抄録
This essay discusses the semiotic complexity of cryptographic tattoos carved on the bodies of male characters in the manga Golden Kamuy to unpack the work they do in constructing gender. The series refrains from directly sexualizing its female characters but overtly sexualizes male bodies as an object of sexual desire. The cryptic tattoos on the prisoners’ bodies, which propel the quest of the series by representing where the Ainu gold is hidden, function as metaphoric vaginas to mark male bodies as female. These somatic representations allow the manga to have double layers of meaning. For readers familiar with the Boys Love (BL) genre, the male characters’ desire for tattooed male bodies is coded to suggest sexual relationships between men. However, the main plot renders such interpretations impossible by giving the pretext that the male characters are only looking for the gold that the cryptic tattoos indicate. Gags— sudden jokes that draw the readers’ attention and stall the narrative—serve to define the hierarchy of different layers of meaning by short-circuiting the potential for romance between men. Without such interruptions, the queer elements that should be suppressed would be foregrounded. In this sense, Shiraishi Yoshitake, the trickster, rhetorically structures the two narratives within the text, prioritizing the treasure plot while assuring that the homoerotic plot also remains intelligible.
