NOTE:

This book was made around 1945 and is an anthology of pre-war stories and artwork. The book itself is technically post-war and was made privately and sold privately as it was a banned book.

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This doujin was created in the mid to late 1940s, namely from a collection of classical Japanese books, ukiyo-e erotic prints, and erotic books. The illustrated woodblock prints include erotic and sexually explicit images, though many of them are also a mix of Taisho era and Showa era drawings. While there is overall deterioration, stains, tears, and dirt due to age, it is a historically valuable item.

The books are a type of erotic book/erotic print collection known as "enpon" or "mimeographed (stencil print) underground books," which were privately produced and distributed from the Taisho to the early Showa period (pre-war to immediately after the war). They are historical documents that convey the social conditions and underground publishing culture of the time.

This work is in fact a doujinshi and was compiled from what seems to be late Meiji era and Taisho shunga art during the pre war environment, where much of this content was banned during the Imperial Japan era post 1945. These works were sold in actual black markets as katsukori bunko / bunka. Many of these books were produced as doujinshi on independent printing presses with stories built around antique shunga prints, so the quality varies.

During the strict, militaristic Imperial period of World War II, public pornography and overtly sexual materials were aggressively banned. However, immediately following Japan’s defeat in 1945, the country experienced a profound cultural and social phenomenon driven by a desire to escape the trauma of war, resulting in the birth of a vibrant underground erotica market, also known as Kasutori.

This culture was the cornerstone of this black-market literary movement, named after a cheap, poorly distilled moonshine alcohol common in the postwar black markets, kasutori magazines were inexpensive, sensational, and explicitly erotic publications. Because official paper supplies were tightly rationed by the government, thousands of independent or fly-by-night publishers relied completely on the illegal black markets (yami-ichi) to source low-grade pulp paper and ink. The completed books and magazines were subsequently sold at open-air black-market stalls alongside illegal food and alcohol. These books would lead to more organized underground works like Kitan Club, Adonis and other sexual literary texts, and eventually, being a unique bedrock for doujinshi itself outside of Comiket.

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★Additionals:

★Original auction page:

https://paypayfleamarket.yahoo.co.jp/item/o1231845597

★Context:

The opening appears to read approximately:

水藻の花の咲く、静かな池の面にポツンと投げられた小石一つ――
だがその波紋は岸辺の土にさえぎられるまで……

The metaphor is essentially:

“A single pebble dropped into the quiet surface of a pond where water plants are in bloom. Yet the ripples spread outward until they are stopped by the earth at the bank…”

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Questions? Comments? Inquiries?

You can reach me @retroanimechris on X/Twitter/Bluesky and adoggoart@gmail.com or chrisdelabigne@gmail.com

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Scanning services are available! Simply send your inquiry to any of the contacts above and I will get back to you in 24 hours at best. Discord is @Adoggoart

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If you would like to help me acquire similar texts or others, please consider donating!

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