Kitan Club

November 1947

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Cover of Kitan Club, November 1947

Issue Details

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23

Summary

The November 1947 Kitan Club is an early postwar issue whose editorial identity is already recognizable as a mixture of sexological curiosity, ethnographic speculation, urban reportage, erotic humor, medical discussion, folklore, and accounts of unconventional sexuality. The cover identifies the magazine simply as Kitan Club and prominently marks the issue with 11, while the contents page establishes a dense miscellany rather than a single thematic special issue. The magazine moves rapidly among serious explanatory articles, anecdotal collections, comic observation, sensational reportage, and short columns.

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The opening article, Worship of the Genitals and the Sexual Spirit: A Study of Folk Toys, Part 1, by Sakai Sanjin, approaches sexual symbolism through folk religion and material culture. It discusses phallic and genital imagery, fertility worship, ritual objects, and the relationship between sexuality and religious belief. This is followed by Utsumi Yūzō’s Collection of Erotic Curiosities from Various Provinces, a gathering of regional sexual customs, stories, and unusual practices. Nakahara Harumi’s The Frappé Dance That Intoxicates Spectators shifts toward modern entertainment, describing an eroticized dance spectacle and its visual appeal.

Several shorter pieces address fetishism, medicine, and popular sexual knowledge. A discussion of rubber raincoats treats attraction to waterproof clothing as an erotic peculiarity, while Obstetrician-Gynecologist’s View of the Times: ABC collects observations derived from medical practice. The Science of Kissing and the Oral Cavity examines kissing from physiological and hygienic perspectives, and a neighboring article considers erotic pictures and censorship or prohibition. Other short pieces deal with false circumcision, contemporary dating, nightlife, theatrical sexuality, and humorous erotic incidents.

The middle and later portions increasingly emphasize urban and narrative material. Shanghai’s Den of Vice presents Shanghai through the vocabulary of vice tourism and cosmopolitan sexual danger. The magazine also includes reports on Osaka nightlife and pleasure quarters, an essay on the predicament of unmarried women over thirty, and the supernatural story The Fox Spirit and Fox Possession. Erotic comic storytelling appears in the rakugo-style Katsunotsugi, while Curious Talk: An Object for Personal Use examines intimate objects and bodily practices. Human Flesh considers the cultural and gustatory meanings attached to human versus animal flesh.

The closing pages continue the magazine’s fascination with modern sexual behavior. The back-street column Floating-World Patterns: The City’s Back Alleys presents anecdotal encounters and illicit urban situations; Y-Section Discussions offers short provocative observations on sexuality; and the final substantial essay examines precocious girls as represented in erotic books of earlier periods. Editorial notes, advertisements, subscription information, and the colophon close the issue. Collectively, the magazine documents a transitional moment in early postwar popular sex culture, where folklore, medicine, fetishism, prostitution, modern urban life, erotic publishing, and comic storytelling were being assembled into the distinctive editorial mixture that would characterize Kitan Club.

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Table of Contents 26 items
  1. Worship of the Genitals and the Sexual Spirit: A Study of Folk Toys, Part 1 by Sakai Sanjin
    Summary

    A folkloric study of genital worship and the sexual spirit, examining phallic and female sexual symbols in folk toys, shrine objects, village rituals, and fertility customs. The article compares regional and historical examples, linking these objects and practices to beliefs about reproduction, spiritual power, and male–female relations.

  2. Collection of Erotic Curiosities from Various Provinces by Utsumi Yūzō
    5
    Summary

    A collection of erotic curiosities gathered from different Japanese provinces, describing unusual sexual customs, shrine-related objects, folk practices, and anecdotes. The piece emphasizes regional variation in erotic culture and includes discussion of changing social attitudes and censorship of sexual materials.

  3. The Frappé Dance That Intoxicates Spectators by Nakahara Harumi
    6
    Summary

    An observational essay on the Frappé dance, describing its alluring choreography, suggestive bodily movements, costumes, and the intense fascination it produces among spectators. The author considers how the performance balances playful elegance, erotic display, and theatrical spectacle.

  4. The Rubber Raincoat Fetish by Watagawa Kaoru
    7
    Summary

    A discussion of fetishistic attraction to rubber raincoats, focusing on the garment’s distinctive appearance, texture, smell, and the unusual fantasies or compulsive behavior it can evoke. The article presents the subject as a form of sexual and psychological deviation involving clothing and sensory stimulation.

  5. An Obstetrician-Gynecologist's View of the Times: ABC by Sugita Kiyoshi
    7
    Summary

    An obstetrician-gynecologist discusses contemporary sexual attitudes and behavior through three illustrative cases identified as A, B, and C. The article approaches these matters from a reproductive-medical and social perspective, with accompanying explanatory illustrations.

  6. The Science of Kissing and the Oral Cavity by Yagi Kyūichi
    8
    Summary

    A medical discussion of kissing that examines the oral cavity, oral cleanliness, and the bodily and psychological conditions involved in kissing. The article combines physiological explanation with practical observations about oral hygiene and intimate contact.

  7. Erotic Pictures and Prohibition by Ayukawa Kazuo
    8
    Summary

    An editorial discussion of erotic pictures examines their circulation, the authorities’ attempts to suppress them, and the uneasy boundary between obscenity, artistic expression, and public morality. It also reflects on the continuing demand for such material despite official prohibition.

  8. The Counterfeit Circumcision Specialist by Nobuta Haruo
    9
    Summary

    An exposé recounts the activities of a bogus circumcision specialist who presents himself as medically skilled while deceiving clients. The piece treats the episode as an example of medical quackery and fraud surrounding intimate bodily treatment.

  9. A Scene from 1948: The Speed Age by Miki Tosei
    10
    Summary

    A humorous series of imagined 1948 vignettes portrays everyday life in a rapidly accelerating “speed age,” using dialogues set in urban spaces such as department stores, cinemas, streetcars, and busy streets. The feature satirizes how new technologies and modern habits might reshape ordinary social interactions.

  10. Pink-Tinted Social Conditions by M. Y.
    10
    Summary

    A lightly comic collection of male-female exchanges sketches the flirtation, dating behavior, and sexualized etiquette associated with “pink” social conditions. Its conversational format emphasizes changing gender relations and the social performance of courtship.

  11. Pink Curiosities and Worldly Tales
    11
    Summary

    A sensational miscellany of sexual and medical curiosities, including reports of an attempted assault, sexual scandal, and a young girl brought to hospital with gonorrhea. The page combines brief worldly anecdotes with an accompanying caricatural illustration.

  12. Kitan Gossip
    11
    Summary

    A gossip column presenting short, suggestive anecdotes about nightlife, entertainers, romantic entanglements, and sexual behavior. Its conversational reports and personal episodes emphasize rumor, scandal, and the circulation of intimate stories.

  13. Conto: One Difference by Mizuhara Kōsuke
    11
    Summary

    A short fictional conte centered on a narrator’s observations and an encounter in an urban back-street setting, where a small but significant difference becomes the story’s central contrast.

  14. Shanghai's Den of Vice by Ukita Fumio
    Summary

    A reportage-style account of Shanghai’s “den of vice,” describing its nightlife districts, bars, dance venues, brothels, prostitution, and the varied people drawn into the city’s postwar entertainment world. The feature combines social observation with sensational descriptions and illustrative scenes of nightlife and sexual commerce.

  15. Flowers of Vice in the Pleasure Quarter by Yuge Shinobu
    Summary

    A social report on Osaka’s postwar pleasure districts, describing the women working in and around entertainment quarters, street solicitation, changing nightlife, and the economic pressures shaping these spaces. It surveys areas including Dōtonbori, Abeno, and Tennoji while portraying the district as a landscape of commercialized sexuality and moral ambiguity.

  16. A Night in Osaka Picked Up on the Kanazuka Highway by Aoki Tomiji
    Summary

    A first-person night report along the Kanazuka Highway in Osaka, recounting encounters with street women, male customers, entertainers, and other figures moving between lodging houses, restaurants, and theaters. The illustrated feature presents the nighttime street as a fluid social world of prostitution, pursuit, and improvised amusement.

  17. The Crisis of the Unmarried Woman Over Thirty by Aoki Tomiji
    15
    Summary

    An essay examines the social and emotional difficulties faced by women who remain unmarried beyond thirty, discussing marriage prospects, sexual and domestic expectations, and the pressures placed on single women. It contrasts women’s situations with those of men and reflects on changing postwar attitudes toward marriage and family life.

  18. The Fox Spirit and Fox Possession by Ninchōji Minoru
    16
    Summary

    A folklore essay surveys Japanese beliefs about fox spirits and fox possession, combining traditional supernatural lore with anecdotes of apparent possession and exorcistic or ritual responses. It presents the fox as both a shape-shifting yōkai and an explanation for strange behavior or misfortune in village life.

  19. Erotic Rakugo: Katsunotsugi by Mugen-tei Chian
    17
    Summary

    A bawdy rakugo tale presented through comic dialogue and anecdotal storytelling, centering on sexual and marital misunderstandings in a historical Japanese setting. The piece uses the conventions of oral performance to turn erotic situations into humor.

  20. Curious Talk: An Object for Personal Use by Suzuki Jōfu
    18
    Summary

    An essay investigates the historical meaning of “objects for personal use,” tracing the term through literary references and advertisements for intimate articles. It discusses artificial sexual implements, their shapes and materials, and their use among women in domestic and entertainment settings.

  21. Seven Children by H-sei
    18
    Summary

    A brief humorous dialogue presents a child’s puzzlement about family relationships and household arrangements, ending with a teasing parental response.

  22. The Taste of Human Flesh by Tamaji Kōzō
    18
    Summary

    A pseudo-scientific and ethnographic essay speculates about the flavor and tenderness of human flesh, comparing it with animal meats and referring to reports of cannibalism and travelers’ accounts.

  23. Floating-World Patterns: The City's Back Alleys by Kimura Ichizō
    Summary

    A series of anecdotal sketches set in the city’s hidden quarters, depicting encounters involving drinking, women, deception, and the precarious social world around illicit entertainment. The piece presents the urban back alleys as a space of sexual commerce, unstable relationships, and social hypocrisy.

  24. Y-Section Discussions: Arabesque by Ashida Keisuke
    20
    Summary

    A discussion-format feature from the magazine’s “Y-section,” combining an anecdote about nightlife and sexual behavior with broader reflections and opinion prompts concerning intimate conduct, social attitudes, and sexual knowledge. Its participatory, conversational format treats erotic culture as a subject for public debate.

  25. The Rampage of the Pink Terror
    21
    Summary

    A sensational erotic-crime episode recounts a woman’s encounter with a threatening man, culminating in an attempted act of resistance with an improvised weapon. The narrative combines sexual menace, suspense, and physical struggle.

  26. Precocious Girls in the Age Revealed by Erotic Books by Gotō Fumio
    Summary

    Gotō Fumio examines changing attitudes toward female sexuality by comparing modern girls with representations of women in erotic books from earlier periods. The essay discusses precocious sexual awareness, the weakening of traditional restraints, and the effects of postwar social and moral change.

Highlights

  • The opening study of genital worship connects sexual symbolism, fertility rites, religious belief, and folk objects, showing the magazine's early interest in treating sexuality through quasi-ethnographic and historical frameworks. (PDF pp. 3–4).
  • Collection of Erotic Curiosities from Various Provinces gathers regional stories and customs concerning sexuality and bodily practices, presenting local folklore as a source of erotic knowledge. (PDF p. 5).
  • The Frappé Dance That Intoxicates Spectators describes an erotic modern dance spectacle and the responses of its audience, illustrating the magazine's attention to contemporary entertainment and visual sexuality. (PDF p. 6).
  • A cluster of articles on rubber raincoats, obstetrics and gynecology, kissing, and erotic pictures mixes fetishistic curiosity with medical and pseudo-scientific explanation. (PDF pp. 7–9).
  • The 1948 Scene and related modern-life columns present flirtation, dating, cinemas, streets, and nightlife as emblems of rapidly changing postwar sexual behavior. (PDF pp. 10–11).
  • Shanghai's Den of Vice portrays the Chinese metropolis through nightlife, sexuality, foreignness, and vice, reflecting the era's sensationalized fascination with cosmopolitan urban spaces. (PDF pp. 12–14).
  • The Crisis of the Unmarried Woman Over Thirty discusses marriage, aging, sexuality, social expectation, and women's emotional lives within the gender norms of the immediate postwar period. (PDF p. 15).
  • The Fox Spirit and Fox Possession combines supernatural folklore with sexuality and bodily transformation, continuing Kitan Club's characteristic overlap between the strange, erotic, and ethnographic. (PDF p. 16).
  • Floating-World Patterns: The City's Back Alleys offers anecdotal scenes of intoxication, prostitution, clandestine encounters, and urban sexual behavior. (PDF pp. 19–21).
  • The concluding article on precocious girls in erotic books considers historical representations of adolescent femininity and sexuality, placing modern behavior in dialogue with earlier erotic literature. (PDF pp. 22–23).

Contributors

Named contributors represented in this issue: