Yakyuken
One year ago, after weeks of intensive research, I put together a culmination of available knowledge on dB-Softâs notorious, under-documented 177. My intent was for this to be the first of many projects detailing the cultural role and history of key eroge works. My research into 177 bore fruit for seemingly countless historical forays into the likes of Lover Boy, Lolita Syndrome, Night Life, and Emmy. Information on these titles was somewhat scant to be sure, but there was enough to construct a narrative. Lover Boy was knocked out in a couple days, and in revisiting my list of potential topics I was intrigued by a title Iâd popped on there without much thought:
YakyĹŤken (Hudson Soft, n.d.)
Supposedly this predated Koeiâs Night Life and even On-Line Systemsâ Softporn Adventure by quite some margin, though the specific date was up for debate if not entirely lost. If I were to talk about PSKâs Lolita: YakyĹŤken at some point, surely it would make more sense to tackle its progenitor first. This presented a few problems. First, there is not exactly a plethora of information about this primitive eroge. Second, it seems to have left no impact. Third, there was no way to play it. For all I knew, YakyĹŤken did not even exist in the first place, and if it had, nobody had bothered to back it up. VGDensetsu had collated some basic information and screenshots,[1] and BEEP had acquired a copy in 2015,[2] but these only served to tease me, increasing my appetite for forbidden fruit. The type-in version printed in MZ-700 Joyful Pack only had one page of the code documented online, and a search of previous Yahoo! Auctions listings for either cassette came up empty. But MZ-700 Joyful Pack seemed to turn up frequently, that seemed the best course of action.
Unwilling to wait for it to be listed on Yahoo! Auctions again, I turned to Kosho, Japanâs secondhand bookstore search engine. Finding one listing, without a picture, I took a gamble on a copy of what appeared to be the right issue of MZ-700 Joyful Pack, and patiently waited. A month later, it arrived at my door, and while it looked different from the one I had seen online, I excitedly opened it up, flipping through each page for my treasure. Were I looking into computerised Shogi, Go, and Mahjong, I would have found it. Every type-in was a trainer, solver, or some other supplementary program for these three Japanese board games. The trail turned ice cold. Distraught, I resigned myself to searching Yahoo! Auctions weekly for the correct MZ-700 Joyful Pack or a YakyĹŤken cassette. After another month, the same tape I had seen on BEEP popped up; HuPack #2 for Sharp MZ-700.
Forty years old. Dirty. Discoloured. Untested. I set up my bid in a panic, shaking with anticipation for the next four days, pleading nobody would top my already high bid. I won, it reached my proxy after a week, it was on its way. Quaking as a leaf in a stiff wind, it arrived. Quickly it dawned on me my tape deck had been broken for years, but some kind folks at Gaming Alexandria thankfully offered to dump and scan it on my behalf.[3] After many months of searching, this seemingly lost progenitor to the entirety of erotic gaming was available again. Nobody particularly cared, but I had the first piece of the puzzle I needed. Tape back in hand, I imported a copy of Miyamoto Naoyaâs seminal Introduction to Cultural Studies: Adult Games, the first edition of BishĹjo Game Maniax, Sansai Booksâ 35 Years of BishĹjo Game History, and Maeda Hiroshiâs Our BishĹjo Game Chronicle, the only books I could source that made mention of YakyĹŤken.
Only problem was, what exactly is YakyĹŤken. Why are we stripping while playing rock paper scissors in the first place?
On the Origins of Rock Paper Scissors
Though now effectively ubiquitous across a multitude of cultures, rock paper scissors type hand games (ken) have enjoyed an astounding popularity in Japan since the eighteenth century. Brought to Japan from China sometime before 1743, the original form of Japanese ken is referred to today as kazu-ken, Nagasaki-ken, and hon-ken (âoriginal kenâ). Players sat opposite one another, showed any number of fingers on their right hand, and called out a guess as to what the sum of the fingers would be. The left hand counted oneâs wins, and the loser of a set was made to drink a cup of sake. With its specific hand movements, Chinese mode of calling numbers, and embedded rules of drinking, kazu-ken flourished in the red-light district of Yoshiwara.[4] Its exoticism in the time of sakoku and Japanese Sinophilia no doubt contributed to its proliferation. However, the theatrics and, as Japanologist Sepp Linhart argues, ritualistic rules made the game difficult to penetrate for those not in the know, a far cry from the rock paper scissors we know today.[5]
Representation of mushi-ken, one of the earliest rock-paper-scissor or sansukumi-ken games. Published in the Kensarae sumai zue by Yoshinami and Gojaku
Subsequent iterations of ken remedied the complications through the familiar sansukumi-ken (âken of the three which cower one before the otherâ) format.[6] A wins over B, B over C, C over A. In its first iteration, mushi-ken, the frog (represented by the thumb) defeated the slug (the pinkie) which won over the snake (index finger). Itself another cultural import from China, mushi-ken gradually acquired a reputation as a game explicitly for children[7], but what won over it culturally was kitsune-ken, later Touhachi-ken. The kitsune trumps the head of the village which wins over the hunter which kills the kitsune. This two-handed ken was more popular among adults in and out of districts like Yoshiwara, particularly as the basis for libations or stripping.[8] The accompanying song, dance, and act of playing kitsune-ken as a strip-game were known as chonkina, the loser doffing an article of clothing until one was bare. Clearly intended for adult entertainment, chonkina nonetheless made itself known to children in time, as recalled in Shibuzawa Seikaâs Asakusakko:
"Two children, standing opposite to each other, after having put together the palms of their hands right and left as well as alternately, finally make one of the postures of fox, hunter or village headman to decide a winner. The loser has to put off a piece of what he is wearing every time, until one of them is stark naked. To see the little children on cold winter days trembling, because one after another piece of cloth was stripped them off is a strange scene which can no longer be seen today."[9]
As the nation opened to foreigners again, chonkina became well known among foreigners, and due to the bad reputation it was bestowing to Japan, it was outlawed from September 1894 onward.[10]
Childrenâs mushi-ken would go on to evolve into jan-ken, the rock paper scissors with which we are familiar, but the specifics of when and how are unclear and unimportant for our purposes. Jan-ken was the preeminent ken by the end of the Meiji period, and ken on the whole was relegated to the realm of children. However, as a game intimately familiar to nearly all Japanese beyond childhood, the simple, fast-paced trichotomy of jan-ken, alongside its association with punishment systems like drink and stripping afforded jan-ken staying power beyond childhood.[11] It is a game which effectively boils down to luck, allowing for decision-making that, if nothing else, is understood to be fair.
Putting the YakyĹŤ in YakyĹŤken
Itâs October, 1924 in Takamatsu. To break in the new ground at Yashima, nearby industrial companies and technical schools are holding a baseball tournament. In a crushing defeat of 0-8, the team from Iyo Railway (later Iyotetsu) was humiliated by the Kosho Club, composed of students from Kagawa Prefectural Takamatsu Commercial School (now Kagawa Prefectural Takamatsu Commercial High School). [12] Later that night, the teams held a get-together at a nearby ryokan, putting on enkai-gei (âparty tricksâ). Manager of the Iyotetsu team and senryĹŤ poet, Goken Maeda, devised an arrangement and choreography of the 1878 nagauta piece âGenroku Hanami Odori.â The Iyotetsu team danced to shamisen in their uniforms to the delight of those in attendance. This first iteration of what would become YakyĹŤken (literally âbaseball fistâ) was based on the Japanese rock paper scissors variant kitsune-ken, but by 1947 it came to reflect now common variant jan-ken.[13] The YakyĹŤken performance was repeated at a consolation party in Iyotetsuâs hometown of Matsuyama, quickly gaining popularity therein and throughout Japan as the team performed it while on tour.[14]
YakyĹŤken performed at the Matsuyama consolation party
The camaraderie instilled in audiences by the Iyotetsu teamâs dance, and its spread as enkai-gei, led to many localised instances of this new form of jan-ken being performed.[15] The specifics of how prevalent it became are impossible to discern, but what is known is that YakyĹŤken, as with the earlier kazu-ken and kitsune-ken, became another diversion used as an excuse to imbibe and to disrobe.
éçăăăŞăăăăăĺ ˇĺăŤăăăăăăăď˝ă˝ăŠ ăăăăăăď˝
ćăăăăăăćăŁăŚăćăŁăăŞăăăăĺăăŚ
ăŠăłăăźăŤăŞăŁăăă¨ăăľăăľăď˝ă˘ăŚăăťăťăźăă¨ă¨ă¤ăă¨ă¤ď˝
Itâs 1954. Contemporary RyĹŤkĹka artists Ichiro Wakahara and Terukiku of King Records,[16] Yukie Satoshi and Kubo Takakura of Nippon Columbia,[17] and Harumi Aoki of Victor Japan[18] have all released 78 rpm singles with their own takes on YakyĹŤken. This musical multiple discovery of a still relatively local song brought into question where it had actually originated, with a photograph of the Matsuyama consolation party cementing Goken Maeda as its creator.[19] With this, Maedaâs original, non-chonkina song and dance came to be understood as honke YakyĹŤken, the orthodox iteration, the way it was meant to be. As the dance spread, alcohol flowed and clothes were shed. In an attempt to preserve the sanctity of Maedaâs phenomenon, fellow poet Tomita Tanuki established an iemoto system for honke YakyĹŤken around 1966, formalising its lyrical structure and attempting to preserve YakyĹŤken as a way, not unlike sumo. As iemoto, Tanuki in effect declared himself to be the highest authority on honke YakyĹŤken â it did not and would not matter how YakyĹŤken was actually enjoyed colloquially, only what the iemoto approved of constituted the real thing. At the same time, the city of Matsuyama introduced a new taiko performance â the Iyo-no-Matsuyama Tsuzumi Odori â for that yearâs Matsuyama Odori festival. While it was popular, it lacked regionalism, and so in 1970, it was replaced with YakyĹŤken Odori.[20] It wasnât just local flavour, however, as the year prior YakyĹŤken became a national phenomenon for more unsavoury reasons.
Birth of a Sensation: YakyĹŤken Breaks Into the Mainstream, or Tits Out for TV
Just as in the United States, the 1960s in Japan were marked by an increase in individualsâ buying power and the proliferation of television. Whereas the prior decade relegated television sets to the homes of the wealthy or in street-side display windows, by 1970, 90% of Japanese households owned at least one television set.[21] The penetration of the entertainment sphere into the domestic realm led to a berth of variety and comedy shows, all emphasising the joys of laughter. This proliferation rose concerns among cultural critics in the 1960s, with fears that the often lowbrow, thoughtless humour which frequently lampooned violence and sexuality were unsuited to the home, particularly where children might be watching.[22] Furthermore, such programming was becoming increasingly rote and prescriptive in its approach, thereby lessening its effect with each broadcast, making this new mode of entertainment lascivious and boring. In breaking free of an ever rigid mould, Japanese televisionâs saviour came in the form of Hagimoto Kinichi and Sakagami JirĹâs comedy duo Konto 55-gĹ. Pronounced as âkonto go-jyuu go gĹ,â the nameâs syllabic tempo, evocation of go-go dancing, and abstruse referencing of baseball player Oh Sadaharuâs 55th homerun of the 1964 season all brought about a rapidity and contemporary sensibility fitting of the pairâs comedic stylings.[23]
Konto 55-gĹ members Sakagami JirĹ (left) and Hagimoto Kinichi (right)
From their television debut in 1967, Konto 55-gĹ demonstrated a dynamic physicality in stark contrast to similar acts, often moving so fast that cameras could not keep up with them, the laughter of the audience sometimes being the only indicator of a punchlineâs delivery.[24] While a breath of fresh air, cultural critics lambasted this seeming over-correction as yet again inappropriate for home audiences. On the other hand, audiences adored the duoâs comedy, with renowned Buddhist nun, translator of Genji Monogatari into modern Japanese, and self-described Konto 55-gĹ fan Jakucho Setouchi (then known as Harumi Setouchi) saying Kinichi and JirĹ made her âlaugh so much that [her] stomach ached."[25]
This focus on unpredictability, shattering of expectations and conventions, and need to perpetually one-up themselves, Konto 55-gĹ chased and reinforced the proliferation of what Allan Kaprow described as âHappening.â Originally coined in 1959 in reference to art-related events in which the artist took on theatrical directions and modes of expression, Happenings flourished throughout the United States through the 1950s and 1960s, spreading globally but predominantly in Germany and Japan.[26] In the context of the Japanese television industry, âHappeningâ was co-opted to refer to anything unscripted â quite the opposite from its intent as a label for deliberate performance â after the early 1968 program Kijima Norio Happuningu Sho (âKijima Norioâs Happening Showâ).[27] To be clear, Happenings in this context were still partially staged just as art Happenings were, but the intent from producers was that Happenings would go off the rails by virtue of a lack of scripting and the co-operation and involvement of audience participants. As other shows and producers chased this spontaneity and carried in the wake of Konto 55-gĹâs pioneering transgressions, the stakes became higher and content needed to become more compelling, more novel, more edgy, more risque.
