Translator's notes: Ten Forms of Nude Bound Women

 

 On page 35 of “The Beauty of Kinbaku” (2008), there is a claim that “Ten Forms of Nude Bound Women” was the catalyst for setting Kitan Club firmly in the direction of erotic SM. To support this claim, the author gives a quoted statement from the book "Japanese Kinbaku Photo History." Here is that quote:

 

 

 As you can see, the quote from The Beauty of Kinbaku does not match what the Japanese Kinbaku Photo History says above.

 

 "Ten Forms of Nude Bound Women" appeared in the July 1952 issue. If the Japanese Kinbaku Photo History is correct, then Kitan Club was reborn as an abnormal magazine from the June 1952 issue. That is one issue before "Ten Forms of Nude Bound Women" was published. Therefore, this illustration could not be the "trigger that set the magazine on a specialized course of bondage." Also, the change in cover styles between the April 1952 and June 1952 issues might also be a sign of that perverted rebirth.

 

 Secondly, “Ten Forms of Nude Bound Women” was published next to an illustrated article that includes seme-e illustrations of nude bound men. (full issue here)

 

 

 On top of that, Reiko Kita had already been publishing seme-e of nude bound women in Kitan Club for more than a year.

 

 Here are a few examples:

 

 

 

 

 So, "The Beauty of Kinbaku's" claim that "Ten Forms of Nude Bound Women" is “without doubt Japan’s first (publicly printed) modern illustration of blatantly sexual seme-e” is a severely limited view of what counts as blatantly sexual seme-e.

 

 I don’t know whether such mistakes were caused by an innocent misremembering or by the author's biased attempt to create his own story about early SM magazines, but such errors are a good reminder that we should not accept everything that a book or educator tells us. It is important to fact-check before sharing information.

 

 -Faviola