Uramado

October 1958

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Cover of Uramado, October 1958

Issue Details

Volume
3
Issue
13
PDF pages
291

Summary

The October 1958 issue of Uramado is an unusually large anthology organized around a special feature of supernatural revenge tales. Its editorial identity combines historical melodrama, contemporary crime fiction, grotesque fantasy, erotic suspense, illustrated serials, photography, and popular occultism. The cover’s telephone-cord bondage image establishes a modern erotic menace, while the formal contents spread presents a densely packed program of stories about curses, ghosts, vengeance, confinement, murder, mysterious women, and bodies placed under threat.

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The issue opens with “The Female Water Entertainer,” a lavishly illustrated period tale involving a performer, murder, mutilation, and pursuit. This is followed by Osamu Fujisawa’s “Light and Skin,” a sculptural nude photographic portfolio emphasizing bodily contour, shadow, limbs, and abstract composition. The modern illustrated thriller “The Secret of the Bat Theater” then shifts the setting to Tokyo nightlife, following an actress, a dwarf performer, abduction, torture, narcotics, criminal exploitation, and violent pursuit. “Breast Chamber of Hell” extends the contemporary crime atmosphere through gangsters, stolen narcotics, sexual coercion, imprisonment, and gunplay.

The central revenge feature develops through both historical and modern settings. “The Damask-Skin Curse” concerns a bewitched mansion, secret chambers, written curses, missing women, and inherited violence. Subsequent stories move through samurai households, haunted inns, vendettas, monstrous transformations, supernatural retainers, traveling killers, deceptive beauties, river and waterfront settings, and fatal encounters with women whose beauty conceals danger or grievance. Frequent illustrations turn scenes of capture, exposure, pursuit, murder, supernatural manifestation, and punishment into a parallel visual narrative.

The later half broadens the issue’s tonal range without abandoning its core themes. Stories such as “The Inn of the Poison Butterfly,” “The Beauty Mound’s Karmic Consequence,” “The House That Invites an Eerie Presence,” “Will-o’-the-Wisp Riverbank,” “The Man Who Walks About Selling Death,” “Strange Transformation Sketches,” and “Almost the Anniversary of Your Death” combine mystery structures with ghosts, poisons, doubles, disguises, obsessive desire, and retributive violence. Longer period narratives, including “Hatamoto Bedchamber Chronicle,” “Hell Ship,” “Autumn Wind at Kikyo Field,” and “The Nineteenth Installment of Death-Coffin Komachi,” sustain the magazine’s interest in feudal authority, erotic intrigue, confinement, cruelty, and revenge across extended serial form.

The closing pages contain the final installments of “Death-Coffin Komachi,” additional illustrated fiction, reader and contributor material, a manuscript solicitation, publication information, and editorial back matter. Across its full range, the issue presents revenge as an unstable crossing point between justice and obsession. Women repeatedly appear as performers, victims, avengers, apparitions, seductresses, and bearers of inherited curses, while the magazine’s fusion of text, noir illustration, period drawing, and photography gives the anthology a strongly visual and theatrical character.

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Table of Contents 25 items
  1. The Female Water Entertainer by Yanagitsutsu Jūzaburō
    Summary

    An illustrated historical erotic revenge tale set in Edo-period pleasure quarters, following a female water entertainer, a samurai, and a chain of murders, pursuits, coercive encounters, and uncanny events.

  2. Light and Skin by Fujisawa Osamu
    Summary

    A photographic study of nude bodies that explores how lighting models skin, emphasizing tone, contour, texture, and sensual form through a sequence of studio images.

  3. The Secret of the Bat Theater by Natsumoto Keinosuke
    Summary

    An illustrated erotic crime-suspense narrative about a glamorous actress’s abduction, secret performances at the Bat Theater, fetishistic coercion, pursuit, and the revelation of concealed motives and identities.

  4. Breast Chamber of Hell by Iida Toyokichi
    Summary

    A serialized erotic crime thriller follows drug traffickers, fugitives, and hired killers through a cycle of kidnapping, pursuit, revenge, and violent torture involving Feng Mei, Minghai, and their associates. The narrative repeatedly depicts women being restrained, beaten, gagged, threatened with weapons, and subjected to sadistic captivity, accompanied by dramatic illustrations.

  5. The Damask-Skin Curse by Takagi Ryūji
    Summary

    Takagi Ryūji’s illustrated Edo-period revenge tale follows a household and its visitors as supernatural curses, erotic coercion, violence, and successive deaths unfold around a mysterious woman and occult inscriptions. The serialized narrative combines grotesque haunting with scenes of bondage, domination, and punishment.

  6. The Demon Lurking in the Feet by Mizorogi Jakushi
    Summary

    A grotesque supernatural erotic tale follows Rumie as an uncanny black-cat presence and strange encounters expose an obsessive fixation on women’s feet, bodily difference, and forbidden desire.

  7. Hatamoto Bedchamber Chronicle by Hashizume Hikoshichi
    Summary

    A historical erotic chronicle set among a hatamoto household and its retainers unfolds through secret intrigues, sexual coercion, captivity, violence, and revenge in a feudal domestic world.

  8. The Monster of the Stock Hotel by Takeya Jūzō
    Summary

    A reporter investigates the Stock Hotel after hearing a woman’s cries from a locked room, uncovering a grotesque supernatural mystery involving captivity, hidden identities, and the hotel’s violent past.

  9. Oshima’s Vendetta Journey by Yagiri Jūhachi
    Summary

    Set in the Edo period, this revenge tale follows Oshima on a vendetta journey that brings her into encounters with violent men, eroticized restraint, deception, and retaliatory justice.

  10. The Inn of the Poison Butterfly by Matsui Yoriko
    Summary

    A dark erotic tale follows Takemi, a beautiful bar hostess whose financial vulnerability and forbidden desires draw her into manipulation, captivity, and escalating bondage and abuse by men around her. Illustrated scenes emphasize rope restraint, coercive sexual power, humiliation, and the transformation of her identity under exploitation.

  11. The Beauty Mound’s Karmic Consequence by Hada Hikaru
    Summary

    A historical erotic revenge tale follows violent entanglements among warriors, merchants, and women, linking sexual coercion, captivity, betrayal, and eventual karmic retribution. Its illustrations emphasize bondage, bodily exposure, torture, and grotesque punishment within an Edo-period setting.

  12. The House That Invites an Eerie Presence by Saruwaka Tonpei
    Summary

    A grotesque supernatural story centers on a mysterious house and the unsettling encounters, erotic propositions, and violent fantasies associated with it. The accompanying illustrations reinforce the narrative’s atmosphere of eerie voyeurism, bodily transformation, and menace.

  13. The Transformed Young Samurai by Mikunizawa Takashi
    Summary

    A historical erotic revenge tale follows a young samurai whose forbidden relationship, family conflict, and encounters with supernatural transformation lead to violence, pursuit, and retribution, accompanied by dramatic narrative illustrations.

  14. Will-o’-the-Wisp Riverbank by Utagawa Taiga
    Summary

    An illustrated supernatural erotic narrative set around a riverbank follows lovers, servants, ghosts, and deceptive apparitions through pursuit, captivity, escape, and revenge, presented in serialized scene panels with dialogue.

  15. The Supernatural Death-God Hatamoto by Odagiri Sō
    Summary

    Set in Edo-period Japan, this lurid revenge tale follows a mysterious headless corpse and an investigation that uncovers sexual betrayal, murder, coercive bondage, and the supernatural return of a wronged woman to punish those responsible.

  16. Disappearance Underwater by Fujii Kenji
    Summary

    A suspenseful erotic crime story follows police investigators as they pursue a resourceful female suspect through disguises, surveillance, a bathhouse, and an underwater escape.

  17. The Man Who Walks About Selling Death by Ojima Shin
    Summary

    A serialized crime-and-revenge thriller follows Saburō, Mari, and other conspirators through schemes involving deception, captivity, murder, drugging, and an underground room, while their shifting motives and betrayals drive the narrative toward further violence.

  18. Strange Transformation Sketches by Suzuki Kazuo
    Summary

    Suzuki Kazuo presents an illustrated anthology of Edo-period strange tales involving supernatural transformations, ghosts, sexual intrigue, violence, murder, and revenge, accompanied by discussion of historical sources and reported testimony.

