Ancient and Modern Curious Tales Compared Special Issue

This issue of Kitan Club is organized as a broad entertainment miscellany centered on erotic curiosity, romantic intrigue, sexual confession, comic anecdote, crime, and unusual human behavior. The opening material is substantial rather than merely decorative: after the illustrated cover, PDF pages 2–5 present an extended nude photographic portfolio, followed on pages 6–13 by humor, reader-oriented miscellany, short anecdotes, cartoons, and advice-like material. A one-page comic on PDF page 14 then leads directly into the issue's featured Ancient and Modern Curious Tales Compared sequence. These early pages are an important part of the issue's editorial identity, establishing the combination of visual titillation, jokes, confessional storytelling, and sensational curiosity that continues throughout the magazine. The first major textual group begins on PDF page 15 with short narratives drawn from contemporary life and sexual rumor. The pieces include The Company President Who Became the Seed of a Novel, Pillow Talk in a Haunted House, The Tooth of Desire, and the longer The Poor Rich Man, which occupies much of the twenties. These are followed by a memoir-like account of captivity and displacement in North Korea and Siberia beginning on PDF page 29. Together, these opening articles range from humorous and erotic anecdote to postwar hardship, producing a striking tonal mixture within the first third of the issue. From the thirties onward, the magazine turns more heavily toward courtship strategy and erotic fiction. The entertainment-district feature Boogie-Woogie in the Amusement Quarter is followed by the baseball-themed erotic melodrama Song of Bodily Sorrow and a sequence of pieces framed as practical or semi-confessional romantic tactics: Young Swallow Tactics, Strategy for Capturing an Idle Madam, Awakening of the Female Body, A Guide to the Art of Love, The Woman in the Movie Theater, Pure-Hearted Tactics, and methods for overcoming marital or romantic stagnation. These articles repeatedly present desire as a contest of observation, deception, opportunity, and technique, often mixing first-person testimony with magazine-style instruction. The later middle section broadens again into sensational narrative and comic exotica. A modern tale of an adulterous husband who was thought dead is followed by stories of strange appearances, urban erotic episodes, an apartment-house kaleidoscope, and the curious story of an ape said to have fathered a human child. The recurring Favorite Variety section contributes comic erotic tales including The Bear's Paw and Madame Skunk. Historical fantasy then takes over in House of the Lustful Bhikkhuni, after which the Night-Blooming Flowers erotic-story collection provides another anthology-like change of pace. The closing third includes the illustrated crime story The Completely Naked Charred Corpse, an unusual discussion of a bride's sexual modesty, and the serialized Southern Squabble Picture Scroll installment Breast Commotion. The issue ends with the continuation of this long comic-erotic narrative, reader and editorial material, submission information, and publication notices. Across the issue, Kitan Club presents itself as a hybrid popular magazine in which nude photography, cartoons, romantic gamesmanship, postwar experience, crime, erotic fiction, confessional material, and strange tales coexist without firm genre boundaries. Its strongest recurring concerns are the tactics of seduction, female and male sexual desire, jealousy, bodily curiosity, scandal, voyeurism, and the transformation of everyday urban life into sensational anecdote.

Title	Author	Printed Pages	PDF Pages
The Lover of Mrs. Chakkari	Akashi Sanpei	15	14
The Company President Who Became the Seed of a Novel	Yamamoto Sakae	16	15 –16
Pillow Talk in a Haunted House	Hyogo Ippei	18	17 –18
The Tooth of Desire	Sasaki Kurumanao	20	19 –20
The Poor Rich Man	Tsujimura Enezaburo	22	21 –28
North Korea and Siberia Prisoner Wanderings: Exhibitionism at the Latrine	Anabuki Takeshi	30	29 –30
Boogie-Woogie in the Amusement Quarter	Kado Kotaro	32	31 –34
Song of Bodily Sorrow	Aiyama Hisashi	36	35 –38
Young Swallow Tactics: I Was Juggling Four at Once	Teramoto Akira	40	39 –40
Strategy for Capturing an Idle Madam: How I Won a Beautiful Widow	Saotome Akira	42	41 –42
Awakening of the Female Body: An Old Maid Falls	Arisawa Aro	44	43 –44
A Guide to the Art of Love: An Episode of Bedroom Play	Hanaki Minoru	46	45 –46
The Woman in the Movie Theater	Tomita Shinji	48	47 –48
Pure-Hearted Tactics: What's Inside the Handbag?	Kojima Shinichi	50	49 –50
Secret Method for Breaking Through the Period of Marital Boredom: The Surprise Tactic That Worked	Tsubaki Akihiko	52	51 –53
The Distance of the Body	Naoki Ryunosuke	55	54 –56
The Adolescent Girl	Hirai Kyosuke	58	57 –58
The Adulterous Husband Was Alive	Kasagi Yoshio	60	59 –62
The Man Who Crawled Out from Beneath the Stage	Uncredited	64	63 –64
One Hundred Curious Tales of Urban Licentiousness	Shinji Kanro	66	65 –68
Pink Apartment Kaleidoscope	Yakusa Kyosuke	70	69 –72
The Story of an Ape That Fathered a Human Child	Natsuhara Tsuneo	74	73 –74
Favorite Variety, Part 1: The Bear's Paw	Isshotei Shujin	76	75 –81
Favorite Variety, Part 2: Madame Skunk	Isshotei Shujin	83	82
House of the Lustful Bhikkhuni	Midori Sumariyuki	84	83 –88
Night-Blooming Flowers: Erotic Story Collection	Uncredited	90	89 –94
The Completely Naked Charred Corpse	Uncredited	96	95 –100
The Bride's Sexual Modesty	Yoshinobu Takashi	102	101 –102
Breast Commotion: Southern Squabble Picture Scroll, Part 4	Tsukiya Seishi	104	103 –109

The formal illustrated table of contents is on PDF page 4. Printed pagination is consistently offset by one page through the main body, so printed page 15 corresponds to PDF page 14, printed page 16 to PDF page 15, and so forth. The opening nude photographic portfolio on PDF pages 2–5 and the humor, cartoon, correspondence, and miscellany pages on PDF pages 6–13 precede the numbered contents entries and are therefore represented in the summary and highlights even though most are not separately itemized in the formal TOC. Several stylized pen names on the contents page are difficult to romanize with complete confidence, particularly those attached to The Tooth of Desire, The Poor Rich Man, One Hundred Curious Tales of Urban Licentiousness, Pink Apartment Kaleidoscope, House of the Lustful Bhikkhuni, The Bride's Sexual Modesty, and Breast Commotion. PDF page 110 contains reader, submission, publication, and colophon-style back matter rather than another major article.