flavors of ginhiji
towards the end of last year, kun tweeted this primer to the different ginhiji variants that appear in fanworks. i thought about how i would like to see something similar in english, remembered i can't draw, shelved the idea, and then time passed and here we are again.
so i've tried my best with some shittily creatively cobbled together official images. anyway, i haven't directly translated that tweet but i owe it a debt of gratitude for informing the shape of this post, and filling in my gaps of knowledge around the origins of some of the merch-based ones.
without further ado, here's a rundown of the various shapes of ginhiji you may encounter in the wild, colored heavily by books i like...
原作・original
everyone's favorite garden variety ginhiji! shipped by fans and anime staff the world over.
examples: it would be folly to try and pick just two, but folly is what we do best here. mifuyu kubota's confinement brilliant days is one of my absolute favourites, recommended especially if you like a slightly less traditionally uke-ish hijikata. sho has their past gh works on pixiv, of which i particularly enjoy 「ここほれわんわん」, in which gintoki falls victim to some dog-like behaviours.
W副長 ・double vice-commander
vice-commander x vice-commander. this one born of the shinsengumi crisis arc, though various other if-style stories get told about gintoki getting taken in by the shinsengumi earlier in life and holding the post of vice-commander alongside hijikata.
examples: as one of the eternal enduring settings, most creators have probably written a book or drawn art around w fukuchou. consider sawara's excellent inu series, or the 2018 zweikopfig anthology.
ぱっつち・pattsuchi
ginpachi-sensei x student hijikata, from the 3Z light novel setting.
examples: this one is also widely loved by the community and has been extensively depicted in fanbooks. syaku's stromatolite is my beloved, but there are countless others, many fully available online; try 「かいごろし」 by NUIS or 「夏色ビール」 by inuko.
ぜっさん・zessan
student gintoki x teacher hijikata. so named for being reverse 3Z - that is, Z3.
examples: nanakan's 「おねがい先生!!」, kenken's 「雄穴に挿らずんば卒業を得ず!?」. kannagi is also a major proponent of the zessan agenda, regularly posting zessan art to twt.
同級生／DKS・classmates
settings where ginhiji are both students, usually a high school setting but all other variants occur.
examples: harada's college-setting ochiru is a classic. kun recently put out a web reprint of a DKS book from 2021.
副トシ・fukutoshi
vice-commander sakata x yorozuya toshi-chan. reverse setting with their stations switched, readily inferred from the outfit swaps of the cover art of vol.5, chap.33.
examples: there was a celebration month for fukutoshi in 2022; this hashtag still remains a treasure trove. one of the organizers of that month, mio, did some wonderful fukutoshi books like 「さくらのまにまに」.
夜叉ポニ・yashaponi
shiroyasha x ponikata. an if setting where young gintoki in his shiroyasha era meets young hijikata in his baragaki era.
examples: hidaka's 「在りし日のしるべ」 series, syaku's 「火が飛ぶ」 series.
魘デコ・endeko
enmi gintoki x dekokata. this one from the BFY movie; "deko" means "forehead", referencing the hairstyle of five years later hijikata, though you may see dekokata used to refer to other settings (especially Z3 hijikata). hello, angst!
examples: syaku's 「誰そ彼」, niratama's lonesome ghost. more recently, kaise web released 「white out」.
寅丑・toraushi
tiger x cow/ox. this one comes from a chinese zodiac merch line. consider yourself warned that works of this variety can get hella sussy hella fast.
examples (non-sussy): kei's baby i love you and sweet life to you. if you want sussy, go looking for inukkoro.
ふぉっくろ・fokkuro
nine-tailed fox gintoki x crow tengu hijikata. this one is also from a merch line where a bunch of characters are dressed as yokai. it persists in its popularity because it's PERFECT.
examples: fem's 「常世現世エンカウンター」 series, banger anthology 「妖奇談」.
パー土・paahiji
paako x hijikata, from gintoki's stints working at the okama bar in canon gintama. this one is pretty open-ended since it's just gintoki crossdressing as paako in any setting really.
examples: kumichi's 「狂おしいほど愛してる」 , or syaku's 「しゃぶしゃぶしません」 for the double crossdressing special (yes it's always syaku - and for good reason).
きんちん・kinchin
kintoki x chinkasu, from the inimitable owee arc.
examples: futa has a kinchin series 7 (!!) books long which started in 2014. 6 is available online. kei has also written a few; 「オンラインのあなた」 is available here.
金土・kinhiji
kintoki (host) x hijikata. this one is also pretty open-ended; generally just refers to any setting with golden-haired host kintoki. note this is a kintama host parody (think shinpachi buttchin), not to be confused with android substitute kintoki.
examples: nomination of gold anthology (here's sawara's piece), abaraya's 「ファジー・ブルーのむこうがわ」 series, hinano's 3P 「どっちもどっち!」 for the kinhiji + pattsuchi double header.
W鬼・double oni
shuten-douji x ibaraki-douji. another from a merch line. everyone's wild for the fishnets.
examples: uchio's 「童子遊戯」, chun's 「茨の道は薔薇の道」.
W教師・double teacher
teacher x teacher, often a continuation of pattsuchi or zessan.
examples: sakurako has written a number of these, like the freshly released 「リンパは指じゃ届かない」. here's an uchio piece from an anthology.
bonus section for some other assorted terms i just wanted to include
現パロ: modern AU, obviously not ginhiji-specific. this is really just an excuse to plug my favourite NUIS work from the ひとのひと anthology, in which hijikata is away from his wife for work, meets his new neighbour sakata and... well... cheating.
風神雷神・fuujin & raijin: also from a merch line, where gintoki is portrayed as fuujin (wind god) and hijikata as raijin (thunder god). mizushima has written them before!
バース・verse: of course the verses are also big in jp fandom. omegaverse books include poyo's 「金木犀」, kun's 「ひどくてずるくて優しい男」 and torako's 「噛めよ、それが愛だとか言うのなら」 series. for dom/sub, try kamomeko's 「たすけないでマヨリーン」.
メリバ・merry bad end: we don't really have the concept of merry bad endings in english, but it should be fairly self-explanatory (especially since exactly who it's merry for can be pretty open-ended). there was a meriba anthology 「Have a good Merry Bad End」 put together a few years back; here's poyo's piece.