The most critical apex of Happening for our purposes came in 1969 on Konto 55-gĹ no Urabangumi o Buttobase (âKonto 55-gĹ Blow away the competitionâ). It was here that YakyĹŤken was introduced as a segment of the program, with Kinichi and JirĹ facing off against numerous women, each stripping an article of clothing upon a loss. Removed articles were then auctioned to raise funds for children orphaned by traffic accidents.[28] The segment was an enormous hit among adults and children, some critics praising this nakedness as incredibly real, the pinnacle of the Happening.[29] At the same time, just as with all of Konto 55-gĹâs antics, many loathed this primetime strip tease wholly inappropriate for children to view, some citing it as a siege against one of the sole bulwarks left against Japanâs growing moral decline, the home.[30] Scorn came not only from without, however, but within as well. Kinichi would later go on to say Konto 55-gĹ no Urabangumi o Buttobase was his most disliked programme he ever worked on, in no small part due to the YakyĹŤken segment which brought viewers in not for the comedy of the duo, but for the titillation and obscenity of the YakyĹŤken act itself.[31] Furthermore, in 2005, Kinichi visited Matsuyama to apologise personally to fourth honke YakyĹŤken iemoto Tsuyoshitoshi Sawada for misrepresenting YakyĹŤken. Despite this resentment from Kinichi and some critics, YakyĹŤken reinvigorated jan-ken into a game with stakes, with merriment, with rules everyone was already familiar with, with a catchy song and dance, that brought the Happening into the real world.
Through Konto 55-gĹâs work, YakyĹŤken presented the same problem that chonkina had in the previous century â a breaking of the boundaries between adult entertainment and the recreation of children. This was no longer bound to the district of Asakusa, but the whole of Japan. Further still, the growing popularity of YakyĹŤken and its association with Konto 55-gĹ spread the popular conception of the dance originating as a strip performance, rendering the attempts of Tanukiâs iemoto system to preserve the sanctity of Maedaâs original work increasingly ineffective. The iemoto system only had merit when the associated act could be considered a tradition worth preserving such as tea ceremony or calligraphy. With YakyĹŤken compromising the cultural zeitgeist as a strip game, it became difficult to consider it a valuable cultural commodity. While it is possible this was the greater underlying reason for Matsuyamaâs introduction of YakyĹŤken Odori to the Matsuyama Odori festival in 1970, it cannot be stated as certainty. What was certain was that YakyĹŤken was here to stay as a television staple, at least for a moment.
YakyĹŤken remained a part of Konto 55-gĹ no Urabangumi o Buttobase through to the end of 1969, afterwards being spun-off into its own program Konto 55-gĹ no YakyĹŤken!! From November 26, 1969, thirty minutes of strip rock-paper-scissors littered the airwaves every Wednesday at 9PM until the program was discontinued in April 1970.[32] YakyĹŤken would not be broadcast on Nippon TV for another two decades, returning on New Yearâs Eve, 1993 as part of Supa Denpa Bazaru Toshikoshi Janbo Dosokai (âSuper Radio Bazaar New Yearâs Jumbo Alumni Reunionâ). Though no longer televised in the interim, YakyĹŤken remained in the cultural zeitgeist as a strip game. While impossible to discern at what point YakyĹŤken became a mainstay of Japanese pornographic production, it has become ubiquitous â a cursory search of Japanese pornographic clip site eroterest.net gives over 34,000 results for YakyĹŤken. What is certain is that YakyĹŤken similarly became not just a mainstay of Japanese erotic video games, but the foundation of the entire industry.
In Which I Finally Tell You About the Video Game YakyĹŤken by Hudson Soft
With 500,000 yen in starting capital, brothers YĹŤji and Hiroshi KudĹ founded Hudson Co., Ltd. in Toyohira-ku, Sapporo on May 18, 1973. Named after the duoâs favourite class of train, the 4-6-4 Hudson, YĹŤji and Hiroshi sold fine art photographs of locomotives. In September, the brothers opened a dedicated amateur radio shop, CQ Hudson, which stood at 3-7-26, Hiragishi, Toyohira-ku into the new millennium.[33] After travelling to the US shortly thereafter to market their wares, YĹŤji saw personal computers on general sale for the first time, inspiring him to bring home a PolyMorphic Systems Poly-88 to Japan and learn to program, taking on two million yen in credit card debt to finance the purchase.[34] Well before the personal computer revolution hit Japan, The KudĹ brothers were pioneers. The shops of Akihabara bore no fruit for them, necessitating the Poly-88 import. By 1975, the KudĹs had fully branched out into personal computer products, turning type-in programs into pre-packaged cassette tape releases for the sake of convenience, and becoming early adopters of NECâs 1976 TK-80 and Sharpâs MZ-80 line of computers.[35] The KudĹ brothers also began to start writing their own programs around this time under the development team name Miso Ramen Group.
Hudson released at least thirty-seven games for the MZ-80 line, available occasionally as type-ins in magazines like Micom or in books like MZ-80Bć´ťç¨ç 犜. There was a little bit of everything in Miso Ramen Groupâs offerings, from the Maze War-esque Ramen Maze 3D to Othello to Operation Escape, wherein the player had to sneak out of class not unlike Konamiâs 1984 Beatles-laden Mikie.[36] In the summer of 1979, Hudson was approached by a computer manufacturer with a proposal to sell their software by mail order with an advertisement in Micom for July 1979.[37] The ads were a success, with the KudĹs recounting later that deposits at the bank took upwards of thirty minutes because tellers thought they might be criminals.[38] YakyĹŤkenâs existence in this initial advertisement makes it plain that the game was developed prior to mid-1979, and the ad was laid bare in a 1996 television documentary special by NHK. Yet YakyĹŤkenâs status as the first commercial erotic game seems to have fallen to the wayside.
The July 1979 advertisement in Micom
The game is incredibly simple, as one might expect from a preliminary type-in program from the late 1970s.[39] The player decides how many articles of clothing they wish themselves to have, not dissimilar from a lives system, and is then introduced to their opponent, Megumi.
ăăăăăăżăăăăăă(âIâm Megumi, nice to meet you.â)
A few bars of the YakyĹŤken song beep languidly from the piezoelectric speaker with a bold OUT!! SAFE!! ă¨ă¨ă¤ăă¨ă¤ covering the screen. The player chooses ă° (rock), ăă§ă (scissors), or ă (paper). In the event of a tie, the process repeats. Should the player lose, an article of clothing is theoretically removed with no visual indication. Should they win, Megumi is declared âoutâ and her avatar removes an article of clothing. Shirt, skirt, bra, panties. An eyebrow is cocked when her outer attire comes off, the other joining in twain when her bra comes loose. When she loses her panties, Megumi covers her crotch and shrieks "ăăŁăźďźďźăŻăăăăŁăĄă¸ăăŁăŚďźďź" (âKyaa! Quickly, get out!!â) Game end. The original MZ-80 release was monochromatic, but the later MZ-700 versions were in colour, used to minimal effect. It really is as simple as that.
Whoâs on first?
Koeiâs first entry in their Strawberry Porno series, Night Life, dominates much of the historical record as the earliest erotic game, particularly in the West. Hardcore Gaming 101, Matthew T. Jones, Wikipedia, and MobyGames (among others) authoritatively claim it to be the first, and on occasion one might see PSKâs Lolita YakyĹŤken cited in its place, but both works released in 1982, the same year as Custerâs Revenge.[40] ASCII Corporationâs history of the NEC PC-8801 show similar family trees wherein Night Life is the root of all Japanese eroge, its own ancestor being On-Line Systemsâ 1981 Softporn Adventure.[41] So too does Pasokon Super Special PC Game 80s Chronicle.[42] When YakyĹŤken is mentioned by these sources, it is as a possibility, something which might be true but lacks veracity, yet the evidence is plain.
Night Life
Perhaps YakyĹŤken was simply too early, releasing before heavy-hitter platforms like the NEC PC-88 or Fujitsu FM-7. The MZ-80 lineâs flagship was the MZ-80K, released in 1978. It was available only as an assembly kit, which, coupled with its high retail price of ÂĽ198,000, left it in the realm of the enthusiast and academic (particularly engineering students).[43] While games were blatantly possible on the platform, they were far from the focus, limiting the audience for Hudsonâs games, particularly YakyĹŤken, dramatically. Further still, it was sold primarily through mail order, advertised in niche magazines without pictures. Hudson got paid, and quite well at that, but orders came for a litany of their products. Without knowing this was an explicit game, the prospect of playing digital jan-ken must have paled in comparison to Othello or Hudsonâs more arcade-style offerings. By the time it came to the next generation on 1982âs MZ-700, the floodgates had already been opened, and platforms capable of graphics dominated the eroge space.
Perhaps Night Life and Lolita YakyĹŤken take the historiographical spotlight because they lack the primitiveness of YakyĹŤken. There is no denying that YakyĹŤken lacks the graphical fidelity of its descendants. Bound by the 80 column by 50 row display of the MZ-80K, space is limited, colour an impossibility, and everything is comprised of text characters as the hardware could not display graphics. The Japanese character ROM bears no curvilinear shapes apart from circles.[44] The hand signs are malformed, and though your opponent, doesnât look bad per se, her rectangular bodyâs attempt at an hourglass figure is not exactly stunning. As games writer Yoshiki Osawa described it in the 2000 book Bisyoujyo Game Maniax, [sic] the visuals lack gender specificity, and exhibit a crudeness that cannot even be called ASCII art.[45] Compared to the full colour illustrations of PSKâs Lolita YakyĹŤken or even the silhouettes of Night Life, YakyĹŤken comes up short.
Lolita YakyĹŤken
Perhaps YakyĹŤken was too outdated to catch on without some additional gimmick such as lolicon artwork. The original dance craze had occurred a quarter-century earlier, and it had been barred from television for nearly a decade. By the admission of MZ-700 Joyful Pack, YakyĹŤken was unlikely to resonate with those who did not grow up in the postwar period. A craze to be sure, but a craze for a generation past, one which had little interest in computing. The type-inâs accompanying text even had to make explicit that YakyĹŤken had virtually nothing to do with baseball, despite its name, as well as the fact this was a game of chonkina.
What these comparisons ignore is that stunning the world was not necessarily YakyĹŤkenâs purpose. Though sold commercially, projects in its vein from Hudson were as much at home on cassette as they were printed as type-ins. By having their code laid entirely bare, type-ins meant hobbyists dabbling in a brand new technology could visually see and alter the program. The type-inâs purpose was to demonstrate what a computer could do. A user could change Megumi-chan into a man, increase her bust size, style her hair. Perhaps they could do away with jan-ken and replace its symbols with those from Touhachi-ken. Why not increase the number of options available for some digital Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock? Just as type-ins are used to teach today, so were they then â deliberately open ecosystems in which to learn. Night Life and Lolita YakyĹŤken were as walled gardens, the magic unable to be discerned.
In Which I Admit This is All Pedantry and Ultimately Does Not Matter
The fact is that this is all pedantry and ultimately it does not matter. While monumental firsts are readily recorded, the more niche the subject matter, the more abstruse the truth of a first becomes. Any history student can tell you this after a course on historiography and the historical method. The fact of the matter is that what comes first is arbitrary, determined by fallible, biased humans trying to further an argument.
The search for historical firsts has overtaken much of contemporary historical scholarship, and the problem with this is that there is invariably always an earlier example, and the argument of something as coming earlier is increasingly valueless. Certainly there will always come a true first, but how can we know it is certain with an always imperfect historical record? Does it matter if something came first if it was too ahead of its time? Would we be better off as historians focusing more on moments of critical mass as others in adjacent fields do, such as Marek Zvelebil did in his research on agricultural innovations in the archaeological record?[46] Who is to say. What I can say for sure is that I sincerely hope YakyĹŤken is not the first commercial erotic game. I hope to be disproved at some point in the future. I hope that in trying to set the record straight in this one instance, it can be set straight in another. I hope the drive for better histories never ends, and that at some point we can dwell less on firsts, and more on more critical narratives in games history, cultural history, human history.











