The history of S&M in Japan
S&M Art has taken many forms in Japan and this relates directly to the history of Japan. One established genre of S&M art in Japan is what is known as the Joshu or female prisoners stuff. When we say “female prisoners” or “Joshu” stuff, we generally refer to those pictures of torture from the period between the battle of Onin (1467) throughout Sengoku and Edo periods to Meiji.
Sengoku period is noted for its cruel methods of torture – fire, knife (to cut off parts of the body), tattoo, boiling water, divining blocks and rocking horses and so on and so on. The most brutal forms of execution and torture were employed during this period of hell on earth. The methods of torture and execution used against the Christians were most barbaric. It should be noted, however, that there is nothing uncommon about brutal religious prosecution throughout history. Elsewhere the believers of “wrong” religions have been treated separately from the rest of the population. Christians in Japan got their ears, fingers and nose chopped off, which were originally punishments for those who committed the crime of treachery and deceit. It was meant to give maximum public humiliation by physical deformation.
The Togukawa government laid out in 1742 the foundation of crime laws, which spelled out seven different types of punishment – death, exile, slavery, forced labour and so forth, as well as four kinds of torture – whip (mutchiuchi), pressing stone (ishidaki), bend by rope (ebizeme) and hung by rope (tsurizeme). It has to be noted that all four official methods of torture from this period are still considered the main stream torture patterns in the S&M art today. You could say the foundation of today’s S&M art was laid down then.
Whip (mutchiuchi)
The other interesting aspect of punishment in this period is public disgracing. Public disgracing of criminals and public execution was common before before a Yamato dynasty was set up in Nara in 794. The execution of woman was not open to the public then but became acceptable during Edo period. According to “History of Punishment in Japan”(Takigawa Masajiro), criminals were tied to a horse and dragged around the city with a note describing the crime. The author noted that woman criminals aroused the perverted interests among the male on-lookers. The purpose of public disgracing was to deter ordinary folks from commiting crimes by indicating the consequence, as well as to humilliate the criminals the the maximum. Woman suffered more from public disgracing, which is a dominating theme behind today’s bondage art.
Japanese society became more stable following the reign of Letsuna and Tsunayoshi, fourth and fifth Tokugawa shoguns, and acts of punishments became more theatrical. At the height of Edi culture depiction of punishment had become a genre and punishment became increasingly popular as a form of mass entertainment with a tinge of agitation. The artistic characteristics of today’s S&M, especially Joshu stuff and bondage, stem significantly from this period.
The actual act of torture and punishment is almost always carried out by the lower class officials. During the Edo period, when the social hierarchy was established, catching the criminals was the job assigned to the lower class officials such as Yoriki and Doshin. Meakashi and Okappiki who are frequently featured in today’s period novels were private detectives, official status being “merchants”, employed by Doshin.
Binding up with rope was the art developed and maintained by Doshin, because different roping was required for people from a different class. Ropeing up wrongly would embarrass not just the criminals but also the officials. Some roping techniques have only been handed down orally or were kept secret.
Public humuliation and the authorities
There is an element of public ridicule of authority in the S&M art. Take an example of a pre-war picture which depicts the wife of the reactionary man being tortured and raped by a thought police officer. One from the Edo period shows female prisoners shamed by a local constable. A more modern example shows a male department store attendant toying with the body of a school girl who was caught shoplifting. Another shows a female office worker getting raped by a station master who caught her fare cheating.
Pressing stone (ishidaki)
In these pictures the act of raping and torture is “justifiable” because their victim did wrong. You can say there is a tinge of sadisme involved. The victims accept the crime and punishment, yet still tremble from the sheer humiliation. The social position of woman in these pictures is so fragile that it amplifies the power balance between the aggressors and the tortured. The frailty, weakness and these characteristics of woman are presented here many times multiplied. They arouse the sense of shame even more and stimulate the masochistic appetite. No ordinary rape S&M art could attain this.
Still, you could not categorize all people who get excited by these pictures as sadists. They might be excited by sympathizing with tortures and raped girls in these pictures. In other words, they might feel satisfied with sharing the tremble of the body, an accelerating heart beat and a wet crotch from the fear. This does not mean that they are all masochistic either. Indeed, this is where the fine line between S&M lies.
