culture==
{{original research|section|date=December 2020}}
<!-- Commented out because image was deleted: ] of ]|{{Deletable image-caption|1=Saturday, 22 December 2007|date=March 2012}}]] -->


According to Pflugfelder, the bishonen concept can be related to the "smoothie/roughneck" dichotomy of the Edo period. Sophisticated Japanese young men (''smoothies'') competed for hierarchical sexual dominance with so-called "roughneck" (juvenile delinquent) men, with occasional reports of violence between the two groups. By the 1920s the "smoothie" men had won out over the roughnecks in the popular imagination; "''rough was no match for smooth''", writes Pflugfelder.<ref>{{harvnb|Pflugfelder|1999|pp=224–225|ps=: "Echoing Mori, one commentator wrote in 1914 that "juvenile delinquents" of the "rough-neck" stripe saw themselves as "toughs" (soshi) and "swashbucklers" (kyo-kaku), while "smoothies" fancies themselves "high caller dandies" (harikara danji)...With the close of the Meiji period, however, such reports began gradually to diminish, until, by the end of the 1920s, most "juvenile delinquents" had become, according to one authority on the subject, confirmed ''nanpa''. In the popular imagination, "rough" was no match for "smooth"."}}</ref>
The enduring preference for ''bishōnen'' males can clearly be seen in Japan and throughout parts of ] to this day.<ref name="mmsexuality" />


In particular, Japan's largest male talent agency, ] Entertainment Company, specializes only in producing male ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.japan-zone.com/modern/johnnys.shtml |title=Modern Japan - Entertainment - Johnny's Jimusho |publisher=Japan-zone.com |date=2006-11-16 |access-date=2011-10-31}}</ref> Accepted into Johnny & Associates in their early teens, these boys, collectively known as 'Johnnys', are trained and promoted to become the next leading singing-acting-commercially successful hit sensations. Almost all can be classified as ''bishōnen'', exhibiting the same physically ] features combined with a sometimes deliberately ] ] or at the very least, a lack of any hint of a relationship to maintain their popular availability. In particular, Japan's largest male talent agency, ] Entertainment Company, specializes only in producing male ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.japan-zone.com/modern/johnnys.shtml |title=Modern Japan - Entertainment - Johnny's Jimusho |publisher=Japan-zone.com |date=2006-11-16 |access-date=2011-10-31}}</ref> Accepted into Johnny & Associates in their early teens, these boys, collectively known as 'Johnnys', are trained and promoted to become the next leading singing-acting-commercially successful hit sensations. Almost all can be classified as ''bishōnen'', exhibiting the same physically ] features combined with a sometimes deliberately ] ] or at the very least, a lack of any hint of a relationship to maintain their popular availability. Many of the bishōnen stars hired by Johnny & Associates eventually abandoned their princely image, and became stock characters in variety shows and other normal day-to-day programming.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Yoshimoto | first1=M. | last2=Tsai | first2=E. | last3=Choi | first3=J.B. | title=Television, Japan, and Globalization | publisher=University of Michigan Press | series=Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-929280-76-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gJpFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 | access-date=2023-06-05 | page=98}}</ref>

Current ''bishōnen'' examples from the same agency include ] of ] group ], ] and ] of ], ] of ], ] and ] of ] and ] of ], all of whom are phenomenally successful throughout East Asia by appealing to both younger and older women and whose widely praised, gender-incongruous physical beauty is often deliberately manipulated in terms of ] and, most commonly, ].


