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For Mori, it served as another form of escape; the character of Gidou was modeled after her father, as were many of her protagonists. The first magazine solely dedicated to this content, June, began publication around the same time. Her marriage soured as a result. This volume assembled Mori's writings on sensory pleasures and artistic ideals, reflecting her lifelong pursuit of beauty as an escape from postwar realities.

Mori and her successors worked in virtual isolation from Japan’s gay male community, often mimicking heterosexual dynamics; for example, one partner in each pairing was almost always portrayed as effeminate and lacking agency, taking on the conventional ‘woman’s role’. The couple moved to Europe soon after. Her father was a celebrated novelist and translator, known as one of modern Japan’s ‘founding fathers’ for his important contributions to literature, medicine, and philosophy.

Her bold fantasies have captured women’s imaginations for decades, launching a genre that remains popular to this day.

Less Than Humble Beginnings

Mori was born in 1903, the eldest daughter of Lieutenant-General Ogai Mori and his second wife, Shige. This project, overseen by the publisher to celebrate her oeuvre, included previously scattered pieces from the 1950s and 1960s, offering a thematic bridge between her early paternal tributes and later imaginative escapades.[21][22]Posthumously, Besuto Obu Dokkiri Chan'neru (Best of Dokkiri Channel) was issued in 1994 by Chikuma Shobo, edited by Midori Nakano, compiling selections from Mori's long-running television commentary column in Shūkan Shinchō (1979–1985).

This edition solidified her legacy by providing scholarly access to her full range of writings.[16][24]

Legacy and Recognition

Awards and Honors

Mari Mori's literary career gained significant recognition through several prestigious awards in Japanese literary circles, beginning in her mid-50s and continuing into the 1970s.

Following the end of this series, she withdrew from active literary and public engagements.Mori died on June 6, 1987, at the age of 84 in Tokyo.[11] The cause was heart failure, and she was found deceased in her Setagaya apartment two days later by a visiting housekeeper.[12]After her death, Mori's estate saw the posthumous release of compiled materials from her unpublished or serialized works.

He doted heavily on all of his children, but his bond with Mari was especially strong. While her works were occasionally reissued in illustrated editions by later publishers, her primary collaborations with visual artists were limited, focusing instead on textual aggregation that emphasized her prose's evocative quality.[16]One of her seminal essay collections, Zeitaku Binbō (Luxurious Poverty), appeared in 1964 under Kodansha, compiling pieces that critiqued modern Japanesesociety through a lens of opulent imagination amid material scarcity.

Originally serialized in the 1960s, the collection was curated to highlight her intuitive grasp of visual and tactile harmony, with pieces like those on floral confections and crimson motifs underscoring her synesthetic prose. For many years, she lived off the royalties earned from her father’s writing. These unions, while conforming superficially to societal norms of early arranged wedlock and homemaking, ultimately highlighted Mari's divergence from the era's rigid gender roles, influencing her later explorations of autonomy in her literary work.[4]

Later Years and Death

In the 1970s, Mari Mori continued her literary output despite her advancing age, culminating in the publication of her novelAmai Mitsu no Heya (The Room of Sweet Honey) in 1975.[4] This work, completed over nearly a decade when Mori was 72 years old, is considered a highlight of her later career for its exploration of intense emotional bonds.[3] It received critical acclaim.Entering the 1980s, Mori shifted focus to serialized TV commentary for Shūkan Shinchō magazine, contributing essays from 1979 to 1985 under the column "Dokkiri Channel."[10] These pieces, known for their sharp wit and observations on popular culture, represented her final sustained public writing effort.

Active throughout the 1960s and ’70s, Mori wrote passionate, homoerotic romances about elegant men living elegant lives.

mori mari gay stories

In 2023, an exhibition titled "Mari Mori, 120th Anniversary of Her Birth: Happy Days, Happiness in Writing" was held at the Mori Ōgai Memorial Museum in Tokyo from July 14 to October 1, commemorating her life and works.[2][32]Despite these developments, significant gaps persist in Western scholarship on Mori, with limited English-language studies beyond Vincent's analysis, leaving ample potential for further exploration of her portrayals of gender fluidity and queer desire in the context of mid-20th-century Japan.[31] This scarcity highlights opportunities to integrate her works more deeply into global discussions on female-authored erotica and non-normative sexualities.

By Keith Vincent, 2007

Mori Mari’s 1961 novella “Koibitotachi no mori” (“A Lovers’ Forest”) is the first story of a trilogy she wrote about passionate and doomed love affairs between older men and beautiful young boys.1 Mari’s work is invariably cited by Japanese scholars as the antecedent of a genre of manga and popular novels written by women for women about male-male love that began to emerge in the 1970s and remains extremely popular today.2 While there are many terms to refer to the manga and fiction that followed Mari’s lead (and many debates over generic classifications), for brevity’s sake I use the term yaoi here to refer to the whole genre.

Edited as a standalone gathering of her mid-career nonfiction, it captured her transition from familial memoirs to broader cultural commentary, establishing her as a distinctive voice in postwaressay literature.[17][18]In 1968, Shinchosha released Watashi no Bi no Sekai (My World of Beauty), another key essay compilation that explored themes of aesthetics in everyday life, from cuisine to fashion.

She later said that she couldn’t stand living in Sendai “without Ginza or Mitsukoshi nearby.”

Mori struggled to maintain her former standard of living after her two divorces. These compilations, published primarily in the mid-to-late 20th century, gathered her contributions from magazines and earlier publications, providing readers with curated insights into her aesthetic sensibilities and daily observations.

Divided into three romance volumes—featuring works like Madoruwa zero Ru Ruwu (Mademoiselle Lu Lu)—and three essay volumes—including compilations of Chichi no Bōshi (Father's Hat), Zeitaku Binbō, and Watashi no Bi no Sekai, as well as Maria no Kifure Gaki (Maria's Whimsical Writings)—the set was edited to juxtapose her fictional and nonfiction output.

In her essay “Thorn” (“Toge”), she contrasts Yamada unfavorably with her father, likening her grief to the trauma caused by the loss of a lover.

Mori divorced in 1927, leaving her two children, Jacques and Toru, in the Yamada family’s care; she wouldn’t reunite with them until two decades later. The awards were conferred by organizations dedicated to promoting excellence in essays, women's literature, and imaginative prose, reflecting the evolving landscape of Japan's literary establishment during a period of cultural reconstruction and feminist literary growth.[25]In 1957, Mori received the Japan Essayist Club Award for her essay collection Chichi no Bōshi (My Father's Hat), marking her debut as a professional writer at age 54 and signaling the value placed on personal, reflective nonfiction in Japan's essay tradition.[26] This prize, administered by the Japan Essayist Club, celebrated works that captured intimate human experiences with elegance, and Mori's win positioned her alongside contemporaries exploring autobiographical themes amid postwar introspection.By the early 1960s, Mori's transition to fiction earned her further accolades.