The Body as Technoscientific Instrument in Yumeno Kyūsaku’s “Ningen Rekōdo” (1936)

In January 1936, the general-interest magazine Gendai (現代, Modern) published the short story “Ningen rekōdo” (人間レコー ド, The Human Record) by Yumeno Kyūsaku (夢野久作) (nom de plume of Sugiyama Yasumichi or Taidō [杉山泰道], 1889-1936) among its fictional pieces. It is a spy story with science fiction elements that speculates on transforming the human subject into a courier of secret messages by technologically manipulating the brain. As such, it anticipates later concerns about technoscientific control through the specific mechanisms of the voice and the human body as an instrument.