Here's some vintage coverage of United States servicemen enjoying nascent Japanese-style Turkish baths (toruko-buro, the old name for what became soapland).
"The Turkish Bath has come to Tokyo with a difference," it proclaims. "Real Hot Turkish Bath". Hmm, quite.
The source is apparently a June 1958 issue of adult magazine People Today. The original scans are viewable here.
The magazine article appears to cover the new modern steam baths appearing in Tokyo in the postwar period, possibly during the occupation years before prostitution was illegalized.
This is all very ...
Some generous soul has unearthed a copy of an old Japanese sex guide for youngsters. And what a find it is.
The first thing to note about The Young Person’s Guide to Sex is the hairy armpit on the cover. Different times, different attitudes, folks.
Dating back to the 1960s, young people could read this handy guide to learn such important things as how to hold hands with your partner.
Apparently such activities as shining your man's shoe or combing your lady's hair were also part of the courtship ritual back then.
And then there was the nose-touching and chin-stroking.
The ...
We've just discovered the Sangre Yakuza blog. It's not in English and we can't understand much Spanish, but we love his (?) tastes!
The blog profiles so-called pinku eiga (pink film), a genre of softcore porn films (sexploitation). They were made by some of the greatest and most experimental names in Japanese cinema before they turned more mainstream later in their careers.
The blog also features "Roman Porno", the subgenre of softcore pink films made by Nikkatsu in the 1970s.
Back in the day, pornography was more innocent. That's not to say it wasn't erotic (it certainly was!), ...
Parks are not just for strolling around in.
Unlike other cities, Tokyo's parks are open all night. Photographer Kohei Yoshiyuki used to visit Chuo Park in the early Seventies and search for goings-on in the dark.
At the time, it was common for couples to go the park to have sex. But that alone wasn't what was interesting.
The couples weren't alone. People were watching.
In effect, the park was an open-air public happening bar.
After spending months entrenches with the voyeurs so that they would trust him as a "regular" in Chuo, Yoyogi and Aoyama parks, Yoshiyuki then ...
At Waseda University they've made available another side to traditional Japanese art in the "Fart War Scroll Picture" (屁合戦絵巻 or He-gassen-emaki), a series of images telling the epic tale of breaking wind competitively in ancient Tokyo.
Japanese humor can sometimes be very slapstick and we have trouble relating it to our western chums. Lavatorial jokes are pretty universal, though, and it seems that Edo era Japanese had a liking for this kind of comedy, if this scroll is anything to go by.
Beyond this one that Waseda has made available online, there are more examples ...
Sometimes the oldies are the best.
We all love our sexy idols today but I also enjoy a good perv over the ladies big in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Their bikinis might not be as hot. The shots might be a little old-fashioned. But man, they still look damn fine!
Here's a small selection of some of the best of Japan's nostalgic idols!
Kanako Nakajo (b. 1973) is a former gravure model who made her debut in 1991. She got married to a baseball player and left the entertainment world in the late 1990s.
The actress Atsuko Asano (b. 1960) was big in the 1970s from her teenaged ...
Remember back in June when Megumi blogged about the pink movie theater Okura in Ueno that was closing down (to re-open as a "modern" porn cinema, including for women patrons)?
Tokyo Reporter managed to capture the final day closing events (oh, why do I have a regular job?!). After five decades of providing the citizens what they want, the curtains came down on a landmark of porn history in Japan...
Here's a couple of sample photos but you can check out more on his ...
Famous pink movie (sexploitation) theater Ueno Okura Theater is to shut its doors in August, bringing to an end fifty-nine years of sex history. A new cinema will be built in front of the old building.
Okura first appeared in northeast Tokyo in 1951 and started showing pink movies from 1962. Despite its age it still attracts many old fans to its weekly three-movie schedules, with some 2,000 visitors per week.
However, since the last decades saw the rise of video and then DVD, the pink movie theaters, once a staple of Japan's sex industry. There were some 300 theaters at its peak but now ...
It's time to go back in history and prove that the Japanese have always been an erotic lot. Do you all know the tale of Sada Abe (阿部 定)?
Born in 1905, she is infamous as the prostitute/maid who asphyxiated her lover and boss, Kichiro Ishida, in an inn after days of continuous sex.
Kichiro was the owner of the eel restaurant where Sada worked and he soon seduced his employee. They made love for the first time to the accompaniment of geisha singing, before eventually decamping to the 1930s equivalent of a love hotel, where they stayed for four days screwing non-stop.
After ...
