One of the myriad publications produced by the movement during the early 1970s was a journal which brought together two key movement terms in its title: Onna Erosu (Woman Eros, founded in 1973). The editors were professional journalists, writers and poets, who saw the need for a new forum for feminist expression. In its inaugural issue, the editors announced its purpose.
We are onna first and foremost; before we are human we are onna. Now… let us raise our raw voices, each and every onna free from any restrictions, as a vital means to create new values. (Onna Erosu 1973: 7-9)
The purpose of the journal was for onna to express themselves, emphasising their liberation from any rules or regulations. This raw, uninhibited expression was seen as intimately linked to the liberation of women’s sexuality and eros. The editors state that they ‘foresee the vital need and desire for a collective based on relations animated by eros’ (Onna Erosu 1: 7-9). After establishing the journal, the editors were sometimes contacted by men who assumed that the publication was a pornographic magazine. This reclaiming of eros for women by women was akin to Audre Lorde’s reclamation of the concept of the erotic for women, in her famous text, Uses of the Erotic (Lorde 1978). In both cases, women’s sexuality is affirmed as a source of power, and distinguished from depictions of women’s sexuality in dominant forms of media and pornography.
The inaugural edition of Onna Erosu was a special issue called ‘Unsettling the Marriage System’. The journal commenced with articles affirming women’s independence, and put forward the transformative concept of the ‘eros of anti-Marriage’. The second issue was titled, ‘To Live Anti-Marriage’, creating new feminist terms such as anti-marriage and non-marriage (hankekkon/ RS® and hikon/^Ш). Their stance emphasised the liberation of women’s sexuality and desires from the confines of the patriarchal marriage system, catalysing a sexual revolution from a feminist standpoint. These journals also included articles about the exploitation of women’s sex, on re-evaluating menstruation, lesbian experience, and a report about the women’s liberation movement in the US. Such articles offer a glimpse of the discursive (r)evolution the ribu movement constituted, involving hundreds of publications, bulletins, pamphlets and newsletters, circulating across the nation. Representative samples of these writings have been collected and republished in Shiryo Nihon Uman ribu shi (Documents of the History of Women’s Liberation in Japan, Mizoguchi et al. 1992—95); a massive three volume series edited by Mizoguchi Akiyo, Saeki Yoko and Miki Soko. Articles in these collections advance arguments about US militarised imperialism and the exploitation of Okinawan women as prostitutes (Mizoguchi et al. 1992—95, Vol. I: 159—60), menstruation and the sexuality of ‘unwed mothers’ (Mizoguchi et al. 1992—95, Vol II: 335), women loving women, and men’s liberation (Mizoguchi et al. 1992—95, Vol. III: 381, 395—418). In these ways, ribu groups broke new ground by putting forward a radical feminist discourse which transformed the accepted norms of women’s life, labour and sexuality.
Ribu’s concept of eros between women was expressed through the creation of women-centred spaces and cultural practices, and women expressing their love and sexual desire for other women. Activists like Iwatsuki Sumie (also known as Asatori Sumie) were influential in the creation of women’s spaces and feminist cultural productions. Iwatsuki, a lesbian who strongly advocates the value of onna loving onna, was a lead organiser of the Witch Concerts (Majo Konsato), held in 1974, 1976 and 1977 in Tokyo. These concerts were organised to celebrate women musicians and artists and a women-centred culture. The Witch Concerts manifested ribu’s notion of eros and the cultivation of a culture which emphasised the importance and value of pleasure for onna with onna. They demonstrated that the movement also sought to liberate men from their gender norms; men were welcome to support and participate by learning how to become childcare providers for the Witch Concerts. Although the ribu movement focused on women, they understood that men also needed to be liberated from the strictures of oppressive gender norms.