“On the pitch, I will be treated like any male player”
Today in 2022, there are still no female players in either of the two professional baseball leagues in Japan.
But in the world of fiction, the first player already emerged on the score sheet in the 1970s. It is Mizuhara Yûki, one of the central characters of Mizushima Shinji’s manga, Yakyû-kyô no Uta (“The Poem of the Baseball Madmen”). First a member of the Musashino High School baseball team, she mainly dreams of going to Africa to become a zoologist and has no intention of becoming a professional baseball player.
Which isn’t really surprising. Because Article 83 of the Japanese Professional Baseball Convention prohibits any player who is not medically considered male from becoming an affiliate. Anyway, at the time, nobody thought about it, it was so taken for granted that a woman could not be able to become a professional player with the ambition to serve a team effectively. In short, the heroine of Mizushima comes up against two major obstacles: the gender discrimination system, and gender prejudice.
However, the Mets select her first choice, obviously causing an earthquake in the world of baseball as well as in Japanese society. At first very reluctant, Yûki ends up deciding to join the professional team, but on one condition. She demands to include in her contract: “On the field, I will be treated like any male player. »
Yūki is promoted to the first team in her first year. Her assets are a superior intelligence of the game, her audacity on the mound, and her unique throw, the “dream ball”, a method she developed after a long search. In the manga, his opponents are real players from the era. And nothing could make a bigger splash with readers of all ages than seeing a pretty girl go up against the best players in the country.
New edition of Yakyû-kyô no Uta (Kôdan sha Manga Bunko)
From the outset, a high-level graphics and scenario
Mizushima Shinji has endeavored never to go beyond strict realism and what is objectively possible in the exploits of Mizuhara Yûki, the first professional baseball player.
The mangaka was born in Niigata in 1939. From his third year of primary school he had a small job, and in college he began to help out in the family fishmonger. After college, he would get up at five in the morning to do a particularly crushing job: brokering the open-outcry market. As soon as he had a minute between two orders, he read all the comics from the lending bookstore. Mizushima, who has always been good at drawing, applied for the young hopeful award from editor Hinomaru Bunko, an Osaka-based rental manga editor, and won the second prize.
At the time, many mangaka applicants presented projects with an avant-garde and intellectual spirit, which also had the attention of the juries. Mizushima, on the other hand, had an innate awareness of entertainment, and, without any training, his manga already had an exceptional level of maturity.
Mizushima Shinji (center) invited to Emperor Akihito’s (now retired) Autumn Garden Party in 2015; he was decorated with the Purple Ribbon Medal of Honor in 2005 and the Order of the Rising Sun in 2002. Photo taken at Akasaka Gyoen Park in Tokyo on November 12, 2015. (Jiji)
Following this award, Mizushima moved to Osaka and became a mangaka. At first, he dabbled in all genres, even samurai stories. Except the manga for girls. But his fate is sealed with Nageru, utsu, mamoru (“Launch, hit, defend”), a manga he produced once he had acquired a technique to represent baseball scenes convincingly. From that day on, he decided to devote himself exclusively to baseball manga, which he had loved since he was very young.
His first serialized baseball series, Otoko Doa hô Kôshien is published by Shônen Sunday. Success is there and Mizushima then produces its series which will become classics of baseball manga: Dokaben and Abu-san.
“I want to tell children everything I love in and around baseball”, “I want to talk about baseball without making anything up”. Mizushima had been following teams and matches very closely for years. He was the kind of fan who frequented stadiums outside of matches to pick up practice balls.
The “magic bullet” to beat men on the field
As such, the plot of Yakyû-kyô no Uta is not a wild fantasy. Mizushima had asked a number of professional players – the episode remained famous – “if there was a technique with which a woman could beat men on the field, what would it be? »
All had replied that it would never exist. All but one, Nomura Katsuya, the second-best home run hitter in Japanese baseball history and a long-time coach, replied: “A pitcher with a butterfly ball, on one inning, could be the make “. The idea clicked, and that’s how Mizushima created the character of Mizuhara Yūki and her ” dream ball ».
This “dream ball” is not a totally imaginary mystical ball either. To break it down technically, he combined the pitches of two real pitchers, to give a “shaky and falling” pitch. For Nomura Katsuya, this bullet was also theoretically possible.
Mizushima, who swore no one came close to him on baseball manga, yet said telling the story of a female professional pitcher and presenting it as “actually possible” was extremely perilous at the time. Why take such a risk, then?
The idea arose from the fact that between 1971 and 1978, the women’s world record for the 1,500m freestyle was higher than the men’s Japanese record. It was therefore established that women could surpass men at the highest level. Inspired by this record, Mizushima said to himself that there were only institutional barriers left to break down.
This record was released when the TV anime aired between 1977 and 1979. Mizushima’s headband comment reads, “To all women who love baseball and all fans who love Mizuhara Yūki.” »
A manga that really moved Japanese society
Added to this is another rule of the entertainment market: female characters get more attention in times of crisis. In the 1970s, when the manga was released Yakyû-kyô no Utathe company was battling headwinds against two oil shocks amid a panic buying of basic necessities.
In fact, Mizuhara Yûki belongs to the same generation as the character of Oka Hiromi from Ace o nerae! (“Jeu, set et match”, tennis manga by Yamamoto Sumika, 1972), and Oscar, the famous heroine disguised as a man of The Rose of Versailles d’Ikeda Riyoko (1972).
The greatest creators are always in osmosis with their time. Mizushima clearly felt the wind of her time to imagine a woman challenging the world of professional baseball.
Girls’ manga author Satonaka Machiko collaborated on some episodes of Yakyû-kyô no Uta. Mizushima came up with this collaboration because he wanted female readers to read his series as well. The name of the main character DokabenSatonaka Satoru, is also a direct allusion to this mangaka.
Mizushima’s talent would soon go beyond the simple talent of feeling his time, to become one who moves and creates his own time. In fact, many readers will dream of becoming professionals and will work on their game after reading Mizushima’s manga.
An emblematic event in this regard is the fact that the dream ball, the heroine Mizuhara Yûki’s secret technique has really become a throwing technique, developed by throwers who thought it was possible. And the prowess has been demonstrated! The proof was made that the dream of the manga could turn into reality and realize the potential of the readers. Mizushima not only insisted on realism, but also on the importance of dreams.
Mizushima has indeed moved its era: in 1991, the player gender restriction in Article 83 of the Japanese Professional Baseball Convention was repealed. The All Japan High School Female Baseball Players Federation was established in 1997. In 2008, the first professional female baseball player appeared, albeit in an independent league. Throughout her career, she has been associated in the media with her fictional predecessor Mizuhara Yūki. What more concrete sign could show that the imagination of a mangaka had broken prejudices and influenced reality?
Thanks to her butterfly ball, still a high school student, Yoshida Eri became a pitcher in the Kansai Independent League. In 2010 she turned pro for the Chico Outlaws of the American Independent League. the New York Times actually his Sports page. (Kyodo)
Mizushima Shinji said, “As a writer, I’m particularly proud that when we talk about women’s baseball, we always mention the name of Mizuhara Yūki. The adventure was risky, but it was worth it…”
And Mizushima Shinji’s legacy lives on. Even today, his work gives birth to new adventurers.
(Title photo from Nippon.com)
