Fabricated Japanese article purports 'moe' was first used in a newly discovered manuscript of Sei Shonagon (and a look at what it means for subculture at large)

The cheeky article in question is found here on Kyoko Shimbun ('Fabricated News'). The gist of it is that a manuscript of Sei Shonogan is recently discovered and in it the great Japanese court lady/diarist opines that 'men who moe Murasaki-no-Ue is very unbecoming'. It is, the article purports, the first use of moe in the meaning which is now widely used in present-day subcultures.

For those of you who have not read Genji Monogatari - Murasaki-no-Ue is a lady who was raised from childhood to be Prince Genji's dream woman and actually does grow up to be his dream woman. (It's more complicated than this but you get the idea.) I suppose you may read the purported criticism from Sei Shonagon as:

• a criticism of Heian gentlemen being obsessed with a fictional (ie. unreal) female character in Genji Monogatari; or
• a criticism of their obsession with prepubescent/teenage girls.

I think the former interpretation is more likely than the latter in this context, though either way it is a subtle commentary on today's gal-game/eroge and moe anime subcultures. However, I think there is a key difference between the obsession with prepubescent/teenage girls then and now: Prince Genji is interested in the potential of young Murasaki growing into a beautiful and refined woman of his dreams, but now many male anime fans into gal-game/eroge are interested into the grown version of the dream girl? Prince Genji is interested young Murasaki in what she will be, but it seems to me that most fans of gal-game/eroge are interested in the dream girl only as so far as she remains the way she is at that  particular age - it is as though if she grows up, the magic will somehow be gone.

To be fair, my personal opinion is that Murasaki-no-Ue is a woman's vision of the ideal woman than a man's vision per se (she is a female character created by a woman for the consumption of women after all). But then it's not like I have an X-ray vision into the minds of men past and present.

That is all I have to say for now. Ladies and gentlemen - the floor is all yours to have your say.

Comments

[kuromitsu]

Eh... interesting idea, but I agree with you, I think there's a quite obvious difference between the two types of attraction. I don't know how serious the article is (can't read it right now), but it seems to me that this is either a joke, or just another attempt at trying to "justify" the whole moe phenomenon and its popularity (which is quite disturbing, if you ask me). I've seen are quite a few similar theories ("moe" is just a fatherly feeling, it's attraction to innocence in our world, etc.etc) which, frankly, I also find hard to buy.

[Wabisabi]

The tone of the article is mock-serious in a cheeky sort of way... It's certainly not a contrived justification per se.

Like you, I have found the justifications of moe you listed hard to buy.

[Neohybrid_kai]

oh hey, this is an interesting post. I'm not into that rorimoe-sim and I always think that it is bad to reap before ripe (sorry for the vulgar joke ^^;)

Also my fanboyism for all of my favorite loli ojou-sama character (or, due to the nature of post in this blog, should I write "prepubescent daughter of a high-class family" instead? lol) is always an attraction to the possibilities that she would grow into a refined lady someday. Hm, does this mean that my thought is as obsolete as people in Heian era?

By the way I agreed that the justifications is indeed hard to buy, considering all those ero-scene in galge and ero doujinshi out there -_-;

[Wabisabi]

I think the Heian worldview (or at least what we may guess from Genji Monogatari) is more complicated than that.