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Futanari (ふたなり, seldom:二形,双形, literally:dual form;二成,双成, literally: "[to be of] two kinds") is theJapanese word forhermaphroditism, which is also used in a broader sense forandrogyny.[1][2]: 79, 81
Beyond Japan, the term has come to be used to describe acommonly pornographic genre oferoge,manga, andanime, which includes characters that show primary sexual characteristics from bothfemales andmales.[1] In today's language, it refers almost exclusively to characters who have a female or overall feminine body, but have both female and male primary genitalia (although ascrotum is not always present, whilebreasts, apenis, and avulva are). The term is also often abbreviated asfuta(s), which is also used as a generalized term for the works themselves.[2]
The most accredited etymology of the word comes from anemakimono, a type of painted hand scroll, titledYamai No Soushi ("Scroll of Illness"), drawn between theHeian period and thekamakura period. In it are several depictions of individuals who possess traits of both typical male and female genitalia. The wordfutanari is used in the passage "You shall see how they possess both male and female roots. Truly they are of both forms/kinds/or aspects (futanari)."[3]
Japanesefolk religion created diverse fantasies related tosexual characteristics. Traditional vocal pieces that date back hundreds of years deliver rough evidence that a change of gender was not ruled out,[2]: 78–79 and that the representation of the gender was used to worship deities such asdōsojin, which sometimes had ambiguous gender, being neither male nor female. Gary Leupp adds that the origins might even reach back to the origins ofBuddhism, since the deities would not necessarily have a fixed or determinable gender.[1]
Likewise, the belief spread that some people could change their gender depending on thelunar phase. The term half-moon (半月,hangetsu) was coined to describe such beings.[2]: 79 Japanese traditional clothing, which made distinguishing men from women more difficult, as in other cultures, presumably might have had an influence on this development.[2]: 80 To restrict women from accessing prohibited areas and to avoid smuggling by hiding items in the belt bag, guard posts were assigned to perform body checks. Historical records indicate that guards liked to joke about this matter quite frequently, resulting in various stories and even poems.[2]: 80 Whether anatomical anomalies, such asclitoromegaly orunusual physical development, led to these assumptions remains an open question.[2]
Until 1644, whenonnagata actors were required to adopt male hairstyles regardless of the gender they were portraying, actors playing characters such as female warriors capitalized on the interest in thefutanari quality, which was common in bothsamurai and commoner society.[1]
Originally, the Japanese language referred to any character or real person that possessed masculine and feminine traits asfutanari.[citation needed] This changed in the 1990s, as drawn futanari characters became more popular inanime andmanga. Today, the term commonly refers to fictional hermaphroditic female characters.Futanari is also used as the term for a specific genre withinhentai-related media (pornographic anime or manga) that depicts such characters.
Futanari manga became popular in the 1990s and quickly became a part of the industry, cross-pollinating with multiple genres.[4]Toshiki Yui'sHot Tails is a well-known example of the genre in the West.[4]
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