Kitan Club

May 1962

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Cover of Kitan Club, May 1962

Issue Details

Volume
16
Issue
5
PDF pages
136

Summary

The May 1962 extra-large issue of Kitan Club combines an unusually long opening sequence of erotic and sadomasochistic imagery with fiction, confessional prose, psychological speculation, autobiographical writing, reader-oriented columns, and cultural commentary. Its editorial identity rests on the juxtaposition of staged kinbaku photography, illustrations of punishment and domination, and narratives in which desire is explored through captivity, humiliation, performance, disguise, voyeurism, and unequal power.

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The front matter begins with a formal illustrated table of contents and a succession of commissioned drawings. These plates depict rescue fantasies, outdoor bondage, public exposure, female dominance, criminal violence, mock sumo, and ritualized self-injury. A substantial photographic section follows, presenting close studies of rope placement, facial expression, gagging, female domination, submission beneath the feet, staged seppuku, constricting garments, and ebi-style binding. The photographs are organized as named portfolios with credited models, giving the issue a catalog-like visual rhythm before the main literary section begins.

The prose section opens with Kondo Hajime’s Akemi Writhing, a backstage narrative about a young actress subjected to violent theatrical discipline and exploitation. Sudo Ritsuo’s confessional essay Chronicle of a Woman: The Woman from Aizu shifts toward nocturnal encounter, biography, and sexual danger. Sawai Kazuo’s The Tongue Knew follows with a long account of erotic duplicity and interpersonal manipulation. Tsujimura Kaoru’s Thirty-Nine Nights of Strange Tales supplies an extended supernatural or grotesque narrative, while Hayakawa Susumu’s Women’s Subconscious Desires frames female sexuality in psychological terms.

Later contributions broaden the issue’s register. Fujio Tamotsu offers an autobiographical statement of his life and opinions; Higashimachi Saburo’s The Stairway to My Wife’s Depths returns to domestic and marital psychology; Mishima Yayoi’s My Life in Women’s Clothing documents cross-dressing and gendered self-presentation; and Saji Ozo’s serialized SM novel Somewhere in the Universe supplies the issue’s longest sustained fiction. The Kitan Salon section mixes criticism, correspondence, short observations, book and performance commentary, and community-facing material. The closing portion begins the illustrated series Decisive Battle, Utsumi Shoji’s second-self confession, and Higashiyama Eishi’s survey of cruel scenes in recent films. Across these forms, the issue presents SM not as a single genre but as a network of visual practices, theatrical fantasies, literary conventions, identities, and reader communities.

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Table of Contents 33 items
  1. The Goddess of Salvation by Thirty-Nine Nights Group
    3
    Summary

    An erotic illustration presents a goddess-like woman standing triumphantly while several bound men cling to or lie at her feet, framing salvation through female power and male submission.

  2. Elegant Iroha Playing Cards by Takireiko
    5
    Summary

    This illustrated playing-card feature presents a sequence of stylized Japanese scenes involving women and men subjected to bondage, restraint, humiliation, and captivity.

  3. Beautiful Figure in Takate-Kote Ushirode Binding by Takireiko
    6
    Summary

    A photographic feature depicts a woman seated in an elaborate takate-kote ushirode rope binding, with her arms restrained behind her back and her kimono arranged as part of the composition.

  4. Bonfire by Shiba Takashi
    7
    Summary

    An erotic illustration depicts a man binding and gagging a woman beside a bonfire in a dark outdoor setting.

  5. The Display in the Yard by Shiba Takashi
    8
    Summary

    An erotic illustration shows a woman tied spread-eagled to a raised frame in a yard while a man observes from a nearby building.

  6. The Boss Woman and Three Slaves by Harukawa Namio
    9
    Summary

    An erotic illustration portrays a dominant woman seated over and controlling three bound male slaves, emphasizing an orchestrated scene of female authority and male submission.

  7. Mounted on a Startled Horse by Harukawa Namio
    10
    Summary

    An erotic illustration depicts a woman straddling and dominating a restrained male figure while wielding a riding crop, under the caption “Mounted on a Startled Horse.”

  8. Yakuza Lynch by Kurokawa Fujio
    11
    Summary

    A staged erotic illustration titled “Yakuza Lynch” portrays a group of men restraining and abusing a bound woman in a dark gangster-themed scene.

  9. Tatami-Ring Geisha Sumo by Yukizaki Kyojin
    12
    Summary

    An erotic illustration presents a geisha-themed wrestling scene on a tatami ring, combining nudity, grappling, and physical domination before onlooking men.

  10. Seppuku in Ski-Wear Style by Takireiko
    13
    Summary

    An erotic illustration depicts a woman in ski wear staging a stylized seppuku scene, combining modern winter clothing with imagery of ritual self-disembowelment.

  11. Expressions of Ecstatic Torment and Close-Ups of Rope by Kinukawa Fumiyo
    14
    Summary

    A photographic feature presents close views of a restrained woman’s ecstatic or distressed expressions alongside detailed views of the rope used in the scene.

  12. My Pleasure by Takeno Hiroko
    Summary

    A staged photographic portfolio titled “My Pleasure” depicts women bound with rope in varied bed-based poses, including gagged and partially undressed presentations.

  13. The Expressive Beauty of the Gag by Rika Yukiko
    Summary

    A photographic feature presents a woman gagged and tightly rope-bound in a series of posed close-ups, emphasizing the visual expressiveness of restrained speech and facial sensation.

  14. Fantasy of Torn Underwear by Otsuka Keiko
    Summary

    A staged photographic sequence depicts a woman in torn or disordered lingerie subjected to elaborate rope bondage in indoor and outdoor settings, combining damaged clothing with scenes of erotic restraint.

  15. Prelude to Submission: Complete Submission by Kinukawa Fumiyo
    21
    Summary

    A photographic feature titled “Prelude to Submission: Complete Submission” shows a woman moving through collapsed, contorted, and fully submissive poses, with images of physical helplessness and completed submission.

  16. The Trained Pet Dog by Rika Yukiko
    22
    Summary

    A photographic feature presents a woman treating a nude male submissive as a trained pet, including feeding and foot-oriented scenes of obedience and service.

  17. Slave Beneath Her Feet by Rika Yukiko
    Summary

    A photographic bondage feature depicts a nude woman immobilized in elaborate rope restraints and posed as a slave beneath another person’s feet.

  18. Female Seppuku Pantomime and Close-Ups by Otsuka Keiko
    Summary

    A staged photographic sequence portrays a woman performing a stylized female seppuku or self-disembowelment pantomime with a sword, followed by close-up images of her body and expressions.

  19. The Feel of a Diaper Cover and Rubber
    Summary

    A photographic feature depicts a woman wearing diaper-cover garments and rubber while bound in several rope configurations, emphasizing the tactile and fetishistic appeal of the materials.

  20. A Moment of Ebi Binding by Rika Yukiko
    29
    Summary

    A single photographic scene presents a woman tightly rope-bound in the ebi-shibori, or shrimp-binding, position.

  21. Akemi Writhing by Kondo Hajime
    Summary

    An illustrated serialized narrative follows the actress Sayuri through a theatrical world of staged bondage, harsh discipline, humiliation, exploitation, and personal conflict as she struggles to survive and establish herself on the stage.

  22. Chronicle of a Woman: The Woman from Aizu by Sudo Ritsuo
    Summary

    A first-person erotic chronicle recounts an encounter with an enigmatic woman from Aizu whose identity and fantasies are intertwined with the memory of the Byakkotai, wartime sacrifice, and ritualized self-injury. The accompanying illustration reinforces the article’s dramatic and fetishistic staging of historical violence.

  23. The Tongue Knew by Sawai Kazuo
    Summary

    This episodic erotic narrative follows the narrator’s increasingly intimate and manipulative encounters with Yuri, a married woman whose seductive performances involve jealousy, forbidden desire, bodily display, and fantasies of knife play modeled on samurai self-sacrifice. Illustrated scenes present the encounters as staged erotic tableaux.

  24. Thirty-Nine Nights of Strange Tales by Tsujimura Takashi
    Summary

    A serialized cycle of bizarre erotic tales presents episodes of abduction, captivity, bondage, assault, sadistic violence, and sexual humiliation, accompanied by dramatic illustrations and framed as sensational fantasy.

  25. Women's Subconscious Desires by Hayakawa Susumu
    Summary

    This surreal erotic fiction explores women’s hidden desires through dreamlike scenes of marital conflict, coercion, restraint, humiliation, and female submission, blending psychological speculation with violent fantasy.

