A Truncated Commentary on the Party of the Sun

The Japan Renaissance Party  Sunrise Party (Tachiagare Nippon - literally "Stand Up Japan!")* renamed itself 太陽の党, literally “Party of the Sun. ” The gathering of mostly sexa- and septuagenarians did it to honor its new octogenerian leader Shintaro Ishihara. The name is a takeoff on the title of Ishihara’s famous award-winning 1955 novel 太陽の季節, literally “Season of the Sun”. Now, the book never appears to have been translated into English, so those who wanted to know a little more about the book but cannot read Japanese must have looked it up on Wikipedia, only to find a curious inscription in the list of adaptations:

“Shouji Ch**ko Man no Kisetsu, a 2011 eroge

Literally, “Season of Paper Screen D**k Man, a computer game with sexual content from 2011”. At that point, you will have no idea where this is coming from, so let me explain: The title is a reference to the protagonist of Ishihara’s novel, who stuck his d**k through a paper screen. I can do no more to enlighten you on the details of the screen-busting scene—or anything else in the book for that matter since I never read it and I never saw the 1956 movie adaptation—but the idea of the scene has been with me as a cultural icon of I know not what for as long as I can remember. I’m not the only one who has the notion rattling around in his head either, since every writer referring to the name of Ishihara’s new used-vehicle appears to feel obligated to refer also to the book and its screen-ripping scene—and little else of the novel, although the book wound up overshadowing everything else that he subsequently wrote, except maybe the nationalist screed The Japan that Can Say No, coauthored with Sony founder Akio Morita in 1991.

There are too many angles to this story to do justice to them with my limited writing skills, so I’m going to stop right here. Sorry about that. And you also have my apologies if I’ve ruined your Japanese paper screen experience forever. Just. Don’t. Think. About. It.

* Thanks to Michael Cucek.

ADD: Comment from W. David Marx:

I've read an old English translation published under the title Season of Violence. Not a bad book for something written by a 23 year old.

Also this:

http://neojaponisme.com/2011/04/04/portrait-of-ishihara-shintaro-as-a-young-man/

Thanks, David.