Since its publication in 1992, Honda Masuko's seminal essay ‘The Genealogy of Hirahira: Liminality and the Girl’, together with her concept of hirahira (associated with shōjo-ness), has inspired and continues to influence debate on the subversiveness of shōjo culture. Many scholars have built their discussions upon or against Honda's account of shōjo, yet the specific study of girls' reading/(re)writing activities and how these activities make sense to the girls has been sparse, at best. Girl Reading Girl in Japan fills in that void, and appropriately, it opens with a translation of Honda's influential article. The collection underscores the significance of reading practices of girls (about other girls) through various media in Japan—the activity that has contributed to the realization of a girls' ‘imagined community’. The broad scope covers different historical periods and genres of girls' reading practices, and its recurring message—the power of girls' reading to subvert a patriarchal vision—will be relevant to those studying identity politics of other marginalized cultural products.
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K. YOSHIDA (2010) studied this question.