==Art== ==Art==
]'s role in the 1971 film '']'' proved influential for many Japanese illustrators' depictions of ''bishōnen'' characters.<ref name=bjorn/>]]

⚫ Besides being a character type, ''bishōnen'' is also a distinct art style not usually forgotten in books about drawing ]. In art, ''bishōnen'' are usually drawn delicately, with long limbs, silky or flowing hair,<ref>{{cite journal|year=2004|title=Short anime glossary |journal=]|issue=3|page=36|issn=1810-8644|language=ru}}</ref> and slender eyes with long eyelashes that can sometimes extend beyond the face. The character's "sex appeal" is highlighted through introducing the character by using an "eroticized" full page spread.<ref name=Wood-06>Wood, Andrea. (Spring 2006). "Straight" Women, Queer Texts: Boy-Love Manga and the Rise of a Global Counterpublic. '']'', '''34''' (1/2), pp. 394-414.</ref> Characters with "bulging muscles" are rarely considered ''bishōnen'', as they are too masculine.<ref name="imageandnarrative" />


⚫ Besides being a character type, ''bishōnen'' is also a distinct art style not usually forgotten in books about drawing ]. In art, ''bishōnen'' are usually drawn delicately, with long limbs, silky or flowing hair,<ref>{{cite journal|year=2004|title=Short anime glossary |journal=]|issue=3|page=36|issn=1810-8644|language=ru}}</ref> and slender eyes with long eyelashes that can sometimes extend beyond the face. The character's "sex appeal" is highlighted through introducing the character by using an "eroticized" full-page spread.<ref name=Wood-06>Wood, Andrea. (Spring 2006). "Straight" Women, Queer Texts: Boy-Love Manga and the Rise of a Global Counterpublic. '']'', '''34''' (1/2), pp. 394-414.</ref> Characters with "bulging muscles" are rarely considered ''bishōnen'', as they are too masculine.<ref name="imageandnarrative" />
It is said that ]'s appearance as Tadzio in the film '']'' inspired many Japanese anime artists, such as ], who became known for their depictions of young, effeminate men.<ref name=bjorn>{{cite web|url=http://imomus.livejournal.com/342686.html |title=The adventures of Tadzio in Japan |date=2008-01-07 |access-date=2015-04-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150507163250/http://imomus.livejournal.com/342686.html |archive-date=7 May 2015 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>


Bishōnen characters are fairly common in shōjo manga and ]. Many of the male characters show subtle signs of the ''bishōnen'' style, such as slender eyes or a ] face. Bishōnen characters are fairly common in shōjo manga and ]. Many of the male characters show subtle signs of the ''bishōnen'' style, such as slender eyes or a ] face.
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Several cultural anthropologists and authors have raised the multifaceted aspect of what ''bishōnen'' represents and what it is interpreted as, mostly to fit a particular external viewpoint.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Monnet|first=Livia|title=Montage, cinematic subjectivity and feminism in Ozaki Midori's Drifting in the World of the Seventh Sense|journal=Japan Forum|year=1999|volume=11|issue=1|pages=57–82|doi=10.1080/09555809908721622}}</ref> ] noted that although Western comics for girls also included "impossibly beautiful men" who are clearly masculine and always get the girl in the end, the ''bishōnen'' are "more ambivalent" and sometimes get each other.<ref name="Mirror p.125"/> Several cultural anthropologists and authors have raised the multifaceted aspect of what ''bishōnen'' represents and what it is interpreted as, mostly to fit a particular external viewpoint.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Monnet|first=Livia|title=Montage, cinematic subjectivity and feminism in Ozaki Midori's Drifting in the World of the Seventh Sense|journal=Japan Forum|year=1999|volume=11|issue=1|pages=57–82|doi=10.1080/09555809908721622}}</ref> ] noted that although Western comics for girls also included "impossibly beautiful men" who are clearly masculine and always get the girl in the end, the ''bishōnen'' are "more ambivalent" and sometimes get each other.<ref name="Mirror p.125"/>