  26. Fujio Tamotsu's Life and Opinions by Fujio Tamotsu
    Summary

    An interview-style life-and-opinions piece discusses the author’s views on women, European and American social customs, domestic servants, horse riding, whipping, and other forms of eroticized discipline, accompanied by illustrated scenes.

  27. The Stairway to My Wife's Depths by Higashimachi Saburo
    Summary

    A domestic SM melodrama follows a troubled marriage and household hierarchy in which illness, servants, in-laws, coercive discipline, beatings, and enemas reshape relationships and the protagonists’ positions within the family.

  28. My Life in Women's Clothing by Mishima Yayoi
    Summary

    In this autobiographical account, a male narrator describes his lifelong attraction to women’s clothing, gradual adoption of makeup and feminine presentation, and experiences appearing publicly and traveling as a woman.

  29. Somewhere in the Universe by Saji Ozo
    Summary

    A serialized SM fiction narrative set in a brutal prison depicts male and female inmates subjected to elaborate iron restraints, nose-ring and gag devices, forced positions, corporal punishment, and domination by guards, alongside escape attempts and institutional control.

  30. Kitan Salon
    Summary

    The Kitan Salon is a reader-oriented miscellany combining an editorial review of the previous issue with correspondence, personal submissions, bondage and fetish discussions, reader requests, illustrations, product notices, and other contributions to the magazine’s participatory culture.

  31. Decisive Battle by Yukizaki Kyojin
    131
    Summary

    This illustrated feature presents a montage of nude men and women in staged, combat-like erotic embraces and grappling poses under the title “Decisive Battle.”

  32. Another Me by Utsumi Shoji
    Summary

    A first-person confessional narrative follows a man’s developing fascination with feminine identity, cross-dressing, and elaborate self-binding, including memories of his sister, marriage, and private bondage fantasies. The account links these practices to loneliness, secrecy, self-observation, and the construction of an “other self.”

  33. Cruel Scenes in Recent Films by Higashiyama Eishi
    140
    Summary

    A film commentary surveys cruel and sensational scenes in recent Japanese movies, emphasizing women subjected to ropes, restraint, torture, pursuit, and execution-like peril, with attention to staging, costumes, camera views, and the visual impact of these sequences.

Highlights

  • The formal illustrated table of contents establishes the issue's mixture of pictorial portfolios, fiction, confessions, psychology, autobiography, serialized writing, and community columns. (PDF p. 4).
  • The opening illustrated portfolio presents rescue fantasies, outdoor bondage, public exposure, female domination, criminal punishment, and staged violence by several credited artists. (PDF pp. 3–13).
  • A sixteen-page photographic sequence studies rope patterns, gags, facial expression, domination, staged self-injury, constrictive clothing, rubber materials, and ebi-style binding through individually titled portfolios. (PDF pp. 14–29).
  • Akemi Writhing uses the world of popular theater to depict coercion, exploitation, punishment, and the transformation of suffering into public performance. (PDF pp. 31–40).
  • Chronicle of a Woman: The Woman from Aizu combines confessional narration, an urban nocturnal encounter, personal history, and fantasies of danger and bodily violation. (PDF pp. 41–44).
  • The Tongue Knew develops a long narrative about infidelity, erotic role-playing, manipulation, and the uneasy circulation of desire within marriage and family relationships. (PDF pp. 45–52).
  • The paired contributions Women's Subconscious Desires and Fujio Tamotsu's Life and Opinions show the magazine alternating between quasi-psychological analysis and first-person intellectual autobiography. (PDF pp. 67–82).
  • My Life in Women's Clothing provides a rare first-person account centered on cross-dressing, feminine presentation, social encounters, and the construction of an alternate gendered identity. (PDF pp. 92–94).
  • The serialized SM novel Somewhere in the Universe occupies the largest continuous prose block and combines science-fiction framing with bondage, captivity, punishment, and hierarchical control. (PDF pp. 95–109).
  • The final pages introduce a survey of cruel scenes in contemporary cinema, connecting the magazine's erotic concerns with film criticism and popular visual culture. (PDF pp. 135–136).

Contributors

Named contributors represented in this issue: