Summary
The March 1960 issue of Uramado is explicitly presented as a special issue devoted to denki shōsetsu, or legendary and fantastic fiction. Its editorial design combines historical adventure, crime and suspense, supernatural motifs, eroticized danger, female captivity, and illustrated spectacle. The opening pages establish this mixture immediately: an American erotic-torment picture story is followed by the color illustrated feature Extinguish the Fire of Bare Skin!! and a brief color nude presentation. The formal contents then leads into a succession of heavily illustrated historical and fantastic narratives.
The first major story, Legend of the White Monkey Tower, follows travelers, bandits, a young woman, hidden treasure, and a mysterious white-monkey legend, using Edo-period adventure conventions and frequent illustrations of pursuit, restraint, violence, and rescue. It is followed by Fujimi Iku's Legend of Hawk's Nest Valley, another extended period adventure in which armed men, a young woman, secret treasure, family history, and mountain danger converge. Blood Calls the Diamond shifts the setting toward modern international crime and suspense, while Strange Tale of Hōnenji returns to Japanese historical mystery. Hasegawa Isamu's The Snow Demon Woman Has Four Fingers introduces a more overtly supernatural register, centering on a mysterious woman and the uncanny clue of her four-fingered hand.
The middle of the issue moves among fantastic adventure, mystery, short editorial material, and visual experimentation. Mizusawa Yukio's legendary-fiction contribution, the feature summoned by a disappearing cage or basket, Asatarō Shigure, and Segawa Yasuko's The Horinushi Mondo Incident, Part One continue the issue's emphasis on pursuit, crime, violence, and hidden identities. A short editorial feature, A Certain Beauty Exercise, is unusually photographic and bondage-oriented, presenting women restrained to chairs and other supports as a mock exercise sequence. Reader Short Reviews provides a compact participatory interlude before the magazine returns to long-form fiction. The Trap of the Shadow Flower and Suzuki Kazuo's Illustrated Notes on Punishment Implements and Customs broaden the issue from narrative fiction into erotic crime and historical-punishment material.
The later sections sustain this alternation between literary fantasy, cultural commentary, and erotic sensationalism. An essay on women in the world of Izumi Kyōka examines female characterization in modern literature, while Legend of the Musasabi Incense Burner returns to adventure fiction. Love-Hate Seal Impressions develops a historical mystery involving emotional entanglement and violence. A six-page index of previously published Uramado issues functions as substantial archival back matter. The final sequence includes Red Paper, The Nude Woman Collapses into a Demonic Dream, and Iida Toyokichi's Hell-Picture Wife, which closes the issue in a mode of dark erotic fantasy and psychological disturbance. Overall, the issue demonstrates Uramado's characteristic fusion of denki storytelling, illustrated violence, eroticism, historical curiosity, supernatural atmosphere, and reader-oriented magazine culture.
Highlights
The issue announces itself as a Special Issue on Legendary Fiction and uses a formal contents spread framed by reclining nude line drawings, visually joining literary fantasy with erotic illustration.
An American erotic-torment picture story and Extinguish the Fire of Bare Skin!! open the issue with Westernized crime, firearms, nudity, and danger before the magazine turns to Japanese historical fiction.
Legend of the White Monkey Tower is a substantial illustrated period adventure centered on travelers, bandits, a young woman, hidden treasure, violence, and the mystery of a white-monkey tower.
Fujimi Iku's Legend of Hawk's Nest Valley is one of the issue's major long-form narratives, combining mountain adventure, a captive or endangered young woman, armed pursuit, family secrets, and hidden gold.
Blood Calls the Diamond shifts the special issue into modern international crime and suspense, using illustrations of guns, pursuit, nightlife, and violence to evoke hard-boiled Western adventure.
The Snow Demon Woman Has Four Fingers introduces an overt supernatural motif, with the four-fingered woman functioning as both mystery and uncanny erotic presence within an illustrated adventure narrative.
A Certain Beauty Exercise is an unusual photographic feature presenting women restrained to chairs and supports under the guise of bodily exercise, making bondage itself the central visual subject.
Illustrated Notes on Punishment Implements and Customs moves away from fiction into a historically framed discussion of penal objects, bodily punishment, and customary practices, accompanied by explanatory drawings.
The essay Women in the World of Izumi Kyōka examines female figures in Kyōka's literary world and marks a shift from sensational fiction toward literary-cultural commentary.
The closing group of Red Paper, The Nude Woman Collapses into a Demonic Dream, and Hell-Picture Wife returns the issue to eroticized psychological disturbance, uncanny femininity, and dark illustrated fiction.
Analysis Notes
The cover identifies the issue as Uramado, March 1960, Special Issue on Legendary Fiction. The internal title page identifies it as Volume 5, Number 3. A formal table of contents appears on PDF page 4. From the beginning of regular numbered editorial matter, printed pagination is consistently ten pages ahead of PDF viewer numbering: for example, printed page 27 is PDF page 17, printed page 140 is PDF page 130, and printed page 248 is PDF page 238. The opening illustrated and color features precede this regular sequence. Several names and two titles are difficult to romanize from the small contents typography, particularly Furuyada Masahide, Dō Fumihiko, Naka Yasuhiro, and Tama Gunpei; these should be checked against KRP authority records. The final story continues into the closing pages, which also contain manuscript solicitation and publication information.