{
    "export_format": "krp_article",
    "export_version": 1,
    "exported_at": "2026-09-29T20:57:02+00:00",
    "magazine": {
        "id": 2,
        "title": "Kitan Club",
        "slug": null
    },
    "issue": {
        "id": 11,
        "title": "Kitan Club, February 1955 Special Enlarged Issue",
        "slug": null,
        "issue_date": "1955-02-01T00:00:00.000000Z",
        "original_filename": "195502.pdf",
        "pdf_page_count": 309
    },
    "article": {
        "id": 23,
        "toc_entry_id": null,
        "sort_order": 23,
        "title": "Tendencies of Fundoshi Enthusiasts Revealed in Readers' Letters",
        "author": "Yamaguchi Kōichi",
        "printed_page_label": "64–69",
        "pdf_page_start": 57,
        "pdf_page_end": 62,
        "original_language": "Japanese",
        "original_text": "読者通信に現れたる褌美愛好家の傾向\n\n山口幸一\n\n筆者が奇譚クラブに「美少年の秘密」「少年の褌美について」を発表致してから、多くの読者の方から各自の考え方や御意見の手紙を頂戴した。それ等の方々の傾向を一応分類してまとめ上げて発表する事も、筆者に課せられた義務の一つであると考えたので、筆を執る次第である。\n\n褌美については女性と男性の二つに分けられると思うが、土俵四股平氏やI・K氏の考えられている女性の褌美の方には私は関係がないのであって、此処に取扱う事にせず、本文は専ら男性の褌美について申し述べる事にする。\n\n「少年の褌美」にて述べたように、褌にはサド、マゾ、ソドミー、アヌス愛好等、広範囲に関連性を持っている着衣である事は、今更申す迄もない。多くの読者の傾向を分析してみると、一応、\n\n一、受動的に褌をさせられる事を好む。\n二、能動的に他人に褌を締めてやる事を好む。\n三、褌姿の美少年の絵、写真、実物を見る事を好む。\n四、常時褌を着用する事を好む。\n五、褌を解かれる事を好む。\n六、褌を解いてやる事を好む。\n七、褌をコレクションする事を好む。\n八、サド及マゾの場合の着衣として、特に褌姿のものを好む。\n\n以上に大別されると思う。この中五、六、七は稀であり、一の傾向が最も多く、次に三、四、二となる様である。そしてその対象として美少年が多い事は、各人が性に目覚めた少年時代に対する強い追憶の為である。\n\n次に褌の種類であるが、六尺褌を好む人が最も多くて、色は赤及び白であり、特に赤を好むH・S氏及びS・O氏、白を好むI・Y氏、K・Y氏等があり、又H・S氏は黒い褌は却って嫌悪されるという珍しい傾向もある。その他の人は褌の色については格別制約されていない様である。又、相撲の褌について深い関心を持たれているT・Y氏やH・S氏は、何れも受動的に他人から締めて貰う事や、美少年の相撲の褌姿に深い関心を持って居られる。\n\nこの事については十二月号にK・Y氏が責め絵のアイデアとして「美少年による褌の締め方連続写真又は絵」を強く希望されて居られるが、他の三氏もK・Y氏と全く同じ傾向に思われ、褌美そのものがソドミックな要因が強い事であることから想到して、この傾向が最も多いものであろうと思う。同じくK・Y氏のアイデアである六尺褌を締めた美少年の緊縛、又は責めの絵等はS・W氏等も以前に一寸申し述べられている事であり、K・K通信のS・Y氏及び切腹党のI・Y氏にも共通した傾向があると思う。\n\n相撲褌について強く要望されているH・S氏の褌の色は白を好んで居り、黒は嫌悪している。K・W氏は相撲褌の色と少年の肌の色との対照美に重点を置き、即ち、色白の少年の股間には黒色の締込みが似合い、色の小麦色の少年には白色が似合うとしている事は、土俵四股平氏の意見と同じく、色彩美的観点からの説である。\n\n而して相撲用締込の生地は白ズック又は帯の芯の入った黒繻子の厚いもので、十六才位の少年用としては巾一尺五寸、長さ十六尺位のものを四つ折にして、巾四寸乃至三寸五分位にして四重に廻し、腹部が充分締る様に、又股間から尻に廻した褌が充分太く見える様な品が最良であるとしている。締める場合は直か、又は下ばきとして晒の越中褌を尻の方を細くしてはかせるか、水泳用のメルマン褌を下にはかせても良いが、猿股又はパンツは絶対禁物である。而して締め方は職業相撲の褌と同様に正式に締めなければならない。（奇譚クラブ二十九年八月号の略図の如くする。）\n\nK・M君は外出時には水泳用の紐付の褌を常用し、自宅に帰ってから六尺褌に締め替える習慣であると云うが、同君は未だ年少者であるので、常時六尺褌をしているとズボンの後から分るので、友人に対する羞恥心から外出の時には用いないと云っている。\n\n又、H・S氏は越中褌に対しては却ってマイナスの感じを持つという人であるが、他にはそういう傾向の人は無く、褌であれば陸上競技用のサポーターに至る迄プラスの感じを持つという人が多い。\n\n稲垣足穂氏はその小説集「山風蠱」の中で神戸の山の手のある家の事を述べて、そこに集る少年達の為に緋紅の六尺褌を用意して居る主人の事を書いている。同氏は又キャルマタ、即ちパンツの極めて短いもので、昭和の初頃一時少年の間に流行した事があったが、その辺迄をプラスの限界と感じて居られる様である。（昭和八年犯罪科学「少年読本」稲垣足穂。）\n\n筆者の感じ方は相撲褌、六尺褌を頂点として、越中褌、サポーター、水泳用褌迄がプラスで、キャルマタは極めて弱いプラスの感じで、パンツになると中性となり、猿股はマイナスとなる。\n\n次に背景について述べる事とする。これは極めて重要な事で、背景の如何によってその場景の美的効果が増倍されもするし、半減されもするのである。例えば赤いテーブルクロスの上に置いた林檎と、白いクロスの上に置いた林檎とでは、人の眼に与える美的感覚は非常に違う。これは心理学的に云えば図と地の問題であるが、褌美の場合は更に観者の想像が加わるから重要な事である。\n\nこの場合については褌美愛好者ばかりでなく、裸体愛好者、女装緊縛愛好者にも同じ様な背景の条件が要求されるのであって、例えば野外の場とか、山中の場とか、河原の葦原の場とかいう客観条件が伴って、初めてその美的感度が高揚されるのである。\n\n裸体愛好者でも浴場で裸体になる事については大した快感を伴わず、野外、山中という特別の背景が絶対条件として必要な事は、既に本誌にも屡々発表されている通りである。褌美愛好者も当然この背景を選択するものである。Who, Where, Why、誰が、何処で、どうしての三要素は、この場合にも必要なのである。\n\nP・T氏が少年時代に雨の降る中を衣服の尻をしょりして、褌を露わに出して歩いた記憶を強調されている。T・M氏は少年が寝床の上で寝巻を着る、又脱ぐ時に着物の間より見える六尺褌について述べている。C・M君は本誌十月号の八八頁にある少年の褌美の勇雄の褌姿の挿絵について関心を持ち、あの様な褌の締め方について質問を寄せられたので、筆者はお答えして置いたが、勇雄の褌姿がC・M君にとって、どうして魅力的であるかという事を考えてみよう。\n\n勇雄はあの場合、何の用意もなく無邪気にすぐ制服を脱いで、そのまま褌体になったのである。即ち、勇雄は服を脱ぐ前に既にあの腹巻付の六尺褌を身に付けていたのである。云いかえれば朝起床した時に締めていたのである。恐らく前の晩、入浴後に取りかえて、就寝中ずっと締めていた事が想像される。この事実が大事であって、常時用いているという事が、あの場合の勇雄の褌姿に強い魅力を加えているのである。読者の想像力はその程度迄及ぶのであるから、だから背景がどの様に重要な要素であるかという事が想像されよう。\n\nT・M氏は「美少年の秘密」（二十九年七月号）の雪夫が布団に寝ている絵について、同氏が少年時代の記憶にはっきり残っているといわれたが、あの場合も室内という場が背景としての効果を上げているのである。\n\n本誌十二月号で初めて「褌をした少年」なる写真が掲載された事について、編集部の読者に直結した編集方針と、常に新領域を開拓せんと努力されている積極的発展性に敬意を表したい。この事実だけでも奇譚クラブが他の類誌と異り、益々将来、固定読者を増加せしむると共に、科学的文献的価値を高めて行くであろう。\n\nその意味に於てあの写真は成功であるが、背景という点を検討すれば、極めて自然の背景であり、魅力に乏しいものと考える。あの写真の背景が家庭の部屋、浴室、銭湯、或は学校の身体検査場という様なものであったなら、又、写真屋のスタヂオの様に無地の背景なら、T・M氏の意見の如く、より数倍効果が大きかったであろう。写真は勿論結構であるが、顔が現われないので画竜点睛を欠くうらみがあり、その点、十二月号のK・Y氏の説の如く「美少年による褌の締め方連続絵」の方が興味深いものと思う。\n\nT・K氏は和服と褌の関係を申し述べているが、即ち褌を締めた場合の少年の衣服は、和服、特に単衣とか浴衣が好ましいとある。T・K氏が全裸体の褌姿よりも、着物の間から隠見する褌の方が刺戟的だと云っている。その場合褌の種類について云えば、十月号の勇雄の褌の如く、腹巻の付いた六尺褌で前垂れの付いた方が良く、常時締める為の褌である事を明示することが必要である。そうでなければ、水泳用等に一時的に使用するものと混同する恐れがある。常に六尺褌については常用という事に注意すべきであろう。相撲褌の場合は勿論、相撲がすんだら用いない。\n\n又、和服と云えば意遇子氏画の新妻遊戯の如き、透視的画法で表現するのも面白いと思う。\n\n褌を締めてやる事、褌を締められる事についての物理的感触と精神的刺戟は、褌美の一つの基礎になるものであるから、その点をより考えれば、「支度の図」も興味深いものであろう。例えば相撲支度、マラソン出場の支度、体格検査の支度、風呂上りの支度等は、非常に魅力的なものであろう。その場合、肉親の姉とか母親がその場に居合せれば効果は更に大きくなる。例えば母親に褌を締めて貰っている少年、相撲の賞品を姉に手渡している少年、マラソンが終ってパンツを脱ぎ、サポーター一つになって母に汗を拭いて貰う少年、又、家庭の浴場にて母が新しい越中褌をかけかえさせる場面、という様な情景が好ましいのであるが、これは筆者の主観であるから、参考迄に申し述べて置く事にとめる。\n\n次にサディスティックな面での読者の御意見の中で、褌姿の少年の緊縛及び責めについては、屡々読者通信に発表され、又十二月号のK・Y氏も言及されて居る。これは単なる責めと異なり、褌を締めさせる事による責めとの自乗になるのであるから、当然その効果は大きいものと思って良い。\n\n又、刺青による責め、勿論六尺褌は必要である、についてH・S氏は言及しているが、これはS・K氏の小説「鰐の皮」でも、祭礼の時に十五、六才の少年が無理に刺青を膝のあたりにさせられようとする場面を取り上げている。又モデルにする責めについてG・I氏の小説中に、小三郎なる少年が鎌倉の海水浴場で会った画家と称する中年の富豪の求めに応じて、毎日一本の裸体となってアトリエモデルを勤める事が叙述してある。尚、切腹と褌との関係については、筆者はあまり詳しくはないが、これも密接な要因に依って結びついているものである事と思う。\n\n少年美、少年の褌美というものは、一種の封建的圧制美であり、武家政治或は軍国主義等と云うものに関係が深いものと考える。戦時中行われた学童相撲教練などもこの種の圧制美を表現している。\n\nアメリカの様に自由主義国家では、伸び伸びとした生活環境により、子供の成長速度が早く、子供から直接大人になってしまって、少年時代、ひいては少年美をもつ時代が極めて短い様に思われる。T・I氏の言によれば「酒とならざる麦の穂の青き豪奢」と云う言葉で表現されている少年美の期間が短い。\n\n以上、褌美愛好者の種々の傾向を申し述べて来たので、結論を出すことに致したいが、一応、「褌姿の美少年の絵」と云うものが最大公約数になるのではなかろうか。勿論、前述せる如く、これには背景の要素が強く加わると云う事は忘れてはならない。又、その過程を明確に動的に印象づける為には、K・Y氏の「美少年による各種褌の連続締め方絵又は写真」という事になろう。\n\n褌美愛好者にはソドミーの傾向の人が多いのであるが、ソドミーの前戯として褌美を追求する人と、ソドミーよりも褌美の方に強い魅力を感じている人とがあると思う。これらの人の中には、全くソドミーと離れて褌美だけに執着する人も居り、今後、その様な点を研究した上で、ソドミーとは別に一分派として、褌美愛好を独立させるべきであろうと思う。\n\n（おわり）",
        "translation_draft": "Tendencies of Fundoshi Enthusiasts Revealed in Readers' Letters\n\nYamaguchi Kōichi\n\nSince I published “The Secret of Beautiful Boys” and “On the Beauty of Boys in Fundoshi” in Kitan Club, I have received letters from many readers setting out their individual ideas and opinions. I have therefore concluded that one of the obligations placed upon me is to classify their tendencies, organize the results, and present them publicly.\n\nThe appreciation of fundoshi beauty can, I believe, be divided into its female and male forms. I have no involvement with the female fundoshi beauty contemplated by Dohyō Shikohei and I. K., however, so I shall not address it here. This essay will be devoted exclusively to male fundoshi beauty.\n\nAs I stated in “The Beauty of Boys in Fundoshi,” the fundoshi is an article of clothing connected with a remarkably broad range of interests, including sadism, masochism, sodomy, and anal eroticism. An analysis of the tendencies reported by readers produces the following provisional categories:\n\n1. Enjoying being passively made to put on a fundoshi.\n2. Enjoying actively tying a fundoshi on another person.\n3. Enjoying pictures, photographs, or the actual sight of beautiful boys wearing fundoshi.\n4. Enjoying the habitual, everyday wearing of a fundoshi.\n5. Enjoying having one's fundoshi untied.\n6. Enjoying untying another person's fundoshi.\n7. Enjoying collecting fundoshi.\n8. Particularly enjoying the fundoshi as clothing used in sadistic or masochistic situations.\n\nThese seem to be the principal divisions. The fifth, sixth, and seventh are rare. The first is the most common, followed in order by the third, fourth, and second. Beautiful boys are most often selected as the object because of each reader's powerful nostalgia for the period in his own youth when he first awakened sexually.\n\nAs for varieties of fundoshi, the rokushaku fundoshi is by far the most popular. Red and white are the favored colors. H. S. and S. O. especially prefer red, while I. Y., K. Y., and others prefer white. H. S. exhibits the unusual tendency of feeling positively repelled by black fundoshi. Most other readers impose no particular restriction on color. T. Y. and H. S., who have a profound interest in sumō fundoshi, both wish to have another person tie one on them and are deeply interested in the sight of beautiful boys dressed in sumō fundoshi.\n\nIn the December issue, K. Y. strongly requested, as an idea for scenes of torment, “a sequence of photographs or drawings showing a beautiful boy being tied into a fundoshi.” Three other correspondents appear to share precisely the same tendency. Because the appeal of the fundoshi itself contains a powerful sodomitic element, this is probably the most widespread preference. Another of K. Y.'s ideas, pictures of a beautiful boy in a rokushaku fundoshi being bound or subjected to torment, had previously been mentioned briefly by S. W. The same inclination is shared by S. Y. of K. K. Correspondence and I. Y. of the Seppuku Party.\n\nH. S., who has made particularly strong requests concerning sumō fundoshi, prefers white and detests black. K. W. places emphasis on the visual contrast between the color of the sumō fundoshi and the boy's complexion. A black mawashi suits the crotch of a fair-skinned boy, he says, whereas white suits a boy with a wheat-colored complexion. Like the opinion of Dohyō Shikohei, this is an argument based on chromatic aesthetics.\n\nA sumō mawashi should be made either from white canvas or thick black satin stiffened with an obi core. For a boy of about sixteen, the ideal material is approximately one shaku five sun wide and sixteen shaku long. It is folded in four to a width of about three and a half to four sun, wrapped four times so that the abdomen is firmly compressed, and arranged so that the portion passing from the crotch around the buttocks looks sufficiently broad. It may be worn directly against the body. Alternatively, a bleached white etchū fundoshi narrowed over the buttocks, or a swimming fundoshi, may be worn underneath. Sarumata drawers or Western-style underpants are absolutely forbidden. It must be tied in the same proper manner as the mawashi of a professional sumō wrestler, following the diagram in the August 1954 issue of Kitan Club.