Kinbaku Research Platform

Women's Chastity Devices

By Tanaka Aiko

Magazine: Kitan Club

Issue: Kitan Club, October 1955 Issue

Archive location: PDF pages 84–85

Translation: KRP

Approved: August 10, 2026

A first-person contribution by Tanaka Aiko, presented as a thirty-two-year-old widow who works late hours at a ryōtei. After being accosted while walking home alone, she looks for a form of protection and, inspired by an earlier Kitan Club women’s-sumō illustration and instructions in the magazine’s “Sodomia Correspondence,” begins wearing her late husband’s rokushaku fundoshi. She then develops a modified etchū-style fundoshi that she considers more practical and resistant to assault. The piece is notable for combining everyday self-protection, cross-gender clothing practice, bodily pleasure in tight garments, and Kitan Club’s participatory reader culture, with the magazine itself directly shaping the writer’s experiment.

Translation

Women's Chastity Devices Tanaka Aiko I am a thirty-two-year-old widow. To earn my living, I work every day at a ryōtei restaurant from around five in the afternoon and return home after midnight. Because I ordinarily wear kimono, I have never worn drawers. The road I take passes through a stretch where the rows of houses come to an end, and after midnight not another person is to be seen. It is truly a lonely road. One evening, after seeing off the last drunken customer as usual, I was walking home alone along that deserted street when a young man who seemed to have followed me from the brightly lit area in front of the station suddenly quickened his pace and came up beside me. Saying, “Miss, why don’t we walk home together and be friendly?” he put his hand on my shoulder. Terrified, I shouted, “I’ll scream!” The man panicked and ran away. Even so, I hurried home with the feeling that he might come back at any moment. That night I realized very deeply how frightening it was to walk alone after dark. But because of my work I had no choice. I thought perhaps it would be better to wear drawers after all, but since I had never worn them before, I did not own any. I decided I would buy some the next day and went to bed. The next day I meant to go buy a pair of drawers, but making a special trip seemed bothersome, and while I was lying around, the March issue of Kitan Club, which I read every month, was delivered from the neighborhood bookshop. I first looked through the frontispieces and photographs one after another, and the frontispiece showing women’s sumō caught my eye more than anything else. I thought that even though I had no drawers, if I tied on a fundoshi as snugly as that, no man would be able to assault me. As I continued turning the pages, I came to page 32 and read the instructions for tying a fundoshi in the “Sodomia Correspondence” section. My late husband had also been a regular wearer of a rokushaku fundoshi, so I took out one of his fundoshi that had been washed and tried tying it on myself just as a man would. Even ordinarily I like the sensation of my body being tightly bound. I do not feel comfortable unless even my obi and waist cords are tied firmly, so I tightened this fundoshi as snugly as I possibly could. It is embarrassing for me, as a woman, to tell the readers of Kitan Club that I wear a fundoshi in this way. Still, I thought that readers of Kitan Club would probably understand my desire to try something unusual like this, and so I had my experiment written up on this page. After that I kept wearing a fundoshi for about a week, thinking it was very useful for protecting a woman from an attacker when she had to walk alone at night. Using the toilet, however, was not as simple for me as it is for a man. After thinking over various possibilities, I now make mine in the style of an etchū fundoshi, sewing it to a thick cord. I place the sewn side at the front, tie the cord tightly around my waist, pass the long front end of the fundoshi between my legs and around to the back, pass it through the waist cord, pull it tight, and then wind it around the cord two or three times. The cloth between the legs is broad, rather like the fundoshi worn by a female stripper, so it does not dig into the crotch and feels very comfortable. To use the toilet I only need to loosen the back, so it is not inconvenient like a rokushaku fundoshi. I find it very good and wear it every day. Since it has no elastic, unlike drawers, I think even a violent attacker would be unable to do anything to me. Please show not only men wearing fundoshi in the frontispieces and photographs of Kitan Club, but women wearing them too, and recommend a fundoshi like mine to everyone. (End) [Illustration] My Etchū Fundoshi At the back, wind it around like this. [Uncertain caption] The side cord is sewn on.

