SOURCE: Michiko Suzuki. Becoming Modern Women: Love and Female Identity in Prewar Japanese Literature and Culture, 2009.

"Let the girl stay in her world of dreams, her gentle spirit sleeping for as long as possible. Once this spirit has developed to its fullest in this world, she will leave in beauty, like a butterfly shedding its chrysalis. . . .
Of course, with the growth of her emotions, the girl will no longer be allowed to live in this sweet, soft world of shadows. . . . Descending from the light pink tower of dreams, girls are awakened by the coldness of their bare feet on the ground. They will find their selfhood [jiga] within themselves. . . .
Selfhood—the world will now be restructured around this new discovery.
. . . Selfhood becomes the fountain of all creation and worth. . . . The establishment of this selfhood, its growth and development, is the one true task given to humans in their lives."

In this 1925 essay, we can see Yoshiya’s vision of female growth: the girl awakens from the same-sex dream world to enter adulthood, a world that requires the development of selfhood. The Western fairytale trope of descending the tower often symbolizes entry into heterosexuality, but here Yoshiya emphasizes instead the girl’s self-discovery. "Two Virgins in the Attic" dramatizes this awakening; the protagonist, Takimoto Akiko, finds her sense of self not by a prince’s kiss but through love for another woman, her dorm mate, Akitsu Tamaki.

__

Akiko, a higher girls’ school graduate, is attending a teachers’ school, and Miss Akitsu is also a student at an advanced institution. The text specifically describes Akiko as a young woman, older than a girl. Despite her age, however, Akiko has no direction in life and needs to grow up and find herself; an unhappy, childlike person, she is portrayed negatively, as an individual lacking a “vital nail” (kaname no kugi), like a structure in danger of collapsing.
Her tendency to daydream is an additional sign of girlhood and alludes to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s (1849–1924) A Little Princess (1905), known to Japanese readers as Shōkōjo.
...
For Akiko, the “ATTIC” is a sanctuary that allows her to dream; it is an exotic non-Japanese space, triangular in shape, with blue walls and laden with cut tatami mats. In this space, separate from the everyday world, Akiko becomes increasingly fascinated by
Miss Akitsu, who lives in the adjoining room.
...
After Akiko realizes that she loves Miss Akitsu, the language describing her feelings shifts, articulating the forbidden nature of this desire.
...
Akiko is ultimately able to break out of the girlish association of same-sex love when she publicly rejects her belief in God. The novel explains that Akiko grew up in a Baptist household, but even as a child she had an aversion to gloomy images of Christ and was severely scolded for replacing his picture with that of a young female dancer.
...
Two Virgins in the Attic is distinct from girls’ fiction in its emphasis on the physical dimensions of same-sex love. Rather than graduating from a platonic, same-sex love to achieve heterosexual maturity, Akiko and Miss Akitsu experience sensuality. By writing such an unacceptable scene of adult love in the acceptable language of girls’ writing, Yoshiya avoids censure and rejects the view that such love is “abnormal.” This approach can be interpreted as a result of the lack of stylistic tradition for depicting love
scenes between females, but it is also a strategic choice, invoking the purity associated with Flower Tales to claim legitimacy for their love. The narrative shows the merging of innocent spiritual love and physical sexual love, a powerful reframing of same-sex love through modern love ideology.
...
As if to emphasize Akiko’s development and discovery of identity through this love, the motifs and language of the text change after the two characters begin to live together. Tears, melancholy, nostalgia, and imagination decrease as motifs, and the narrative style shifts to a more standard, dialogue-centered form.
...
In Two Virgins in the Attic it is the failure of same-sex love to be realized that leads to pain and even violence. Akiko experiences a crisis when Ban Kinu, Miss Akitsu’s former schoolmate who is now unhappily married, begins to visit and send telegrams and letters to Miss Akitsu.
...
The novel suggests that it is not same-sex love per se that is dangerous. Rather, the danger lies in the inability of this love to be fully realized, sustained, and articulated; the danger is the continued silence. When she believes her love is lost, Akiko regresses, acting much like her old inarticulate and childish self.
...
In the final scene, it is revealed that Kinu, disillusioned by marriage, had been asking Miss Akitsu to commit love suicide with her, but Miss Akitsu had refused this request because she was in love with Akiko. Instead of choosing death, a destructive resolution for same-sex love, Akiko and Miss Akitsu choose a path that is neither deadly nor debilitating but that allows them to grow and find their true selves.

"Was Akiko able to have such a thing as “selfhood” —did she have such a thing? . . .
Her heart’s vital nail was not missing at all. Was she not a girl with a “selfhood” more reckless than others, a strong, persistent “selfhood”? . . .
“Can there be life as individuals without selfhood?—No, there cannot—,”
Miss Akitsu proclaimed. “Miss Takimoto, the two of us must become strong women. If they want us to leave the attic, we should leave today or tomorrow. There are other places the two of us can go. . . . From now, let us live as strong people, making this place our starting point. What does it matter if we go against society or morals? The way we choose to live our lives is for us
to decide. There must be a way that we can follow. Let us find our destinies together, a path that only the two of us will follow—from now—”"

This awakening enables the two women to leave the attic with confidence, and the novel concludes on a hopeful and positive note:
"(Our attic)
Farewell! . . .
The attic that became a blue cradle that nurtured the (fate) of the two maidens!
Farewell—
Thus—the two virgins, Akitsu Tamaki and Takimoto Akiko, left together, leaving a goodbye kiss on the attic’s blue wall.
Pursuing their new fate!
Searching for their path to follow!"