\n\nThe young reader K. M. says that when he goes out he habitually wears a swimming fundoshi with cords, changing into a rokushaku fundoshi after returning home. Since he is still young, the outline of a rokushaku fundoshi would be visible through the back of his trousers. Out of embarrassment before his friends, he therefore does not wear one outdoors.\n\nH. S. is unusual in feeling that the etchū fundoshi carries a negative impression. No one else reports this tendency. Most readers say that anything recognizable as a fundoshi produces a positive sensation, extending even to an athletic supporter used for track and field.\n\nInagaki Taruho, in his collection of stories “Yamakaze Gu,” describes a house in the hills of Kobe whose master keeps scarlet rokushaku fundoshi ready for the boys who gather there. Elsewhere he mentions the kyarumata, an extremely abbreviated form of underpants that was briefly fashionable among boys at the beginning of the Shōwa era. He apparently regarded that garment as the outer boundary of what could still possess a positive appeal. This passage appeared in Inagaki Taruho's “Boys' Reader” in the 1933 magazine Hanzai Kagaku.\n\nMy own scale places the sumō fundoshi and rokushaku fundoshi at the summit. The etchū fundoshi, athletic supporter, and swimming fundoshi remain positive. The kyarumata produces only a very weak positive impression; ordinary underpants are neutral; and sarumata drawers are negative.\n\nI shall next discuss setting or background. This is extremely important. Depending upon the background, the beauty of a scene may be multiplied or reduced by half. An apple placed upon a red tablecloth and the same apple placed upon a white cloth produce very different aesthetic sensations in the viewer. In psychological terms, this is the relationship between figure and ground. In the appreciation of fundoshi, the viewer's imagination is also brought into play, making the matter still more important.\n\nThe need for an appropriate setting is not limited to fundoshi enthusiasts. Admirers of nudity and admirers of cross-dressed figures in bondage require similar conditions. A scene achieves its full aesthetic intensity only when accompanied by an objective setting, such as the open air, a mountain landscape, or a reed bed beside a river.\n\nEven an admirer of nudity experiences no extraordinary pleasure merely from becoming naked in a bath. A special setting, such as the mountains or the open air, is an indispensable condition. This has frequently been stated in this magazine. The fundoshi enthusiast naturally selects a background in the same manner. The three elements of who, where, and why are necessary here as well.\n\nP. T. emphasizes a childhood memory of walking through the rain with the back of his clothing tucked up and his fundoshi exposed. T. M. describes the rokushaku fundoshi glimpsed between a boy's garments while he puts on or removes his sleeping robe upon a bed. C. M. was fascinated by the illustration of the character Isao wearing a fundoshi on page 88 of the October issue and sent a question about the manner in which it had been tied. I replied, but it is worth asking why Isao's appearance in a fundoshi possessed such attraction for C. M.\n\nIn that scene, Isao innocently and without preparation takes off his uniform and remains dressed only in his fundoshi. In other words, before removing his clothes he was already wearing the rokushaku fundoshi with its abdominal wrapping. He must have tied it when he rose that morning. One imagines that he had changed it after bathing the previous evening and had worn it continuously while sleeping. That fact is crucial. The understanding that he habitually wears it gives his fundoshi-clad appearance its powerful attraction. The reader's imagination extends this far, demonstrating the importance of background and implied circumstances.\n\nT. M. says that the picture of Yukio lying in a futon in “The Secret of Beautiful Boys,” published in the July 1954 issue, remained vividly connected with his own boyhood memories. In that case as well, the interior room serves as an effective background.\n\nThe December issue of this magazine published, for the first time, a photograph explicitly described as showing “a boy wearing a fundoshi.” I wish to express my respect for an editorial policy directly responsive to readers and for the editors' energetic effort to open new territory. This fact alone distinguishes Kitan Club from similar magazines. It will surely continue to increase its body of regular readers while enhancing its scientific and documentary value.\n\nIn that sense the photograph was a success, but its background was excessively ordinary and therefore lacked fascination. Its effect would have been several times greater had the setting been a room in a home, a bathroom, a public bath, a school physical-examination room, or even the plain backdrop of a photographic studio, as T. M. has suggested. The photograph itself is certainly welcome, but because the boy's face is not shown it lacks the finishing touch. In this respect, K. Y.'s proposal in the December issue for “a sequential series of drawings showing a beautiful boy tying a fundoshi” would be more interesting.\n\nT. K. discusses the relationship between Japanese clothing and the fundoshi. He says that a boy wearing a fundoshi should be dressed in Japanese clothing, especially an unlined kimono or yukata. T. K. finds a fundoshi glimpsed between the folds of clothing more stimulating than a completely naked figure wearing nothing but the fundoshi. In such a case, the preferred form is like Isao's in the October issue: a rokushaku fundoshi incorporating an abdominal wrap and a front apron. It must be evident that this is a fundoshi intended for habitual wear. Otherwise, it may be mistaken for something worn temporarily for swimming. With the rokushaku fundoshi, the idea of continuous everyday use should always be emphasized. A sumō mawashi, of course, is removed when the wrestling is over.\n\nIn connection with Japanese clothing, it might also be interesting to depict the body through a transparent or cutaway technique, as in Igūshi's illustrations for “Newlywed Games.”\n\nThe physical sensation of tying a fundoshi on someone, or of having one tied upon oneself, together with the accompanying psychological stimulation, constitutes one of the foundations of fundoshi beauty. Viewed from this standpoint, “pictures of preparation” would also be fascinating: preparation for sumō, preparation for a marathon, preparation for a physical examination, or dressing after a bath. The effect would be still greater were a close female relative, such as a mother or elder sister, present. One might imagine a boy having his mother tie his fundoshi; a boy handing his sumō prize to his sister; a boy who, after completing a marathon, removes his pants and stands in only an athletic supporter while his mother wipes away his sweat; or a mother replacing her son's etchū fundoshi in the family bathroom. These scenes are desirable to me, although I offer them only as my personal preference.\n\nOn the sadistic side of the readers' responses, the binding and torment of boys in fundoshi has frequently appeared in the readers' correspondence, and K. Y. also discussed it in the December issue. This differs from ordinary torment because the act of forcing the boy into a fundoshi multiplies the effect of the subsequent torment. Its impact may therefore be expected to be considerable.\n\nH. S. also mentions torment by tattooing, for which a rokushaku fundoshi is, of course, necessary. S. K.'s story “Crocodile Skin” includes a festival scene in which a boy of fifteen or sixteen is about to be forcibly tattooed around the knee. In a story by G. I., a boy named Kozaburō meets a wealthy middle-aged man at a Kamakura bathing beach who claims to be a painter. At the man's request, the boy appears naked each day and serves as a studio model. I do not possess detailed knowledge of the relationship between seppuku and the fundoshi, but I believe these interests are also connected by closely related factors.\n\nThe beauty of boys, and especially the beauty of boys in fundoshi, is a form of feudal, coercive beauty. It is deeply associated with warrior government, militarism, and similar systems. The schoolchildren's sumō training conducted during the war also expressed this kind of coercive beauty.\n\nIn a liberal country such as the United States, children mature rapidly in a relaxed environment and seem to pass almost directly from childhood into adulthood. Boyhood, and therefore the period during which they possess youthful beauty, is extremely brief. T. I. describes this fleeting period with the phrase, “the green luxuriance of an ear of grain that has not yet become sake.”\n\nHaving surveyed these tendencies among admirers of fundoshi beauty, I shall offer a conclusion. The greatest common denominator is probably “a picture of a beautiful boy wearing a fundoshi.” As already explained, one must never forget the powerful contribution of background. To make the process clear, dynamic, and memorable, the ideal form would be K. Y.'s proposed “sequential drawings or photographs showing the various ways in which a beautiful boy's fundoshi is tied.”\n\nMany fundoshi enthusiasts possess a sodomitic inclination, but some pursue fundoshi beauty as a prelude to sodomy, while others experience a stronger attraction to the fundoshi itself than to sodomy. Among them are people entirely detached from sodomy who are devoted solely to fundoshi beauty. After further study of this tendency, fundoshi appreciation should perhaps be established as an independent branch, separate from sodomy.\n\nThe End.",
        "translation_final": "Tendencies of Fundoshi Enthusiasts Revealed in Readers' Letters\n\nYamaguchi Kōichi\n\nSince I published “The Secret of Beautiful Boys” and “On the Beauty of Boys in Fundoshi” in Kitan Club, I have received letters from many readers setting out their individual ideas and opinions. I have therefore concluded that one of the obligations placed upon me is to classify their tendencies, organize the results, and present them publicly.\n\nThe appreciation of fundoshi beauty can, I believe, be divided into its female and male forms. I have no involvement with the female fundoshi beauty contemplated by Dohyō Shikohei and I. K., however, so I shall not address it here. This essay will be devoted exclusively to male fundoshi beauty.\n\nAs I stated in “The Beauty of Boys in Fundoshi,” the fundoshi is an article of clothing connected with a remarkably broad range of interests, including sadism, masochism, sodomy, and anal eroticism. An analysis of the tendencies reported by readers produces the following provisional categories:\n\n1. Enjoying being passively made to put on a fundoshi.\n2. Enjoying actively tying a fundoshi on another person.\n3. Enjoying pictures, photographs, or the actual sight of beautiful boys wearing fundoshi.\n4. Enjoying the habitual, everyday wearing of a fundoshi.\n5. Enjoying having one's fundoshi untied.\n6. Enjoying untying another person's fundoshi.\n7. Enjoying collecting fundoshi.\n8. Particularly enjoying the fundoshi as clothing used in sadistic or masochistic situations.\n\nThese seem to be the principal divisions. The fifth, sixth, and seventh are rare. The first is the most common, followed in order by the third, fourth, and second. Beautiful boys are most often selected as the object because of each reader's powerful nostalgia for the period in his own youth when he first awakened sexually.\n\nAs for varieties of fundoshi, the rokushaku fundoshi is by far the most popular. Red and white are the favored colors. H. S. and S. O. especially prefer red, while I. Y., K. Y., and others prefer white. H. S. exhibits the unusual tendency of feeling positively repelled by black fundoshi. Most other readers impose no particular restriction on color. T. Y. and H. S., who have a profound interest in sumō fundoshi, both wish to have another person tie one on them and are deeply interested in the sight of beautiful boys dressed in sumō fundoshi.\n\nIn the December issue, K. Y. strongly requested, as an idea for scenes of torment, “a sequence of photographs or drawings showing a beautiful boy being tied into a fundoshi.” Three other correspondents appear to share precisely the same tendency. Because the appeal of the fundoshi itself contains a powerful sodomitic element, this is probably the most widespread preference. Another of K. Y.'s ideas, pictures of a beautiful boy in a rokushaku fundoshi being bound or subjected to torment, had previously been mentioned briefly by S. W. The same inclination is shared by S. Y. of K. K. Correspondence and I. Y. of the Seppuku Party.\n\nH. S., who has made particularly strong requests concerning sumō fundoshi, prefers white and detests black. K. W. places emphasis on the visual contrast between the color of the sumō fundoshi and the boy's complexion. A black mawashi suits the crotch of a fair-skinned boy, he says, whereas white suits a boy with a wheat-colored complexion. Like the opinion of Dohyō Shikohei, this is an argument based on chromatic aesthetics.\n\nA sumō mawashi should be made either from white canvas or thick black satin stiffened with an obi core. For a boy of about sixteen, the ideal material is approximately one shaku five sun wide and sixteen shaku long. It is folded in four to a width of about three and a half to four sun, wrapped four times so that the abdomen is firmly compressed, and arranged so that the portion passing from the crotch around the buttocks looks sufficiently broad. It may be worn directly against the body. Alternatively, a bleached white etchū fundoshi narrowed over the buttocks, or a swimming fundoshi, may be worn underneath. Sarumata drawers or Western-style underpants are absolutely forbidden. It must be tied in the same proper manner as the mawashi of a professional sumō wrestler, following the diagram in the August 1954 issue of Kitan Club.