S&M magazines during the Post War period
“The only recognition I ever received, as a person who has studied bondage since 1908, was the pervert tag” said Ito Seiu in an article published in Amatoria magazine in 1953. During this time the word S&M was not even public usage – it was swept under the carpet and the purveyors where called perverts.
When Ito wrote this, in the early fifties, it was at the time when post-war pulp magazines were transforming into more mass market oriented erotic journals. It was indeed in 1953 when one of those pulp magazine, Kitan Club, transformed into an authentic “abnormal” magazine. Kitan Club, when launched in 1948, was an ero-thetic magazine aimed at the “normal” people. The transformation was sparked by series of bondage pictures by Kita Reiko – who is also known as Suma Toshiyuki, the magazine editor of Kitan Club and Urumado, and a novelist under the name of Minomura Ko. He claimed to be the “last disciple of bondage master, Ito Seiu”.
Bend by rope (ebizeme)
“Yomikiri Romansu” was another magazine full of B-grade erotic novels with the format similar to the then popular “Married Couples” magazine. The Romansu magazine had bondage photos and pictures by the editor, Ueda Seishiro, who was influenced heavily by Ito Seiu. Ueda was a regular at photo sessions organised by Ito. Many bondage photos from these sessions ended up on the pages of fledgling S&M magazines such as Kitan Club and Uramado. You could say, the spirit of Ito Seiu, the great roping master, is handed down to the present day via these magazines of the fifties.
The Uramado magazine was launched in 1955. Initially a magazine of period novels, it transformed into an S&M magazine around 1960 due largely to the effort of Lida Toyokazu, ex-editor of Kitan Club. Lida later became the major contributor, known as master roper Nureki Chimuo, to the golden days of S&M magazines in the seventies and to the rise of S&M videos later.
Hung by rope (tsurizeme)
With all new directions and designs, Uramado proclaimed on the cover to be “the most extraordinary S&M magazine in the country”. The magazine nurtured talented photographers like Yoshida Kyu and Fujisawa Shu and artist Nakagawa Ayako. The magazine also printed lots of photos and pictures imported from overseas via Phoenix Co. Morishita Takashige of Phoenix had contacts with many “maniacs” and “collectors” of the US West Coast, such as John Willy and Fakir Musafar, then the publisher of Fancy, the world’s first modern primitive magazine. Incredibly, Musafar had already paid a visit to Japan and was introduced by Kanta Mori (Morishita) as an exponent of anomalous piercing mania, in Fuzoku Kitan magazine.
Unfortunatly Uramado crashed in the mass suppression of similar publishers in the 60s. The demise of Uramado signalled the end of a golden era of “abnormal” magazines in the post war period. Maybe it was not acceptable yet to proclaim S&M media openly. The second heyday of the S&M magazine arrived in the early 70s through to the eighties, which spawned out titles like SM Collector, SM Select, SM Kitan, SM Mania, SM Fan, SM Sniper and SM King.
Pornography and S&M
The subtle differences existing in the S&M art and the differences in various magazines is hard to explain to a novice. To the eyes of many theay all look the same; victimisation of women. There are roughly two streams in the S&M art in Japan; ones depicting the dark aesthetics of S&M and the others, much lighter and more pornographic. One should remember it was only since Dan Oniroku wrote a novel “Flower and Snake” that the vagina became more prominent and vibes and enemas for anal penetration were added to the S&M art.
So-called soft core S&M clubs today are the products of the second stream. It is obsessed with the vagina, cunt and anus, women’s private parts which were not regarded important in the traditional S&M art. In this new and popular form, “S&M” is just foreplay, downgraded to a mere entree to the main act of sexual intercourse. It is certainly not seen as pursuit of aesthetics. There is nothing wrong with physical intercourse, but S&M art is not a part of it. Popularised S&M is not the real thing because it does not thrive in the pursuit of the art of torture.
© Masami Akita
taken from the CD inlay booklet of Merzbow’s Music for Bondage Performance 2
If you are interested in the history of bondage photos from the post war period, please look for my publication, “History of bondage photos of Japan (Nihon KinbakuShashin Shi)” published by Jiyu KokuminSha. It has three hundred Illustrations.
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