View Original Japanese Transcription

女性の褌愛用田中愛子私は三十二才の未亡人ですが、生活の為或る料亭に毎日午後五時頃より勤めに行って、十二時過ぎに帰宅いたします。平常いつも和服を着ている関係上ズロースなんて穿いたことはありません。私の通る道は、町並がと絶えているので十二時過ぎともなると、一人の人も通ることなく本当に淋しい道です。或る晩のこと、いつものように最後の酔客を送り出したあと、私が淋しい通りを一人で帰って来ると、駅前の明るいあたりから私のあとをつけてきたらしい若い男が、急に足早やに私に近づいて、「姐さん、一緒に仲よく帰りましょうや」と肩に手をかけたので、私は恐しさのあまり「大きな声を出しますよ」と叫んだので、その男は慌てて逃げ去ってしまいましたが、私は今にも、再びその男が来るような気がして急いで帰宅をしました。その夜の一人歩きの恐しさを、つくづく感じたのです。然し、私は商売柄、仕方ありませんのでやはりズロースを穿くのがいいとは思いましたが、今まで一度もズロースを穿いたことのない私は、持っていませんでしたので明日にでも買って来ようと思って、其の晩は休んだのです。翌日になって、ズロースを買おうと思いましたけれども、わざわざ買いに行くのが億劫で、ごろりと横になっていますと、毎月愛読している奇ク三月号が近所の書店から配達されてきたのです。私はまず口絵、写真と次々に見ていましたら、娘相撲の口絵が一番私の目を引きつけたのです。それはズロースを持っていない私も、このようにキッチリした褌を締めたら、どんな男の人だって乱暴することが出来ないだろうと思ったからです。それから頁をめくっているうちに、三二頁のソドミア通信のところに出ている、褌の締め方を読んだのです。私の亡夫も六尺褌の愛用者でしたので、私も亡夫の褌（洗濯をしてあった）物を出して、私も男のように褌を締めてみました。平常でも身体をしっかり締められることが好きな私は、帯やお腰の紐さえも、きつく締めないと気持の良くない程ですから、この褌も出来るだけキッチリと締めたのです。女である私がこうして褌をしていることを奇クの読者の方々に申し上げるのも恥しい次第ですが、でも奇ク愛読者の方々には、私のこういった変ったことをしてみたいという気持もわかって頂けるだろうと私の実験したことをこの頁に書いて頂いたのです。それから私は女の夜の一人歩きには、暴漢防止には大変よいと思って一週間位褌を当て続けたのですが用便は、男の方のように簡単に出来ませんので色々と考えた末、今では越中褌式に作り太い紐に縫い付けて、その縫付けた方を前にして紐を腰に、キッチリ結び付け、前の長い褌の端を股間を通して後に廻し、腰紐に通して締上げてから二三度紐にからみ付けているのです。丁度ストリッパーの女の褌の巾が広いので股下に喰込むようなこともなく大変気持もよく、用便も後の方をゆるめるだけで出来ますので、六尺褌のように不便もなく大変よいと思って私は毎日愛用しているのです。これならズロースのように、ゴム入でないからどんな暴漢だって、どうすることも出来ないだろうと思って居ります。奇クの口絵、写真にも男の褌姿ばかりでなく女の褌姿も出して、皆さんに私のような褌を勧めて下さい。（終）［挿絵］私の越中褌後はこのようにカラミつけます［判読不確実］横紐は縫付てあります

Translation Notes

The printed Japanese title is 「女性の褌愛用」, literally something like “A Woman’s Fondness for Wearing a Fundoshi” or “Women’s Use of Fundoshi.” The supplied English catalog title “Women’s Chastity Devices” is therefore interpretive rather than literal. 褌 is translated as “fundoshi” throughout rather than as “chastity device,” because the garment described is a Japanese loincloth and the article explicitly discusses rokushaku and etchū styles. 六尺褌 (rokushaku fundoshi) is the long traditional style wrapped repeatedly around the waist and crotch; 越中褌 (etchū fundoshi) is a simpler style consisting of a cloth panel attached to a waist cord. ズロース refers to women’s drawers or bloomers, here contrasted with the fundoshi. 奇ク is an abbreviated in-house form of 奇譚クラブ, Kitan Club. ソドミア通信 is rendered “Sodomia Correspondence,” preserving the magazine’s section title. 娘相撲 refers to women’s sumō. 姐さん is an informal form of address meaning roughly “miss,” “ma’am,” or “older sister”; in this setting it likely addresses a woman working in food or entertainment service. 料亭 is retained conceptually as a traditional Japanese restaurant. The article’s claim that a tightly tied fundoshi would prevent sexual assault reflects the writer’s own belief and should not be read as a reliable safety claim. One short illustration label beside the front-view drawing is not fully secure in the scan. Uncertain readings: - PDF page 84 illustration: the label preceding 「横紐は縫付てあります」 is difficult to read. It appears to refer to the side cord of the illustrated etchū fundoshi, but the first word is not confidently legible. - PDF page 84: the source prints 「町並がと絶えている」 or a very similar form; this appears to represent 「町並が途絶えている」, but the transcription preserves the visible wording rather than silently normalizing it. - PDF page 85: 「丁度ストリッパーの女の褌の巾が広いので」 is legible in substance, but the exact nuance of the comparison to a stripper’s fundoshi/loincloth is period-specific and may warrant human review. Missing or illegible text: - PDF page 84 illustration: the first word of the caption ending 「横紐は縫付てあります」 cannot be read with full confidence from the scan.