LOVE'S LABOURS Love Upon the Chopping Board, by Marou Izumo and Claire Maree. Melbourne: Spinifex, 2000. Reviewed by Tania Oost Love Upon the Chopping Board is a biography, or duography, co-written by Japanese born Marou Izumo and Australian born Claire Maree (or JJ as she refers to herself). Meeting in a bar in Shinjuku Ni-Chome, Tokyo, Marou and Claire soon fall in love, move in together and become politically involved in gay liberation efforts in Japan. This book is their combined accounts of their relationship and of the subversive joys and oppressive hardships to be found when living as a gay couple in a heterosexist environment. Love Upon the Chopping Board effectively elucidates the entrenched oppression inherent in heterosexist and patriarchal bureaucracy, and always these two women are inspiring for their uncompromising confrontation with the powers-that-be. In Japan, for example, it is unheard-of to live legitimately as a gay couple. While straight couples must marry to gain the full legal rights of a family, this is not an option open to, or even often desired by lesbian couples. However, those lesbian women who would prefer to be 'protected' under family law have occasionally adopted their partners in a pseudo mother-daughter relation in order to secure the legal papers and rights that would be afforded to a conventional Japanese family. This hardly seems ideal because the 'mother' could conceivably hold more power in the relationship than the 'daughter' and, if the relationship ended, who would have the right over property? Izumo explains that in order to gain the social recognition that they both need and have a right to, they must not participate in the very institutions which oppress them and that efface their real identities. Instead they follow closely the sentiments of Hashimoto Osamu who writes that 'lovers throw away conventions and promises of love, to fly beyond the earth. If these lovers fall to earth, it will be because of the gravitational pull of single pieces of paper.' (10) Yet it is these small pieces of paper that make such a difference in their lives. Claire Maree provides an insight into being a 'gaijin' or foreigner in Japan and the problems of obtaining visas and accommodation as a foreign woman. She is forced to return to Australia to complete her degree before her visa can be extended in Japan. Finding accommodation back in Japan is difficult for 'single friends' living together, being apparently less reliable than a (presumably nuclear) family. Izumo must provide a respectable family seal, or stamp (either her doctor-father's or another professional's) which functions as a signature and guarantor for any lease. In many ways living in a lesbian relationship demands that they reinvent the wheel. Together they create the first legal Joint Living Agreement for same-sex couples in Japan, which gives each partner the legal right to decide on what will be done with the property and body of the other upon her death. Their feelings of exclusion and invisibility, both as lesbian individuals and as a legitimate couple, lead them almost inevitably towards positive political action. From their tiny one room apartment, which they share with long-time feline companion Nyan Nyan, they instigate and organise protests, gay-pride parades, plays and underground magazines. In its detail these chapters resembles a 'how to' guide for arranging and staging such events. Many of Izumo's chapters diverge from this theme and she provides a compelling and insightful account of her upbringing in a very traditional and patriarchal Japanese family. She was raised to be submissive and to use submissive language towards her father, and when she questioned her role in the family, she was told simply that it is her place because she is a girl. Secrecy and denial were the silent rule in her home and Izumo feels unable to ever discuss her own desires or sexuality within the family, for 'it is better to say nothing' than to disrupt the family. Her feelings of indignation, anger and frustration throughout her account are palpable. She also shares with the reader her first true love, her elopement and eventual abandonment as a young woman, and one gets the feeling her stories are told for their cathartic effect. Each chapter shifts from one topic and voice to another in a kaleidoscope of personal childhood memories, experiences, Japanese lesbian history, and a 'how to' guide for political activism. Being mainly composed of several chapters originally published in Japanese and solely written by Izumo, Maree's own contribution comes only in this second edition published for English readers. Perhaps for this reason, it at times seems disjointed and unsure of what it means to say. Nevertheless it provides a nice insight into the women's relationship, and into their determined personalities. Its historical references are also a compelling read for the uninitiated. Tania Oost is an Honours Student in Women's Studies at The University of Queensland.