\n\nThe young reader K. M. says that when he goes out he habitually wears a swimming fundoshi with cords, changing into a rokushaku fundoshi after returning home. Since he is still young, the outline of a rokushaku fundoshi would be visible through the back of his trousers. Out of embarrassment before his friends, he therefore does not wear one outdoors.\n\nH. S. is unusual in feeling that the etchū fundoshi carries a negative impression. No one else reports this tendency. Most readers say that anything recognizable as a fundoshi produces a positive sensation, extending even to an athletic supporter used for track and field.\n\nInagaki Taruho, in his collection of stories “Yamakaze Gu,” describes a house in the hills of Kobe whose master keeps scarlet rokushaku fundoshi ready for the boys who gather there. Elsewhere he mentions the kyarumata, an extremely abbreviated form of underpants that was briefly fashionable among boys at the beginning of the Shōwa era. He apparently regarded that garment as the outer boundary of what could still possess a positive appeal. This passage appeared in Inagaki Taruho's “Boys' Reader” in the 1933 magazine Hanzai Kagaku.\n\nMy own scale places the sumō fundoshi and rokushaku fundoshi at the summit. The etchū fundoshi, athletic supporter, and swimming fundoshi remain positive. The kyarumata produces only a very weak positive impression; ordinary underpants are neutral; and sarumata drawers are negative.\n\nI shall next discuss setting or background. This is extremely important. Depending upon the background, the beauty of a scene may be multiplied or reduced by half. An apple placed upon a red tablecloth and the same apple placed upon a white cloth produce very different aesthetic sensations in the viewer. In psychological terms, this is the relationship between figure and ground. In the appreciation of fundoshi, the viewer's imagination is also brought into play, making the matter still more important.\n\nThe need for an appropriate setting is not limited to fundoshi enthusiasts. Admirers of nudity and admirers of cross-dressed figures in bondage require similar conditions. A scene achieves its full aesthetic intensity only when accompanied by an objective setting, such as the open air, a mountain landscape, or a reed bed beside a river.\n\nEven an admirer of nudity experiences no extraordinary pleasure merely from becoming naked in a bath. A special setting, such as the mountains or the open air, is an indispensable condition. This has frequently been stated in this magazine. The fundoshi enthusiast naturally selects a background in the same manner. The three elements of who, where, and why are necessary here as well.\n\nP. T. emphasizes a childhood memory of walking through the rain with the back of his clothing tucked up and his fundoshi exposed. T. M. describes the rokushaku fundoshi glimpsed between a boy's garments while he puts on or removes his sleeping robe upon a bed. C. M. was fascinated by the illustration of the character Isao wearing a fundoshi on page 88 of the October issue and sent a question about the manner in which it had been tied. I replied, but it is worth asking why Isao's appearance in a fundoshi possessed such attraction for C. M.\n\nIn that scene, Isao innocently and without preparation takes off his uniform and remains dressed only in his fundoshi. In other words, before removing his clothes he was already wearing the rokushaku fundoshi with its abdominal wrapping. He must have tied it when he rose that morning. One imagines that he had changed it after bathing the previous evening and had worn it continuously while sleeping. That fact is crucial. The understanding that he habitually wears it gives his fundoshi-clad appearance its powerful attraction. The reader's imagination extends this far, demonstrating the importance of background and implied circumstances.\n\nT. M. says that the picture of Yukio lying in a futon in “The Secret of Beautiful Boys,” published in the July 1954 issue, remained vividly connected with his own boyhood memories. In that case as well, the interior room serves as an effective background.\n\nThe December issue of this magazine published, for the first time, a photograph explicitly described as showing “a boy wearing a fundoshi.” I wish to express my respect for an editorial policy directly responsive to readers and for the editors' energetic effort to open new territory. This fact alone distinguishes Kitan Club from similar magazines. It will surely continue to increase its body of regular readers while enhancing its scientific and documentary value.\n\nIn that sense the photograph was a success, but its background was excessively ordinary and therefore lacked fascination. Its effect would have been several times greater had the setting been a room in a home, a bathroom, a public bath, a school physical-examination room, or even the plain backdrop of a photographic studio, as T. M. has suggested. The photograph itself is certainly welcome, but because the boy's face is not shown it lacks the finishing touch. In this respect, K. Y.'s proposal in the December issue for “a sequential series of drawings showing a beautiful boy tying a fundoshi” would be more interesting.\n\nT. K. discusses the relationship between Japanese clothing and the fundoshi. He says that a boy wearing a fundoshi should be dressed in Japanese clothing, especially an unlined kimono or yukata. T. K. finds a fundoshi glimpsed between the folds of clothing more stimulating than a completely naked figure wearing nothing but the fundoshi. In such a case, the preferred form is like Isao's in the October issue: a rokushaku fundoshi incorporating an abdominal wrap and a front apron. It must be evident that this is a fundoshi intended for habitual wear. Otherwise, it may be mistaken for something worn temporarily for swimming. With the rokushaku fundoshi, the idea of continuous everyday use should always be emphasized. A sumō mawashi, of course, is removed when the wrestling is over.\n\nIn connection with Japanese clothing, it might also be interesting to depict the body through a transparent or cutaway technique, as in Igūshi's illustrations for “Newlywed Games.”\n\nThe physical sensation of tying a fundoshi on someone, or of having one tied upon oneself, together with the accompanying psychological stimulation, constitutes one of the foundations of fundoshi beauty. Viewed from this standpoint, “pictures of preparation” would also be fascinating: preparation for sumō, preparation for a marathon, preparation for a physical examination, or dressing after a bath. The effect would be still greater were a close female relative, such as a mother or elder sister, present. One might imagine a boy having his mother tie his fundoshi; a boy handing his sumō prize to his sister; a boy who, after completing a marathon, removes his pants and stands in only an athletic supporter while his mother wipes away his sweat; or a mother replacing her son's etchū fundoshi in the family bathroom. These scenes are desirable to me, although I offer them only as my personal preference.\n\nOn the sadistic side of the readers' responses, the binding and torment of boys in fundoshi has frequently appeared in the readers' correspondence, and K. Y. also discussed it in the December issue. This differs from ordinary torment because the act of forcing the boy into a fundoshi multiplies the effect of the subsequent torment. Its impact may therefore be expected to be considerable.\n\nH. S. also mentions torment by tattooing, for which a rokushaku fundoshi is, of course, necessary. S. K.'s story “Crocodile Skin” includes a festival scene in which a boy of fifteen or sixteen is about to be forcibly tattooed around the knee. In a story by G. I., a boy named Kozaburō meets a wealthy middle-aged man at a Kamakura bathing beach who claims to be a painter. At the man's request, the boy appears naked each day and serves as a studio model. I do not possess detailed knowledge of the relationship between seppuku and the fundoshi, but I believe these interests are also connected by closely related factors.\n\nThe beauty of boys, and especially the beauty of boys in fundoshi, is a form of feudal, coercive beauty. It is deeply associated with warrior government, militarism, and similar systems. The schoolchildren's sumō training conducted during the war also expressed this kind of coercive beauty.\n\nIn a liberal country such as the United States, children mature rapidly in a relaxed environment and seem to pass almost directly from childhood into adulthood. Boyhood, and therefore the period during which they possess youthful beauty, is extremely brief. T. I. describes this fleeting period with the phrase, “the green luxuriance of an ear of grain that has not yet become sake.”\n\nHaving surveyed these tendencies among admirers of fundoshi beauty, I shall offer a conclusion. The greatest common denominator is probably “a picture of a beautiful boy wearing a fundoshi.” As already explained, one must never forget the powerful contribution of background. To make the process clear, dynamic, and memorable, the ideal form would be K. Y.'s proposed “sequential drawings or photographs showing the various ways in which a beautiful boy's fundoshi is tied.”\n\nMany fundoshi enthusiasts possess a sodomitic inclination, but some pursue fundoshi beauty as a prelude to sodomy, while others experience a stronger attraction to the fundoshi itself than to sodomy. Among them are people entirely detached from sodomy who are devoted solely to fundoshi beauty. After further study of this tendency, fundoshi appreciation should perhaps be established as an independent branch, separate from sodomy.\n\nThe End.",
        "translator_credit": "KRP",
        "article_summary": "Yamaguchi Kōichi organizes letters received after his earlier essays on beautiful boys and fundoshi into a provisional taxonomy of fundoshi-related desires. He discusses passive and active dressing, habitual wear, visual collecting, sumō mawashi, color and material preferences, eroticized settings, bondage, sadism, tattooing, and the role of memory and imagination. His central claim is that the most broadly shared object of interest is the image of a beautiful boy in a fundoshi, especially when the picture implies a convincing setting, prior action, and habitual use. Historically, the article is notable as an early attempt within Kitan Club to treat a fetish community's correspondence as quasi-sexological evidence, while also revealing mid-1950s assumptions about boyhood, masculinity, feudal discipline, militarism, sodomy, and erotic coercion. Its unusually detailed descriptions of garments, tying methods, visual staging, and readers' individual preferences provide valuable evidence about how fundoshi fetishism was being named and differentiated within the magazine's emerging SM discourse.",
        "research_notes": null,
        "translation_notes": "The title uses 褌美愛好家, literally “admirers of fundoshi beauty.” “Bondage enthusiasts” reflects the established English catalog title, but the Japanese term is more specifically concerned with the erotic and aesthetic appreciation of fundoshi. 褌 has generally been retained as “fundoshi,” with specific forms distinguished as rokushaku fundoshi, etchū fundoshi, sumō fundoshi, or mawashi. 締込 refers to the heavy loincloth or mawashi used in sumō. ズック means heavy canvas. 繻子 is satin. 猿股 denotes loose, traditional short drawers, contrasted here with modern パンツ. キャルマタ appears to designate a very abbreviated form of boys' underpants fashionable briefly in the early Shōwa period; the spelling and precise garment remain uncertain. ソドミー is the period loanword “sodomy,” used broadly and without the narrower distinctions common in present-day sexuality terminology. 責め is translated as “torment” rather than “punishment” because it functions as a specialized erotic and SM term. 圧制美 is rendered “coercive beauty,” though “beauty of oppression” would be a more literal alternative. The author repeatedly treats adolescent boys as erotic objects and describes coercive scenarios involving minors; the translation preserves the historical text without endorsing its assumptions. Most correspondents are identified only by initials, and several initials are difficult to distinguish in the scan. The article's substantive text ends on PDF page 61, printed page 68. The remainder of page 61 and all of PDF page 62 belong to the neighboring article “Female Seppuku Found in Kusazōshi Composite Volumes” and have been excluded.\n\nUncertain readings:\n- Several readers' initials are difficult to distinguish because the Latin letters are small and degraded. Readings such as H・S, K・Y, T・M, C・M, G・I, and S・K should be checked against a higher-resolution scan or editorial records.\n- The name printed as 土俵四股平 is read provisionally as Dohyō Shikohei; it may be a humorous pseudonym formed from sumō terminology.\n- The garment name キャルマタ is transcribed provisionally as kyarumata. Its exact historical spelling, derivation, and construction require specialist confirmation.\n- 稲垣足穂's cited collection title appears to read 山風蠱, but the final character and the bibliographic title should be verified.\n- The illustrator's name associated with 「新妻遊戯」 appears to read 意遇子, but the scan does not permit a confident identification.\n- The phrase attributed to T・I, 「酒とならざる麦の穂の青き豪奢」, is legible in general form, but the precise original wording and whether it is a quotation from another author require verification.\n- The cited story title 「鰐の皮」 is the most likely reading, although the first character is slightly degraded.\n- The article appears to identify the illustrated boy on the October issue's page 88 as 勇雄, read here as Isao; the personal-name reading is not certain.\n\nMissing or illegible text:\n- No complete substantive paragraph is missing, but a small number of initials, pseudonyms, and bibliographic names are not fully legible in the scan.\n- A few characters in the reference to Inagaki Taruho's story collection are too degraded for absolute confirmation.\n- The transition at the top of PDF page 61 is intact; the article ends in the right-hand columns before the unrelated article begins.",
        "research_status": "published",
        "translation_status": "not_started",
        "translation_updated_at": "2026-08-06T02:01:18+00:00",
        "translation_reviewed_at": "2026-08-06T02:01:18+00:00",
        "translation_reviewed_by": "Zetsu",
        "translation_approved_at": "2026-08-06T02:01:18+00:00",
        "translation_approved_by": "Zetsu",
        "created_at": "2026-07-31T07:40:29+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2026-09-04T05:42:14+00:00"
    }
}