Article Summary
A short first-person fetish narrative centered on the smell of a woman’s worn underwear. The narrator receives a soiled pair of panties from his absent lover, Takako, whose bodily odor triggers nostalgia, jealousy, and fantasies of renewed domination. The story then shifts abruptly from solitary olfactory reverie into an imagined or dramatized punishment scene in which he binds her in blankets and applies heated konnyaku to her buttocks while accusing her of infidelity. Historically, the piece is notable for combining body-odor fetishism, underwear fetishism, jealousy, masochistic vocabulary, and comic domestic cruelty in the compressed confessional style common to mid-1950s Kitan Club. Its tone moves between mock indignation, self-awareness about fetishistic desire, and a deliberately exaggerated punishment fantasy.
Translation
Body-Odor Diary
I cut the cord around the securely wrapped parcel and opened it. A sharp, sweet-and-sour smell immediately spilled out. Inside was a pair of panties that still looked fairly new. There was also a letter in a large envelope, written on pale-blue stationery:
“I am sending the thing I promised. Until we can meet again, please think of this as me. I am embarrassed, but I am sending it without washing it. Takako.”
Takako
It has already been three months since we last met. Ever since I withdrew to the countryside, that Takako has become rather cold toward me. There is no doubt about it. She offers some excuse and expects me to be satisfied. She was always a slightly impertinent girl, but lately, since joining some ballet company called OS, she has become especially aloof. I do not know whether she is a prima ballerina or what, but while she prances around onstage, she has apparently developed an excessively high opinion of herself.
When I spread out the panties, the powerful, unmistakably feminine odor struck my nose.
“Please think of this as me.”
Don’t make a fool of me. She expects to let me smell her castoffs as though tossing scraps to a dog. That is not how business is done. A simple masochist might say, “Thank you very much,” and shed tears of grateful ecstasy, but I am not that sort of man. She used to be my woman, and perhaps she is still supposed to be my woman. Takako could be called a modern beauty, but now she may have found another man besides me.
Yet when I breathed in that strong, sour odor, I was overcome by nostalgia. This would not do. Without thinking, I pressed the panties to my nose and imagined Takako.
She was probably completely unconcerned, sitting somewhere eating soft-serve ice cream. Perhaps she was out enjoying herself with another man. Meanwhile, I was here fondly remembering the past through a pair of soiled panties. What a ridiculous spectacle. Was I merely wrestling with myself?
That woman had to be given a severe lesson. I had to make that Takako my slave. Such was my sickness.
I had to meet her. I had to torment her. Unless I treated her properly and with greater force, my illness would never be cured.
Did she imagine that I would wear them myself? She had not written a single word asking about my own smell. I would tear the panties into narrow strips and burn them. It would be humiliating if the housekeeper discovered that panties had arrived for me. Besides, one thorough smell was enough. I could not keep sniffing them over and over.
I was not delighted in the least. What pleased me was the thought that this woman was still mine to discipline in my own way.
“Forgive me!”
Takako now lay before me, unmistakably my woman. I twisted her wrists sharply upward, wound a handkerchief twice around her plump flesh, and bound them together. Then I wrapped her headfirst and upside down inside a soft cocoon of blankets.
“Now then, let me hear you cry out.”
Her tightly joined legs looked touchingly vulnerable, but that was merely the outward appearance. I would determine whether she had taken another man. I removed a slab of konnyaku from a boiling pot, cooled it briefly with chopsticks, and placed it on Takako’s buttocks.
“Mmmph!”
Takako arched and struggled. My mother had taught me that nothing exposed a woman’s infidelity like hot konnyaku.
Steam rose into the pleasant air of the May morning. Perhaps it would not be effective unless I made it a little hotter.
A fresh piece of konnyaku steamed in my hand before I placed it on Takako’s buttocks.
“Hot! Hot! Hot!”
Moaning, Takako rocked her hips from side to side. The konnyaku fell onto the tatami.
“You insolent woman. You have been unfaithful.”
Takako desperately pushed her face out of the blanket and groaned:
“No, no, that isn’t true. I have been faithful. I think about you so much…”
“Be quiet. I did not come to listen to your whining. You sent me your underwear, so why did you not send yourself?”
I applied a coating of oil to her reddened skin. Then I brought her ankles together and tied them. Now I would give her the real punishment.
The End.
Translation Notes
The Japanese title is 体臭日記, literally “Body-Odor Diary.” The article appears on printed pages 46–47. The author credit is 狩井麗作; “Reisaku Karii” is a plausible but unconfirmed reading of this uncommon pen name.
The woman’s name is printed 隆子. It is translated as Takako, although Ryūko is also a possible reading.
ＯＳ is described as a バレー団, meaning a ballet troupe or company. The identity of the troupe is not explained in the article.
そうは問屋が卸すものか is an idiom meaning that matters will not proceed as someone expects; it has been translated idiomatically rather than literally.
随喜の涙 is a Buddhist-derived expression for tears of ecstatic or grateful joy, used here sarcastically.
The narrator calls himself unlike a simple マゾヒスト, using the borrowed term “masochist” explicitly.
コンニャク is a gelatinous food made from konjac. In folk practice and comic erotic writing, warmed konnyaku could be associated with simulated bodily contact or punishment. The story uses it as a deliberately absurd instrument for testing or punishing alleged infidelity.
ヤキを入れる literally means to put in a burn or sear, but idiomatically means to administer a beating, punishment, or harsh corrective lesson. Here it also carries a literal heat joke because hot konnyaku is being used.
The final punishment scene may be a fantasy prompted by the underwear rather than a clearly marked event occurring in ordinary narrative time. The text changes abruptly from memory and speculation to Takako already bound before the narrator, without an explicit transition.
Source:
Uncertain readings:
- The author name 狩井麗作 has been romanized as Reisaku Karii, but both the surname and given-name readings require confirmation.
- The woman’s name 隆子 has been translated as Takako; Ryūko is another possible reading.
- The exact name represented by ＯＳ in the phrase ＯＳとか云うバレー団 is not identified.
- One phrase near the beginning of PDF page 44 appears to describe Takako sending the panties as a substitute accompanied by excuses; the scan supports the general meaning, but one or two characters are indistinct.
- The phrase preceding the hot-konnyaku punishment includes a partially unclear description of Takako’s joined legs; the transcription preserves the clearly visible sense without expanding it.
- The accusation printed as 貴様、密通したな is clear in sense, though the first word is slightly degraded in the scan.
