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Uramado

April 1961

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Cover of Uramado, April 1961

Issue Details

Volume
6
Issue
4
PDF pages
210

Summary

The April 1961 issue of Uramado combines illustrated erotic fiction, bondage photography, sexual and psychological commentary, crime and historical narratives, reader-oriented miscellany, and international reportage. Its formal contents reveal an editorial design that alternates between explicitly sadomasochistic material and the magazine’s broader interest in taboo sexuality, unusual behavior, popular psychology, crime, and sensational cultural subjects. The opening fiction, The Torture-Device Maker, is heavily illustrated and follows an elderly craftsman obsessed with constructing devices for restraint and punishment. It is interrupted by other features and resumes later, giving the early portion of the issue a deliberately serialized rhythm within a single number.

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The visual center of the opening section is Hanging Torment, photographed by Yoshida Hisashi, a stark black-and-white sequence in which a nude woman’s wrists are secured overhead. The Devil’s Lips follows as an illustrated first-person masochistic narrative, while The Cursed Breasts turns to a historical crime tale involving a woman subjected to public restraint and punishment. Kuroda Shirō’s Temptation to Masochism then moves into popular psychological and cultural commentary, discussing cruelty, domination, social hierarchy, sexual behavior, and examples drawn from contemporary life and film. Subsequent fiction and essays range from Toraji Should Be Bound and Possessed by Sound to Akashi Shioko’s historical memorandum and Nagai Takujirō’s Hungry Eyes Shine on the Stairs.

The middle of the issue again emphasizes visual eroticism. The Rough Rope and Black Hair Composition is an extended Yoshida Hisashi photographic study of a woman bound with coarse rope, followed by the illustrated tale The Binding Curse of Princess Teru and the feature Shōji and Woman. The Strange Island of Female Guardians develops a longer exotic or fantastic narrative before the magazine shifts into the Uramado Town miscellany section, mixing brief observations, cultural notes, sexual anecdotes, and topical commentary. Shima Fuji’s Black-Hair Confession continues the autobiographical and erotic-confessional mode.

The later pages broaden considerably. The World Beneath the Skirt, installment three, considers voyeuristic interest in women’s clothing and bodies. Uramado Miscellany and New Film Introductions provide cultural notices before Moriwaki Hikaru’s The Underground Organization of Neo-Nazism turns toward international political extremism and postwar clandestine organizations. A roundtable remembering the artist Seiu provides an important historical and artistic reflection on erotic illustration and bondage culture. The substantial final narrative, The Prayer of the Female Slave, returns to domination and submission, after which a photographic collection and a selection of illustrations from earlier Uramado issues close the volume. Together these sections show Uramado operating simultaneously as an SM magazine, erotic literary journal, visual archive, popular-sexology forum, and eclectic magazine of abnormal or marginal culture.

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Table of Contents 24 items
  1. The Torture-Device Maker by Tsukumo Jūrō
    9, 50–57
  2. Hanging Torment by Yoshida Hisashi
    15–18
  3. The Devil's Lips by Tanuma Shūo
    20–27
  4. The Cursed Breasts by Odagiri Sō
    28–37
  5. Temptation to Masochism by Kuroda Shirō
    38–49
  6. Toraji Should Be Bound by Ari Kyōji
    58–67
  7. Possessed by Sound by Matsudaira Sōji
    68–77
  8. Memorandum of Inoue Chikugo-no-Kami by Akashi Shioko
    78–85
  9. Hungry Eyes Shine on the Stairs by Nagai Takujirō
    86–91
  10. Strange Tales by Tsube Saburō
    92–98
  11. The Rough Rope and Black Hair Composition by Yoshida Hisashi
    99–106
  12. The Binding Curse of Princess Teru by Shimamoto Haruo
    107–114
  13. Shōji and Woman by Fukamori Eiji
    115–123
  14. The Strange Island of Female Guardians by Toyoda Ichirō
    124–133
  15. Uramado Town
    134–143
  16. Black-Hair Confession by Shima Fuji
    144–153
  17. The World Beneath the Skirt by Ama Tetsurō
    154–163
  18. Uramado Miscellany and New Film Introductions by Sunaji Hiroshi
    164–169
  19. The Underground Organization of Neo-Nazism by Moriwaki Hikaru
    170–175
  20. Roundtable: Remembering the Artist Seiu
    176–183
    Read Translation
  21. Reader Short Reviews
    184–185
  22. The Garden of Ecstatic Cruelty 4: Prayer of the Female Slave by Tonomura Megumi
    186–202
  23. Ecstatic-Cruelty Photo Collection
    203–206
  24. Selected Illustration Masterpieces from Earlier Uramado Issues
    207–214

Highlights

  • The Torture-Device Maker opens the issue with a heavily illustrated narrative about an elderly craftsman devoted to constructing specialized implements of restraint and punishment; the story later resumes after an interruption by other features. (PDF pp. 6–10, 46–53).
  • Hanging Torment, photographed by Yoshida Hisashi, is a stark black-and-white bondage portfolio centered on a nude woman restrained by her wrists overhead. (PDF pp. 11–14).
  • The Devil's Lips combines first-person masochistic fantasy with extensive erotic illustration and establishes the issue's sustained interest in humiliation, fetishism, and sexual submission. (PDF pp. 16–23).
  • The Cursed Breasts uses an Edo-period crime and punishment narrative to connect sexualized bodily imagery with public restraint, criminality, and historical cruelty. (PDF pp. 24–33).
  • Temptation to Masochism by Kuroda Shirō is an extended essay relating cruelty and submission to psychology, hierarchy, sexual behavior, contemporary society, and examples from international cinema. (PDF pp. 34–45).
  • The Rough Rope and Black Hair Composition is an extended photographic sequence emphasizing coarse rope, black hair, kneeling and reclining positions, and the visual aesthetics of restraint. (PDF pp. 95–102).
  • The World Beneath the Skirt, installment three, treats voyeurism, women's clothing, exposure, and the erotic significance of looking beneath conventional dress. (PDF pp. 150–159).
  • The Underground Organization of Neo-Nazism shifts the magazine into international reportage, discussing postwar extremist networks and clandestine political organization. (PDF pp. 166–171).
  • A roundtable remembering the artist Seiu provides retrospective discussion of an important figure in Japanese erotic and punishment imagery and connects contemporary Uramado culture with an earlier artistic lineage. (PDF pp. 172–179).
  • The closing sequence combines the extended narrative The Prayer of the Female Slave with a bondage-photo collection and reproductions of notable illustrations from earlier Uramado issues. (PDF pp. 182–210).

Contributors

Named contributors represented in this issue:

English Translations from This Issue

Kinbaku Today is an independent online journal dedicated to the study, practice, and cultural history of Japanese rope bondage. Blending essays, translations, interviews, and archival research, it explores kinbaku not simply as technique, but as a living dialogue between history, performance, and human connection.
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