For Sandra Buckley, ''bishōnen'' narratives champion "the imagined potentialities of alternative differentiations"<ref name="Buckley">Buckley, Sandra (1991) "'Penguin in Bondage': A Graphic Tale of Japanese Comic Books", pp. 163-196, In ''Technoculture''. C. Penley and A. Ross, eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota {{ISBN|0-8166-1932-8}}</ref> James Welker describes the ''bishōnen'' as being "]", as the ''bishōnen'' is an androgynous ] with a feminine soul "who lives and loves outside of the heteropatriarchal world".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Welker |first=James |year=2006 |journal=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society |volume=31 |issue=3 |doi= 10.1086/498987|title=Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: "Boys' Love" as Girls' Love in Shōjo Manga|page=842|s2cid=144888475 }}</ref> For Sandra Buckley, ''bishōnen'' narratives champion "the imagined potentialities of alternative differentiations"<ref name="Buckley">Buckley, Sandra (1991) "'Penguin in Bondage': A Graphic Tale of Japanese Comic Books", pp. 163–196, In ''Technoculture''. C. Penley and A. Ross, eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota {{ISBN|0-8166-1932-8}}</ref> James Welker describes the ''bishōnen'' as being "]", as the ''bishōnen'' is an androgynous ] with a feminine soul "who lives and loves outside of the heteropatriarchal world".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Welker |first=James |year=2006 |journal=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society |volume=31 |issue=3 |doi= 10.1086/498987|title=Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: "Boys' Love" as Girls' Love in Shōjo Manga|page=842|s2cid=144888475 }}</ref>


Jonathan D. Mackintosh believes that the ''bishōnen'' is a "traditional representation of youth", being "interstitial" between both childhood and adulthood and between being male and being female,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue12/aoki.html |title=Intersections: Itō Bungaku and the Solidarity of the Rose Tribes [Barazoku&#93;: Stirrings of Homo Solidarity in Early 1970s Japan |publisher=Intersections.anu.edu.au |access-date=2011-10-31}}</ref> regardless of the sexual issues. Jonathan D. Mackintosh believes that the ''bishōnen'' is a "traditional representation of youth", being "interstitial" between both childhood and adulthood and between being male and being female,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue12/aoki.html |title=Intersections: Itō Bungaku and the Solidarity of the Rose Tribes [Barazoku&#93;: Stirrings of Homo Solidarity in Early 1970s Japan |publisher=Intersections.anu.edu.au |access-date=2011-10-31}}</ref> regardless of the sexual issues.
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Ishida Hitoshi makes the case that the image of the ''bishōnen'' is more about a grounding in sexuality than a transcendence of it, drawing on the idea of the image as being a refuge for alternative methods of looking at sexual natures, and sexual realities, at least since the 1960s, rather than the elegiac aesthetics of usages in an earlier era.<ref>The Process of Divergence between 'Men who Love Men' and 'Feminised Men' in Postwar Japanese Media. Ishida Hitoshi and Murakami Takanori. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context. Issue 12 January 2006. http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue12/ishida.html</ref> Ishida Hitoshi makes the case that the image of the ''bishōnen'' is more about a grounding in sexuality than a transcendence of it, drawing on the idea of the image as being a refuge for alternative methods of looking at sexual natures, and sexual realities, at least since the 1960s, rather than the elegiac aesthetics of usages in an earlier era.<ref>The Process of Divergence between 'Men who Love Men' and 'Feminised Men' in Postwar Japanese Media. Ishida Hitoshi and Murakami Takanori. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context. Issue 12 January 2006. http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue12/ishida.html</ref>


Representations of men in manga by and for men show "an idealized man being ultramasculinee and phallic", ''bishōnen'' are conversely drawn to "emphasize their beauty and sensuality", and female artists have been said to react against the ultramasculine representation by showing androgynous and "aesthetically beautiful" men.<ref name="Wood-06"/> Representations of men in manga by and for men show "an idealized man being ultramasculine and phallic", ''bishōnen'' are conversely drawn to "emphasize their beauty and sensuality", and female artists have been said to react against the ultramasculine representation by showing androgynous and "aesthetically beautiful" men.<ref name="Wood-06"/>


Ian Buruma, writing in 1984, considered the "bishonen in distress" to be a recurring motif in popular manga. The ''bishōnen'' in distress is always rescued by an older, protective, mentor. This scenario has an "unmistakably homoerotic" atmosphere.<ref name="Mirror p.125">{{cite book|last=Buruma|first=Ian|author-link=Ian Buruma|title=A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Culture|publisher=Penguin Books|location=Great Britain|year=1985|orig-year=1984|isbn=978-0-14-007498-7|page=125}}</ref> He also notes that ''bishōnen'' must either grow up, or die beautifully. He considers the "worship" of the ''bishōnen'' to be the same as that of the ], and notes that "death is the only pure and thus fitting end to the perfection of youth."<ref>{{cite book|last=Buruma|first=Ian|author-link=Ian Buruma|title=A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Culture|publisher=Penguin Books|location=Great Britain|year=1985|orig-year=1984|isbn=978-0-14-007498-7|pages=130–131}}</ref> Ian Buruma, writing in 1984, considered the "bishonen in distress" to be a recurring motif in popular manga. The ''bishōnen'' in distress is always rescued by an older, protective, mentor. This scenario has an "unmistakably homoerotic" atmosphere.<ref name="Mirror p.125">{{cite book|last=Buruma|first=Ian|author-link=Ian Buruma|title=A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Culture|publisher=Penguin Books|location=Great Britain|year=1985|orig-year=1984|isbn=978-0-14-007498-7|page=125}}</ref> He also notes that ''bishōnen'' must either grow up, or die beautifully. He considers the "worship" of the ''bishōnen'' to be the same as that of the ], and notes that "death is the only pure and thus fitting end to the perfection of youth."<ref>{{cite book|last=Buruma|first=Ian|author-link=Ian Buruma|title=A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Culture|publisher=Penguin Books|location=Great Britain|year=1985|orig-year=1984|isbn=978-0-14-007498-7|pages=130–131}}</ref>
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bishonen}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Bishonen}}
] ]
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Latest revision as of 18:21, 9 August 2024

Japanese term for an attractive young man For the film, see Bishonen (film). "Bishy" redirects here. For the radial route in York, England, see Bishy Road.

Gackt, a Japanese singer-songwriter, is considered to be one of the living manifestations of the Bishōnen phenomenon.

Bishōnen (美少年, IPA: [bʲiɕo̞ꜜːnẽ̞ɴ] ; also transliterated bishounen) is a Japanese term literally meaning "beautiful youth (boy)" and describes an aesthetic that can be found in disparate areas in East Asia: a young man of androgynous beauty. This word originated from the Tang dynasty poem Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup by Du Fu. It has always shown the strongest manifestation in Japanese pop culture, gaining in popularity due to the androgynous glam rock bands of the 1970s, but it has roots in ancient Japanese literature, the androsocial and androerotic ideals of the medieval Chinese imperial court and intellectuals, and Indian aesthetic concepts carried over from Hinduism, imported with Buddhism to China. Today, bishōnen are very popular among girls and women in Japan. Reasons for this social phenomenon may include the unique male and female social relationships found within the genre. Some have theorized that bishōnen provide a non-traditional outlet for gender relations. Moreover, it breaks down stereotypes surrounding feminine male characters. These are often depicted with very strong martial arts abilities, sports talent, high intelligence, dandy fashion, or comedic flair, traits that are usually assigned to the hero/protagonist role.

Origin

Yoshitsune, the most famous historical bishōnen and his retainer Benkei view the falling cherry blossoms.

The prefix bi (美) more often than not refers to feminine beauty, and bijin, literally "beautiful person", is usually, though not always, used to refer to beautiful women. Bichūnen (美中年) means "beautiful middle-aged man". Biseinen is to be distinguished from bishōnen as seinen (青年) is used to describe men who are of age, including those who have entered or completed tertiary education. The term shōnen is used to describe boys of middle and high school age. Last, bishota can be used to refer to a beautiful, pre-pubescent male child or a childlike male. Outside Japan, bishōnen is the most well-known of the three terms, and has become a generic term for all beautiful boys and young men.

The aesthetic of the bishōnen began as an ideal of a young lover, originally embodied in the wakashū (若衆, literally "young person", although only used for boys), or adolescent boy, and was influenced by the effeminate male actors who played female characters in kabuki theater. The term arose in the Meiji era, in part to replace the by then obsolete erotic meaning of the older term wakashū, whose general meaning of "adolescent boy" had by this point been supplanted by the new term shōnen. The bishōnen was conceived of as "aesthetically different from both women and men both the antithesis and the antecedent of adult masculinity".

The bishōnen typically has the same traits as idealized female beauties in Japan: lustrous black hair, opaque skin, red cheeks, etc., but simultaneously retains a male body, making them aesthetically different from both men and women. Western audiences may perceive bishonen as effeminate, but Japanese see them as something like angels, wholly male and female.

Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Amakusa Shirō have been identified as historical bishōnen. Ian Buruma notes that Yoshitsune was considered by contemporaries to be not physically prepossessing, but that his legend later grew and due to this, he became depicted with good looks. Abe no Seimei was depicted according to the standards of a Heian-era middle-aged man, but since 1989 he has been depicted as a modern-style bishōnen.

Kyokutei Bakin wrote many works with nanshoku undertones featuring bishōnen characters, and in 1848 he used the term bishōnen in the title of a work about the younger wakashu partner in the nanshoku relationship.

The bishōnen aesthetic is continued today in anime and manga, especially shōjo and yaoi.

Usage

Some non-Japanese, especially American, anime and manga fans use the term to refer to any handsome male character regardless of age, or any homosexual character. In the original Japanese, however, bishōnen applies only to boys under 18. For those older, the word bidanshi (美男子, literally "handsome man") is used. In the place of bishōnen, some fans prefer to use the slightly more sexually neutral bijin (美人) or the Anglicized slang term "bishie" (also spelled "bishi"), but these terms remain less common. The term binanshi was popular in the 1980s. Bishōnen is occasionally used to describe some androgynous female characters, such as Takarazuka actors, Lady Oscar in The Rose of Versailles, or any women with traits stereotypical to bishōnen.

Scottish pop singer Momus notably used the term in his song "Bishonen" from the Tender Pervert album (released on Creation Records). Almost 8 minutes long, the song is an epic tale of a young boy raised to die young by an eccentric stepfather.

Popular culture

According to Pflugfelder, the bishonen concept can be related to the "smoothie/roughneck" dichotomy of the Edo period. Sophisticated Japanese young men (smoothies) competed for hierarchical sexual dominance with so-called "roughneck" (juvenile delinquent) men, with occasional reports of violence between the two groups. By the 1920s the "smoothie" men had won out over the roughnecks in the popular imagination; "rough was no match for smooth", writes Pflugfelder.

In particular, Japan's largest male talent agency, Johnny & Associates Entertainment Company, specializes only in producing male Tarento idols. Accepted into Johnny & Associates in their early teens, these boys, collectively known as 'Johnnys', are trained and promoted to become the next leading singing-acting-commercially successful hit sensations. Almost all can be classified as bishōnen, exhibiting the same physically feminine features combined with a sometimes deliberately ambivalent sexuality or at the very least, a lack of any hint of a relationship to maintain their popular availability. Many of the bishōnen stars hired by Johnny & Associates eventually abandoned their princely image, and became stock characters in variety shows and other normal day-to-day programming.

Art

Besides being a character type, bishōnen is also a distinct art style not usually forgotten in books about drawing manga. In art, bishōnen are usually drawn delicately, with long limbs, silky or flowing hair, and slender eyes with long eyelashes that can sometimes extend beyond the face. The character's "sex appeal" is highlighted through introducing the character by using an "eroticized" full-page spread. Characters with "bulging muscles" are rarely considered bishōnen, as they are too masculine.

Bishōnen characters are fairly common in shōjo manga and anime. Many of the male characters show subtle signs of the bishōnen style, such as slender eyes or a feminine face.

Some manga are completely drawn in the bishōnen style, such as Saint Seiya. bishōnen manga are generally shōjo manga (girls' comics) or yaoi (girls' comics focused on homosexual relationships between beautiful boys), however shōnen manga (boy's comics) may use casts of bishōnen characters for crossover appeal to female readers. Mainstream shounen and seinen fare also often uses such characters as rivals for a traditional masculine protagonist, with some degree of comic relief, or for the blander everyman, whether as the embodiment of his insecurities in a grittier realism, or as a more lighthearted constant reminder of his less than advantageous social status and the constraints thereof. Comics for younger boys tend to use arrogant bishōnen in the role of the recurring minor rivals readers love to hate, though their effeminate good looks there will often appear older, bigger, stronger, and thus in fact more masculine than the commonly shorter and less mature protagonists.

Bishōnen and bishōjo

Bishōjo ('beautiful girl') is often mistakenly considered a parallel of bishōnen, because of the similar construction of the terms. There are major differences between the two aesthetics. The bishōjo aesthetic is aimed at a male audience, and is typically centered on young girls, drawn in a cute, pretty style; bishōnen is aimed at a female audience, centered on teenage boys, and drawn elegantly. Another common mistake is assuming that the female characters in bishōnen manga and anime are bishōjo. In truth, female characters in bishōnen manga are very different from those in bishōjo; bishōjo females are usually more petite and drawn in a style that is cute rather than beautiful, whereas bishōnen females exhibit the long limbs and elegance of the bishōnen themselves.

Critical attention

Several cultural anthropologists and authors have raised the multifaceted aspect of what bishōnen represents and what it is interpreted as, mostly to fit a particular external viewpoint. Ian Buruma noted that although Western comics for girls also included "impossibly beautiful men" who are clearly masculine and always get the girl in the end, the bishōnen are "more ambivalent" and sometimes get each other.

For Sandra Buckley, bishōnen narratives champion "the imagined potentialities of alternative differentiations" James Welker describes the bishōnen as being "queer", as the bishōnen is an androgynous aesthete with a feminine soul "who lives and loves outside of the heteropatriarchal world".

Jonathan D. Mackintosh believes that the bishōnen is a "traditional representation of youth", being "interstitial" between both childhood and adulthood and between being male and being female, regardless of the sexual issues.

Ishida Hitoshi makes the case that the image of the bishōnen is more about a grounding in sexuality than a transcendence of it, drawing on the idea of the image as being a refuge for alternative methods of looking at sexual natures, and sexual realities, at least since the 1960s, rather than the elegiac aesthetics of usages in an earlier era.

Representations of men in manga by and for men show "an idealized man being ultramasculine and phallic", bishōnen are conversely drawn to "emphasize their beauty and sensuality", and female artists have been said to react against the ultramasculine representation by showing androgynous and "aesthetically beautiful" men.

Ian Buruma, writing in 1984, considered the "bishonen in distress" to be a recurring motif in popular manga. The bishōnen in distress is always rescued by an older, protective, mentor. This scenario has an "unmistakably homoerotic" atmosphere. He also notes that bishōnen must either grow up, or die beautifully. He considers the "worship" of the bishōnen to be the same as that of the sakura, and notes that "death is the only pure and thus fitting end to the perfection of youth."

See also

References

  1. American Anthropological Association (2003). Abstracts of the Annual Meeting -- American Anthropological Association. p. 336. ISBN 978-1-931303-15-6. Retrieved 3 June 2023. ...popular music stars such as Gackt and Hyde, will trace their beautification efforts to a domestically - produced aesthetic. The recent appearance of living specimens of the bishounen...
  2. Johnson, Adrienne Renee (2019). "From Shōjo to Bangya(ru): Women and Visual Kei". Shōjo Across Media: Exploring "Girl" Practices in Contemporary Japan. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 308, 322. ISBN 9783030014858. Laura Miller refers to Gackt, a widely recognizable Visual Kei performer (and former vocalist of Malice Mizer), for example, as a "living … specimen of bishōnen,"45 relating his "baroque, androgynous indeterminacy"46 too to The Rose of Versailles.47
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