Interesting, and quite scarce, vintage sleaze magazines from post World War Two Japan. Several 1948 issues of the monthly Japanese pulp magazine "Arabian Night" by Togenshiya. These would have been somewhat taboo at the time, I assume, but surprisingly each monthly issue is a whopping 130 pages and professionally done. Entirely in Japanese, and quite beautiful (as is virtually anything on paper from Japan in the years immediately after World War Two). I was surprised at the amount of fetishistic and bondage images. In retrospect, of course, the gag magazines and girlie magazines in the United States featured the same, but I wonder if Western influence from the US occupying forces after the war both encouraged (and served as a market for) the photographs included within the magazines.
The magazine is like our pinup magazines, though color is sparse and the print quality lacking. The beauty is in the design. What must have been rudimentary printing operations by comparison is compensated by layout and beautiful fills. There is even a considerable amount of cartoon gags just like our men's smut mags, most of them on special pink cartoon pages a group of which are included here. A strange pastiche of illustrations which appear to be by several artists, some influenced by long familiar anonymous erotica, others who knows. Strange, and that might have been the point.
Japanese bondage and rope tying has long been an art, which I did not know and why I was surprised to see such images in an "over the counter" pulp magazine. I was familiar with Shunga prints of course, and the later henti, manga and anime forms...maybe this forgotten periodical played an "in-between" role.
There is nothing on the web about the magazine, but then I can not enter Japanese characters. A few cover pages are here as well, if one of the Japanese readers can provide information, feel free.
There is considerable editorial content in each magazine...photos, line drawings and much more. Quite remarkable and I would enjoy knowing the history and if anyone else has copies of these magazines. I fuzzed out the cover a bit to make it less inappropriate for moms.
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