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Uramado

May 1959

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Cover of Uramado, May 1959

Issue Details

Volume
4
Issue
5
PDF pages
290

Summary

The May 1959 issue of Uramado is a large, visually varied publication combining erotic photography, illustrated fiction, historical narratives, sensational crime and occult stories, essays, reader-oriented material, and an extensive special feature titled A Tragic History of Women’s Liberation. The issue’s editorial identity is established through the juxtaposition of modern erotic spectacle with historical accounts of confinement, sexual exploitation, punishment, social restriction, and female vulnerability. Its illustrations range from sequential pulp-style drawings and historical scenes to a substantial monochrome photographic bondage portfolio.

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The opening material includes the illustrated thriller Keep Your Eyes on the Thighs and Nude Masterpieces: The Female Body and Rope, photographed by Fujisawa Osamu. The latter is an especially notable early rope-photography sequence built around the nude female figure, restraint, dramatic shadows, and changing bodily poses. Tattooed Komachi follows with an Edo-period narrative centered on tattoo imagery. Crimson Sash Incantation and Demon Blood continue the issue’s mixture of eroticized historical fiction, danger, coercion, and violence, while Beauty Urahoko provides another extended historical-erotic narrative.

A major portion of the issue is organized under A Tragic History of Women’s Liberation. The Prisoner Woman of the Desert, Neriko’s Hell, Lament of the Karayuki Women, Crimson Crepe Tradition, Endless Crimson Resentment, The Sea Demon and the Women, and Woman’s Body and Oppression approach female suffering through a mixture of fictionalized history, social commentary, exotic settings, captivity narratives, and depictions of institutional constraint. Woman’s Body and Oppression by Suzuki Kazuo is particularly significant as a sustained historical discussion of customs and institutions used to restrict women, accompanied by period-style illustrations. Lament of the Karayuki Women addresses women sent abroad and places sexual exploitation and migration within the special feature’s broader historical frame.

The later half of the magazine greatly expands the range of genres. The serial Strange Love Spirit Cult mixes occultism, bondage imagery, crime, and international intrigue. Ota’s Black Magic is presented as a Maso discussion feature exploring eroticized pain and sadomasochistic fantasy. Essay material such as From the Unsorted Shelf interrupts the longer narratives, while Black-Haired Lantern, Mad Dream, Invitation of Darkness, Lump of Flesh, You’re Next, and Soft-Skin Lantern return repeatedly to psychological disturbance, erotic danger, violence, obsession, and supernatural or uncanny motifs. The Sea Demon and the Women incorporates historical legend and maritime violence, while several later stories adopt contemporary urban or crime-fiction settings.

The issue also contains extensive lists of submitted manuscripts, reader and contributor material, advertisements for related publications, notices, and concluding publication information. These sections reveal Uramado as not merely a collection of erotic stories but as the center of an active amateur and enthusiast literary culture. Taken as a whole, the May 1959 issue moves freely between historical research, sensational fantasy, rope and nude photography, pulp fiction, social commentary, and sadomasochistic discourse, making the tension between erotic entertainment and the historical representation of women’s subjection one of its defining editorial characteristics.

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Table of Contents 22 items
  1. Keep Your Eyes on the Thighs by Toyoda Ichiro
    11
  2. Nude Masterpieces: The Female Body and Rope by Fujisawa Osamu
    19
  3. Tattooed Komachi by Nakajima Kimi
    27
  4. Crimson Sash Incantation by Takatsuki Daizo
    36
  5. The Prisoner Woman of the Desert by Minamimura Ran
    50
  6. Neriko's Hell by Yagiri Shigehachi
    62
  7. Lament of the Karayuki Women by Hada Hikaru
    76
  8. Beauty Urahoko by Akashi Sako
    90
  9. Demon Blood by Mizorogi Jakuko
    102
  10. Strange Love Spirit Cult by Iida Toyokichi
    118
  11. Woman's Body and Oppression by Suzuki Kazuo
    136
  12. Ota's Black Magic by Ozaki Jun
    150
  13. From the Unsorted Shelf by Henshushi
    163
  14. Crimson Crepe Tradition by Shimamoto Haruo
    172
  15. Black-Haired Lantern by Shima Fuji
    186
  16. Endless Crimson Resentment by Hashizume Hikoshichi
    192
  17. Mad Dream by Kyogoku Miki
    214
  18. The Sea Demon and the Women by Odagiri So
    224
  19. Invitation of Darkness by Ushioi Taku
    240
  20. Lump of Flesh by Narahara Tetsuo
    254
  21. You're Next by Kuroba Shin
    266
  22. Soft-Skin Lantern by Kuroki Shinobu
    280

Highlights

  • The formal illustrated contents spread presents an unusually broad program of photography, historical-erotic fiction, occult and crime stories, essays, and the extensive A Tragic History of Women's Liberation special feature. (PDF p. 4).
  • Keep Your Eyes on the Thighs opens the major editorial content as a heavily illustrated sequential narrative combining sexuality, danger, and pulp-crime imagery. (PDF pp. 6–13).
  • Nude Masterpieces: The Female Body and Rope, photographed by Fujisawa Osamu, is an extended monochrome portfolio exploring rope restraint, bodily pose, negative space, and strong cast shadows. (PDF pp. 14–19).
  • Tattooed Komachi uses Edo-period settings, tattoo imagery, nudity, and sequential illustration to merge historical fantasy with erotic spectacle. (PDF pp. 20–27).
  • The A Tragic History of Women's Liberation feature develops across numerous articles and stories concerned with imprisonment, forced movement, punishment, sexual exploitation, and historically imposed restrictions on women. (PDF pp. 43–81, 128–141, 164–177, 184–198, 216–231).
  • Lament of the Karayuki Women addresses Japanese women sent overseas, placing sexual exploitation and migration within the magazine's broader historical treatment of women's constrained lives. (PDF pp. 68–81).
  • Woman's Body and Oppression by Suzuki Kazuo surveys historical institutions and customs that regulated women and is accompanied by illustrations of confinement, punishment, and social control. (PDF pp. 128–141).
  • The issue contains extensive lists of unpublished submitted manuscripts and contributor material, documenting a substantial participatory literary culture surrounding Uramado. (PDF pp. 106–109, 200–205).
  • The fifth installment of Strange Love Spirit Cult combines crime, occultism, bondage, exotic settings, and international adventure in a long serialized narrative. (PDF pp. 110–127).
  • The concluding portion contains a succession of psychological, erotic, supernatural, and crime-oriented narratives, including Invitation of Darkness, Lump of Flesh, You're Next, and Soft-Skin Lantern, carrying the magazine's themes of obsession and bodily danger through to the final editorial pages. (PDF pp. 232–289).

Contributors

Named contributors represented in this issue:

Kinbaku Today
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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