Kitan Club

September 1956

← Back to magazine archive

Summary

The September 1956 issue of Kitan Club combines confessional writing, erotic fiction, cultural criticism, literary history, film commentary, collecting, reader testimony, and specialist publishing information. Its opening contents spread, decorated with mermaid illustrations, presents a densely organized issue whose primary articles begin with accounts of psychological compulsion and bodily control. Tamao Sumiko’s “Parasites” uses a disturbing laboratory and domestic narrative to explore dependency, manipulation, illness, and eroticized degradation. It is followed by Tsukioka Eiko’s intimate account of enemas and diapers and Matsui Raiko’s illustrated “The Shell of Love,” a long story of frustrated attachment, jealousy, bondage, performance, and violence.

Read full summary Close full summary

The issue then broadens into labor, social, and literary subjects. Futaki Yoshio’s “Raid on the Labor Camp” depicts exploitation and violent conflict in a coal-mining settlement, while Numa Shōzō’s essay welcomes the appearance of fiction about human domestication and places such writing within the development of masochistic literature. Aoyama Miekichi’s “The White Mouse” presents theatrical life and obsessive attachment, and Aoba Shin’ichi’s “Red Lotus” follows a sickly military-school student through discipline, humiliation, brutality, and wartime catastrophe. The second installment of Kondō Kikuya’s “Through the Light” continues an autobiographical record of despair and attempted suicide.

The middle section becomes increasingly analytical. Fujimi Kaoru surveys homosexuality in literary history, while shorter pieces include editorial commentary, personal reminiscence, a report on reader and model culture, and continued testimony about masochistic experience. Ikeda Fumiko’s schoolgirl memoir and Kadota Nako’s reflections on love foreground female narrators, while Numa Shōzō’s notebook combines literary criticism, correspondence, and reflections on sadomasochistic representation. Essays on photographing women, torture scenes in cinema, modern masochist art, detective fiction, theater, and contemporary film demonstrate the magazine’s sustained interest in how cruelty and deviance are represented across media.

The later portion includes Sugawara Haruo’s theoretical consideration of etsugyaku, a collector’s bibliographic column, Ōtani Ayako’s long fiction “The Slug,” editorial miscellany, bondage-film commentary, visual reference material concerning female seppuku, and notices about foreign publications. The closing pages contain catalogues, indexes, publication advertisements, reader communications, editorial exchanges, and community notices. Together these materials establish Kitan Club as both a literary magazine and a participatory subcultural forum, linking fantasy, historical inquiry, visual culture, personal confession, and reader exchange.

Loading PDF…
Table of Contents 32 items
  1. Parasites by Tamao Sumiko
    18–27
  2. Incontinence: Enemas and Diapers by Tsukioka Eiko
    28–29
  3. The Shell of Love by Matsui Raiko
    30–39
  4. Raid on the Labor Camp by Futaki Yoshio
    40–43
  5. Welcoming the Appearance of Domestication Fiction by Numa Shōzō
    44–45
  6. The White Mouse by Aoyama Miekichi
    46–53
  7. Red Lotus by Aoba Shin'ichi
    54–61
  8. Through the Light, Part Two: Record of My Suicide Attempt by Kondō Kikuya
    62–69
  9. Homosexuality as It Appears in Literature by Fujimi Kaoru
    70–74
  10. Editorial Afterdrops by Editorial Department
    75
  11. My Fundoshi by Matsubara Michiyo
    76–77
  12. Report by Shima Naoki
    78–79
  13. Joys and Sorrows of Masochism: Afterward by Makane Kyōjirō
    80–87
  14. Memoir of a Schoolgirl Nude Enthusiast by Ikeda Fumiko
    88–89
  15. On Nako's Love by Kadota Nako
    90–97
  16. Numa Shōzō's Notebook by Numa Shōzō
    98–105
  17. Miscellaneous Notes on Photographing Women by Matsubara Hajime
    106–107
  18. Torture Scenes Appearing in Films by Sazamaki Hiroshi
    108–115
  19. Modern Masochism Art Review, Part Two by Hara Tadamasa
    116–119
  20. New Studies in Detective Fiction, Part Two by Azuma Ichirō
    120–125
  21. Behind the Theater: Red Dish, Missing Dish by Kida Magarō
    126–128
  22. From Recent Films by Shiraishi Hiromu
    129
  23. A Consideration of Etsugyaku by Sugawara Haruo
    130–135
  24. From My Collection by Kadoma Sōkichi
    136–141
  25. The Slug by Ōtani Ayako
    142–149
  26. Gyokusei Gleanings by Editorial Department
    150–153
  27. From Recent Bondage Films by Saga Miyako
    154–155
  28. Illustrated Reference on Compositions of Female Seppuku
    156–157
  29. Introduction to New Foreign-Language Publications by Editorial Department
    158
  30. Tenseisha Publication Catalogue by Editorial Department
    160–161
  31. Kitan Club Cumulative Contents Index by Editorial Department
    162–163
  32. Reader Communications and Editorial Correspondence by Editorial Department
    166–176

Highlights

  • The formal contents spread uses paired mermaid illustrations and organizes a broad mixture of fiction, confession, criticism, film writing, collecting, and editorial material. (PDF p. 4).
  • “Parasites” blends scientific experimentation, domestic intrigue, erotic dependency, and grotesque bodily imagery in one of the issue’s most psychologically elaborate opening narratives. (PDF pp. 7–16).
  • “The Shell of Love” is an extensively illustrated narrative of theatrical life, jealousy, restraint, sexual coercion, and destructive obsession. (PDF pp. 19–28).
  • “Raid on the Labor Camp” shifts the issue toward social realism through its depiction of coal mining, labor exploitation, violent enforcement, and resistance. (PDF pp. 29–32).
  • Numa Shōzō’s essay welcomes the emergence of fiction about human domestication and explicitly situates it within the history and theory of masochistic literature. (PDF pp. 33–34).
  • “Red Lotus” follows a physically vulnerable military-school student through hazing, disciplinary violence, combat training, and wartime destruction. (PDF pp. 43–50).
  • Fujimi Kaoru’s essay surveys representations of homosexuality in literature and connects classical, historical, and modern examples. (PDF pp. 59–63).
  • The cluster of essays on cinema, photography, theater, and modern masochist art examines how erotic cruelty is staged, recorded, illustrated, and judged across different media. (PDF pp. 95–108, 115–118, 143–144).
  • Sugawara Haruo’s “A Consideration of Etsugyaku” attempts a theoretical account of pleasure, cruelty, psychology, and social interpretation. (PDF pp. 119–124).
  • The closing section combines foreign-publication notices, visual reference material, catalogues, indexes, correspondence, and editorial communications, documenting the infrastructure of Kitan Club’s reader community. (PDF pp. 145–165).
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.

EVEN MORE NEWS

POPULAR CATEGORY

©