  19. Almost the Anniversary of Your Death by Ujigawa Ryū
    Summary

    Serialized revenge fiction follows a destructive family conflict involving inheritance, coercion, sexualized domination, murder, suicide, and elaborate retaliation among the protagonists.

  20. Men Who Toy with Women’s Bodies by Hattori Gen
    Summary

    An illustrated essay surveys theatrical and staged erotic representations of cruel, dominant women who restrain, humiliate, punish, and physically overpower men, while considering the appeal of these gender reversals to spectators.

  21. Hell Ship by Nakajima Yoshimi
    Summary

    A serialized erotic fantasy follows Ōtaki, who is abducted and transported aboard a hell ship, where captors subject her to confinement, forced nudity, sexual violence, and sadistic punishment before further dangers unfold.

  22. Autumn Wind at Kikyo Field by Inumon Masato
    Summary

    Set amid a turbulent historical battle, this erotic adventure depicts women and travelers caught up in warfare, abduction, pursuit, coercive sexual encounters, and violent domination around Kikyo Field.

  23. The Ageless Maiden by Sasamoto Tōru
    Summary

    This erotic fantasy centers on the enigmatic young woman Hanako and the fascination she arouses in a rural household, presenting youthful beauty, intimate observation, romantic intrigue, and fetishized bodily detail.

  24. The Hot-Spring Inn Murder Case by Kawano Kyōsuke
    Summary

    A serialized sensational mystery follows the investigation into the death of a young woman associated with a hot-spring inn, whose body is discovered after heavy rain and whose final movements implicate two male guests. Interrogations, conflicting accounts, and eroticized descriptions of the victim gradually intensify suspicion around the case.

  25. Death-Coffin Komachi by Shimamoto Haruo
    Summary

    A historical supernatural revenge tale follows the ninja善四郎 and other figures through curses, apparitions, pursuit, abduction, and violent confrontations surrounding the mysterious “death coffin” and the fate of Komachi. The illustrated narrative repeatedly depicts women and men bound, restrained, threatened, or subjected to occult punishment.

Highlights

  • The formal contents spread announces a “Strange Tales of Revenge” special and organizes a remarkably extensive mixture of period fiction, modern thrillers, supernatural stories, photography, and illustrated serials. (PDF p. 4).
  • “The Female Water Entertainer” opens the issue with richly colored period illustrations and a tale of murder, mutilation, pursuit, and a performer linked to a mysterious crime. (PDF pp. 6–13).
  • Osamu Fujisawa’s “Light and Skin” uses stark lighting and tightly composed nude studies to transform limbs, torsos, and bodily curves into abstract sculptural forms. (PDF pp. 14–19).
  • “The Secret of the Bat Theater” is a modern noir narrative involving a nightclub actress, a dwarf performer, abduction, narcotics, captivity, public spectacle, and pursuit through the city. (PDF pp. 20–28).
  • “Breast Chamber of Hell” combines gangster intrigue, stolen narcotics, erotic coercion, imprisonment, revenge, and gun violence in an extended illustrated thriller. (PDF pp. 29–42).
  • “The Damask-Skin Curse” inaugurates the main revenge feature with a haunted mansion, coded writings, secret rooms, missing women, and a chain of inherited grievance. (PDF pp. 43–58).
  • “Hatamoto Bedchamber Chronicle” is one of the issue’s longest period narratives, using household intrigue, sexual secrecy, status, and violence to explore the hidden life of a warrior residence. (PDF pp. 71–82).
  • “The Inn of the Poison Butterfly” and “The Beauty Mound’s Karmic Consequence” form a substantial middle sequence of poison, fatal attraction, supernatural suggestion, and karmic retribution. (PDF pp. 107–134).
  • The later sequence from “The Man Who Walks About Selling Death” through “Hell Ship” intensifies the issue’s mixture of assassination, disguise, haunted travel, waterfront danger, and violent revenge. (PDF pp. 196–248).
  • The concluding “Death-Coffin Komachi” installment combines ornate period illustration, serial adventure, female peril, violence, and historical spectacle before the editorial and publication back matter. (PDF pp. 271–290).

Contributors

Named contributors represented in this issue: