May 1960: Special Issue on Homosexuality and Pleasurable Humiliation

The May 1960 issue of Fūzoku Kitan presents an unusually concentrated examination of homosexuality alongside the magazine’s customary mixture of sadomasochistic photography, sexual folklore, criminology, fiction, confession, historical miscellany, and erotic visual culture. Its substantial opening section begins with Japanese erotic-print reproductions, photographs of sexually suggestive natural forms, a signed foreign comic illustration, a color fantasy image, and an extended sequence of staged bondage photography. Most of these gravure portfolios are editorial features without printed photographer, model, writer, or director credits. The identifiable opening artists include Suzuki Harunobu for the bathhouse print and Hérouard for “The Swing.” A concluding art portfolio reproduces European paintings, including works identified in captions with Rubens, while leaving the magazine compilation itself uncredited. The central special feature approaches homosexuality through several competing postwar frameworks. Ōtachi Kinji’s opening survey attempts to classify male and female homosexuality, gender presentation, bisexuality, and sexual behavior using psychological and medical terminology characteristic of the period. Subsequent essays shift between personal testimony, criminal case history, historical anecdote, and sensational reportage. Yuasa Shigeji presents a feminine man’s romantic memoir, while Kido Giichi reconstructs the emotional development of a homosexual youth who committed murder. Takabayashi Shingo examines same-sex relations among Sengoku-period warriors, connecting famous military figures and literary traditions with male-male intimacy. Other contributions treat vernacular sexual language, female same-sex relationships, masochism, and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s private contracts and domestic arrangements. The issue broadens outward through accounts of ghosts who marry human partners, female-specific tortures, ritual suicide, erotic tattoos, tangled marriages, historical sexual customs, cannibalistic crime, harem cruelty, fetishistic attraction, and nocturnal violence. Fiction and quasi-documentary narratives repeatedly join sexuality to coercion, jealousy, murder, disguise, imprisonment, and punishment. The magazine’s illustrations and photographic sequences translate these motifs into both historical fantasy and contemporary Japanese interiors. Later sections return to recurring Fūzoku Kitan genres: Meiji-period sexual curiosities, violent crime, razor mutilation, dangerous conversation, sexual autobiography, advertisements for sexological books, short reports, contributor information, and the colophon. Across the issue, medicalized explanation, historical curiosity, lurid crime, erotic fantasy, and staged visual performance coexist without a stable boundary, giving the magazine its characteristic blend of research pretension and sensational entertainment.

Title	Author	Printed Pages	PDF Pages
May 1960 Cover: Special Issue on Homosexuality and Pleasurable Humiliation	Uncredited	—	1
Meeting on a Boat	Uncredited	—	2
At the Bathhouse	Suzuki Harunobu	—	2
Male Tree and Female Avenue	Uncredited	—	3
Formal Table of Contents	Uncredited	—	4
The Swing	Hérouard	—	5
Captured Mermaid	Uncredited	—	6
Women and Animals	Uncredited	—	7
Captured Mermaid	Uncredited	—	8 –10
Nude Tight Binding	Uncredited	—	11 –12
When a Woman Is Bound	Uncredited	—	13 –14
Painful Sacrifice	Uncredited	—	15 –16
Bound Glossy Skin	Uncredited	—	17 –19
Chair Torment	Uncredited	—	20 –21
Beauty in Darkness	Uncredited	—	22
Night of Pleasurable Cruelty	Uncredited	—	23
Abnormal Sexuality in Famous Paintings	Uncredited	—	24 –27
May 1960 Issue Title Page	Uncredited	—	28
Types and Realities of Homosexual Love	Ōtachi Kinji	32–39	29 –36
Romantic Memoir of a Feminine Man	Yuasa Shigeji	40–41	37 –38
How a Homosexual Youth Came to Commit Murder	Kido Giichi	42–47	39 –44
Homosexual Love Among the Warriors of the Warring States	Takabayashi Shingo	48–52	45 –49
The Sodomy-Loving Head Clerk	Hanajima Seiji	53	50
Ecstasy Between White-Skinned Women	Kamiyama Kōkichi	54–60	51 –57
Pictorial Fetishism	Asakawa Hisashi	61	58
Sacher-Masoch’s Contract of Abuse	Mase Teruo	62–66	59 –63
The Masochist’s Fine Wine	Masaki Shin’ichi	67–69	64 –66
People Who Fell in Love with Ghosts and Married Them	Wakatsuki Yasuaki	70–75	67 –72
Tortures Inflicted Only on Women	Sō Shunzō	76–82	73 –79
A Woman’s Seppuku	Kosen Kyōta	83–87	80 –84
The Beauty Who Became a Sadist’s Prey	Bill Marcus	88–95	85 –92
A Study of Sexual Tattoos	Sengoku Sentarō	96–97	93 –94
A Tangled Marriage	Sano Kazuhiko	98–111	95 –108
A History of Sexual Curiosities in the Meiji Period, Part 4	Somei Keiichirō	112–119	109 –116
The Man Who Ate Women’s Flesh	Shinkawa Yūji	120–126	117 –123
Night of the Beast	Tsuki Kyōsuke	127–131	124 –128
Cruel Tales of the Harem	Somei Keiichirō	132–135	129 –132
The Allure of Belts	Kashiwamura Midori	136–141	133 –138
Midnight Murder Show	Nanamura Jirō	142–145	139 –142
Razor-Blade Writing on a Woman’s Skin	Takashima Shinroku	146–149	143 –146
A Dangerous Conversation	Klaus Arnaud	150–151	147 –148
The Abnormal Sexual History of Fukiage Satarō	Jinbo Kenzō	152–158	149 –155

The formal printed table of contents appears on PDF viewer page 4. The issue contains a substantial unnumbered opening section on PDF pages 1–28. Suzuki Harunobu is explicitly credited for the right-hand bathhouse print on PDF page 2, and Hérouard is credited for “The Swing” on PDF page 5. The creator credit for the left-hand print on PDF page 2 is present but not sufficiently clear for reliable romanization. The bondage gravure portfolios on PDF pages 8–23 do not print photographer, model, writer, or director credits. The European-art compilation on PDF pages 24–27 is editorially uncredited, although individual artwork captions identify some painters or subjects. The principal numbered text begins with printed page 32 on PDF viewer page 29, producing a consistent offset of three pages for most of the main body. Several leaves show edge wear, staple damage, stains, faint printing, and small tears. The readings Sō Shunzō, Kosen Kyōta, Tsuki Kyōsuke, Hanajima Seiji, and Takashima Shinroku require human confirmation. The final article is interleaved with short reports and publication matter near the end. Source: