page_title: Torikaebaya Monogatari
section_title: Reception
hierarchical_section_title: Torikaebaya Monogatari / Reception
caption_attribution_description: English: Isis changing the sex of Iphis. Engraving by Bauer for a 1703 edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses Book IX, 773-797. Français&#160;: Isis changeant le sexe d'Iphis. Gravure de Bauer pour une édition de 1703 des Métamorphoses d'Ovide, livre IX, 773-797.
context_page_description: Torikaebaya Monogatari, translated into English as The Changelings, is a Japanese tale from the late Heian period by an unknown author, or possibly more than one author. It is four volumes in length.
  It is the tale of two siblings whose mannerisms are those of the opposite sex, and their relationships in the Emperor's court. It has been adapted as a novel, two different manga series, and a Takarazuka Revue play. It was translated into English in 1983. The reception of the tale over time has depended on how the society sees sex and gender issues, with one reading of it being as a ribald erotic comedy, while another reading is as a serious attempt to discuss sex and gender issues through a medieval Buddhist understanding.
context_section_description: The reception of the tale has been mixed, depending on the society's view of sex and gender.  The Mumyozoshi censures only Shi no Kimi, who should have been satisfied with her faithful and attentive (if female) husband. Meiji period critics were particularly repulsed by the tale, calling it part of the decline of the aristocracy, and due to this reputation, it received little study even as recently as 1959. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Morioka Tsuneo, Michihiro Suzuki (鈴木弘道, Suzuki Michihiro), and Sen'ichi Hisamatsu studied the tale's ethical aspects, attempting to rehabilitate the work from its reputation. More recently LGBT critics have prized the tale for its portrayal of lesbianism, centuries before the Class S genre, although Gregory Pflugfelder does not see the tale as being "lesbian", as he finds it problematic to apply modern labels to older texts.
  Torikaebaya has been described as a "sensationalist", "sprightly" and entertaining tale, but to Willig and Gatten, it is questionable as to whether the tale is intended as a farce, as during the period such issues were considered very grave and the results of bad karma in a former life. Gatten believes the tale to begin farcically, but says the characters grow out of their initial stereotypes to gain enough "psychological depth" to solve their difficulties, and the tale becomes a "realistic treatment of Heian sexual roles". Rohlich says that Torikaebaya is "clearly not meant to be comic", despite the plot deriving largely from "ironic misunderstandings" about the switch, "all else" in the tale, such as the relationships and the pursuits are "familiar stock-in-trade" from the monogatari genre. The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature says that Torikaebaya has several "delightful comic touches", such as the Chūnagon being thoroughly surprised when her wife Shi no Kimi becomes pregnant. Torikaebaya is also detailed in terms of its references to the effects of the weather, and the Chūnagon's morning sickness. Hayao Kawai considers the "alchemy" of the tale to be the "double existence" of the siblings, which drives the plot from beginning to end. Rohlich loses interest in the latter half of the tale after the siblings switch back.
  The Companion considers Torikaebaya to deal with issues of sex, sexuality and gender "more profoundly" than William Shakespeare or Ben Jonson. The princess's acceptance of the male Naishi no Kami as a female and a lover has been variously described as either that she is very sheltered, or that sexual relationships were common between court ladies at the time. Although the tale has been regarded as immoral, Gregory Pflugfelder says that ultimately, the tale conforms to traditional roles. The father of the children initially considers their condition to be preordained as "retribution" for something they did in their past lives, as part of a Buddhist worldview. Pflugfelder says that in the original text, the siblings' condition is not labelled definitively — where Willig adds "confusion of sexual identity", the original text says merely "such a condition".  The tengu were considered at the time to be evil, and the enemies of Buddhism.
  Anthony J. Bryant describes the encounters between Saishō and the Chūnagon, and the Emperor and the former Chūnagon as rape. Margaret Childs believes that in love relationships in ancient Japan, showing vulnerability was highly prized and erotic, unlike in modern American society. She believes that for both sexes, nurturing was "a fundamental component of love". Thus, when a woman expresses distress at a man's overtures, she becomes erotic to him. Childs contrasts the different ways that Naishi no Kami, Shi no Kimi and the female Chūnagon resist the overtures of Saishō. Naishi no Kami, the only successful resistant, resists by remaining cold and "impassive".  Saishō becomes distressed, but Naishi no Kami remains unmoved.  Although it is important to the plot that Naishi no Kami should not be discovered as a man, Childs believes that Naishi no Kami's tactic would have been considered plausible by th
caption: Iphis prays to the goddess Isis, and is turned into a man.
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