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Uramado

August 1959

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Cover of Uramado, August 1959

Issue Details

Volume
4
Issue
8
PDF pages
328

Summary

The August 1959 issue of Uramado is an unusually large special number built around curses, magical practices, occult fantasy, supernatural revenge, and illusion, while retaining the magazine’s characteristic mixture of erotic illustration, nude photography, fetish material, historical curiosity, crime, confession, and popular fiction. Its opening sequence juxtaposes the illustrated Beauty and the Beast, in which circus spectacle and coercive eroticism dominate the imagery, with Fujisawa Osamu’s stark Nude Masterpieces portfolio. From the Unsorted Shelf then shifts into first-person sexual confession and psychological reflection, reinforcing Uramado’s interest in abnormal desire as both fantasy and testimony.

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The central Curses, Magic, and Illusion feature develops through a long succession of period and contemporary stories. Ghostly Yin-Yang Master follows a fraudulent occult practitioner whose predictions, curses, suspicious deaths, and frightened clients gradually create genuine uncertainty about supernatural agency. The Demon-Cursed Blind Doll, Strange Letter, Strange Incident at the Hour of the Ox, A Woman Digs a Hole, and Magic-Trick Town expand the theme through curse rites, threatening correspondence, nocturnal ritual, burial imagery, trickery, and sexual danger. Andromeda Picture Story introduces a more overtly fantastic illustrated interlude, while Enburi: A Curse Song of Tohoku roots uncanny material in regional custom and folk belief.

The middle portion moves repeatedly between historical cruelty and modern erotic psychology. Revenge: Female Yasha Extract and The Devil’s Flute Makes Women Dance emphasize violent supernatural or magical retribution. Troubled Married Women Tomoe turns toward contemporary marital desire and confession, while History of Beautiful-Boy Seppuku examines the cultural and historical imagery surrounding youthful male suicide. The serialized Women’s Intelligence Agent supplies modern adventure and espionage, followed by the exotic island fantasy The Island of Strange Female Guardians and the reader-contribution feature Clouded Rear-Window Glass.

The later issue again broadens in genre. Dance of the White Blade presents a period tale centered on sword violence; Slug House uses grotesque bodily imagery and is illustrated by Minomura Kou; Oryū’s Secret Notebook and The Mirror Reflects return to serialized period and uncanny storytelling. Selections of Strange Tales and Curious Accounts gathers darker Edo-period material, while The Curse of Kangiten places religious imagery and supernatural punishment at the center of a late major feature. Hell Doctor closes the principal fiction sequence with grotesque medical and courtroom motifs before the magazine moves into concluding notices, manuscript solicitation, publication information, advertisements, and its back cover. Taken as a whole, the issue presents occultism less as an isolated supernatural subject than as a framework for linking eroticism, fear, punishment, bodily vulnerability, folklore, fetishism, crime, and historical fantasy.

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Table of Contents 25 items
  1. Beauty and the Beast by Akitsu Kyōta
    19–26
  2. Nude Masterpieces by Fujisawa Osamu
    11–14
  3. From the Unsorted Shelf by Aoki Misao
    27–34
  4. Ghostly Yin-Yang Master by Gondaibō Donkai
    36–65
  5. The Demon-Cursed Blind Doll by Shimamoto Haruo
    66–81
  6. Strange Letter by Hasegawa Isamu
    82–93
  7. Strange Incident at the Hour of the Ox by Nakabayashi Setsuzō
    94–107
  8. A Woman Digs a Hole by Yanagi Ayako
    108–117
  9. Magic-Trick Town by Hada Hikaru
    118–130
  10. Andromeda Picture Story by Nakajima Yoshimi
    131–138
  11. Enburi: A Curse Song of Tohoku by Narumi Genkichi
    139–151
  12. Revenge: Female Yasha Extract by Hashizume Hikoshichi
    152–165
  13. The Devil's Flute Makes Women Dance by Sugimoto Shun
    166–177
  14. Troubled Married Women Tomoe by Hashizume Hikoshichi
    178–191
  15. History of Beautiful-Boy Seppuku by Naka Yasuhiro
    192–203
  16. Women's Intelligence Agent, 2 by Yoda Seiji
    204–219
  17. The Island of Strange Female Guardians by Odagiri Sō
    220–234
  18. Clouded Rear-Window Glass by Takashima Hajime; Ōtaki Sōji
    235–243
  19. Dance of the White Blade by Hisatomi Kōji
    244–251
  20. Slug House by Ujigawa Ryū
    252–264
  21. Oryū's Secret Notebook by Enjōji Tatsu
    265–277
  22. The Mirror Reflects by Erigaki Zan
    278–287
  23. Selections of Strange Tales and Curious Accounts by Suzuki Kazuo
    288–305
  24. The Curse of Kangiten by Kuroba Shin
    306–317
  25. Hell Doctor by Iida Toyokichi
    318–334

Highlights

  • Beauty and the Beast opens the illustrated editorial material with a circus-set narrative combining erotic spectacle, coercion, whipping, captivity, and dramatic full-page drawings by Koshō Hideo. (PDF pp. 6–13).
  • Fujisawa Osamu's Nude Masterpieces is a stark black-background photographic portfolio emphasizing sculptural poses, bodily curvature, and isolated studio presentation. (PDF pp. 14–17).
  • Ghostly Yin-Yang Master is the first major story of the occult special feature, developing a lengthy narrative around prophecies, fraudulent spiritual authority, curses, unexplained deaths, and the growing possibility of genuine supernatural power. (PDF pp. 28–57).
  • Strange Incident at the Hour of the Ox invokes the traditional ushi no toki curse motif, combining nocturnal ritual, jealousy, violent imagery, and illustrations of clandestine magical practice. (PDF pp. 86–99).
  • Enburi: A Curse Song of Tohoku connects the supernatural theme to northeastern Japanese folk custom, pairing regional curse-song imagery with erotic and uncanny illustration. (PDF pp. 131–143).
  • History of Beautiful-Boy Seppuku examines accounts and cultural imagery of youthful male ritual suicide, giving the issue a historical and documentary counterpoint to its predominantly fictional supernatural material. (PDF pp. 184–195).
  • Women's Intelligence Agent, installment 2, provides a long illustrated modern adventure sequence involving espionage, danger, captivity, and female protagonists. (PDF pp. 196–210).
  • Slug House is a grotesque late-issue tale illustrated by Minomura Kou, combining bodily disgust, erotic menace, and the magazine's taste for abnormal or disturbing environments. (PDF pp. 243–255).
  • The Curse of Kangiten brings Buddhist-derived religious imagery into the special issue's occult framework and develops a late extended narrative of desire, taboo, and supernatural retribution. (PDF pp. 297–308).
  • Hell Doctor forms the final major fictional sequence, using medical grotesquerie, death, legal or courtroom motifs, and dark anecdotal storytelling before the closing editorial and publication material. (PDF pp. 309–325).

Contributors

Named contributors represented in 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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