Yaoi and BL Get Their Own Museum Exhibit in Japan

Danica Davidson May 9, 2023

The Kadokawa Culture Museum is putting on an exhibit titled “BL Evolution: From Pioneers to Global Phenomenon ―Tracing the 50 Year History and Impact of Boys’ Love through Manga, Literature, and Media.” People can visit it between May 20 to July 16.

The exhibit is set up in three areas: The June Era; Yaoi; and Blooming BL Culture.

The June Era is about the magazine June, which formed in the 1970s and included many romances between two men, aimed for a female audience. The exhibit explained: “In this area, we will comprehensively introduce the secret stories of the founding of June as told by former editor-in-chief Toshihiko Sagawa, the cultivation of BL manga artists in the magazine, and the works and authors who were born from the magazine and later led the BL genre.”

The Yaoi part is about doujinshi and how this led to the yaoi genre as we know it today. “Major conventions like Comic Market (Comiket) experienced a surge in yaoi interest groups (circles), turning the subculture into a mass social phenomenon, and in this section of the exhibition we will take a deeper look into this transformation.”

The final section, Blooming BL Culture, which takes us to the 1990s when BL became a regularly published genre of manga. “This area will introduce you to popular magazines such as MAGAZINE BE×BOY which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, along with actual exhibits. In this period, more and more authors active in both BL and non-BL works started appearing – one of which is Yu Asagiri, whose original artwork will be on display.”

It costs 1,400 yen (about $10.35) for anyone university student-age or above to enter the exhibit. The exhibit has a page about it in English, and you can check it out here if you want to learn more about it.

Source: Kadokawa Culture Museum

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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.