Comments on: Arita Drug & Rubber Goods, Kobe? http://www.froginawell.net/japan/2006/10/arita-drug-rubber-goods-kobe/ The Japan History Group Blog Sat, 20 Mar 2010 05:20:54 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: kate http://www.froginawell.net/japan/2006/10/arita-drug-rubber-goods-kobe/comment-page-1/#comment-27780 kate Fri, 13 Oct 2006 23:51:36 +0000 http://www.froginawell.net/japan/2006/10/arita-drug-rubber-goods-kobe/#comment-27780 The horses on the cover are a laugh. When I lived in Taiwan in 1979, the one gay bar in town was called the Madrid club(What are you talking about? All the homosexuals are on the mainland!). One of the guys I knew explained the name as being a play on the kanji "ma," because horses represent sexual vigor. I haven't ever run across the Japanese using that symbolism before. Hmmm. The horses on the cover are a laugh. When I lived in Taiwan in 1979, the one gay bar in town was called the Madrid club(What are you talking about? All the homosexuals are on the mainland!). One of the guys I knew explained the name as being a play on the kanji “ma,” because horses represent sexual vigor. I haven’t ever run across the Japanese using that symbolism before. Hmmm.

]]> By: Jonathan Dresner http://www.froginawell.net/japan/2006/10/arita-drug-rubber-goods-kobe/comment-page-1/#comment-26965 Jonathan Dresner Sun, 08 Oct 2006 21:03:34 +0000 http://www.froginawell.net/japan/2006/10/arita-drug-rubber-goods-kobe/#comment-26965 The bit about the flags is fascinating... <i>if</i> it's the same shop (and the thought of <i>multiple</i> Kobe-based, foreign-oriented, drugstore-fronted sex toy shops would imply a <i>much</i> larger market for these things than my imagination will tolerate) then either they took the flags down for the picture or the flags date to after the publication of the catalog. There's no shame in remembering these sorts of anecdotes: they make such great lecture fodder. I remember Jay Rubin telling a graduate seminar once that his book <i>Thought Control in Prewar Japan</i> came at least partially from a desire to see what sort of sexy materials had been censored, but he was, apparently, disappointed by the results. The bit about the flags is fascinating… if it’s the same shop (and the thought of multiple Kobe-based, foreign-oriented, drugstore-fronted sex toy shops would imply a much larger market for these things than my imagination will tolerate) then either they took the flags down for the picture or the flags date to after the publication of the catalog.

There’s no shame in remembering these sorts of anecdotes: they make such great lecture fodder. I remember Jay Rubin telling a graduate seminar once that his book Thought Control in Prewar Japan came at least partially from a desire to see what sort of sexy materials had been censored, but he was, apparently, disappointed by the results.

]]> By: Matthew Mosca http://www.froginawell.net/japan/2006/10/arita-drug-rubber-goods-kobe/comment-page-1/#comment-26945 Matthew Mosca Sun, 08 Oct 2006 18:15:54 +0000 http://www.froginawell.net/japan/2006/10/arita-drug-rubber-goods-kobe/#comment-26945 Your post jogged my memory of a book I read a long time ago by Richard Hughes, entitled "Foreign Devil: Thirty Years of Reporting in the Far East." He has a sketch entitled "Sex Shop Sayonara" that seems (at first glance) to refer to this very shop. Here are some exerpts: "A dark quarter of a century has dustily unrolled, but I still nurture fresh and tender memories of the Honourable Sex Shop in pre-war Kobe, rightly esteemed by lonely mariners plying the China seas in the twenties and thirties. It was doomed, alas, to destruction by US fire bombings in 1944. In distant ports, I do not doubt, gnarled sea captains heard the tidings of its violent passing with bowed heads and a sentimental pang... My own affectionate and grateful tribute to the old cultural establishment harks back to December 1940... Kobe's Sex Shop was a modest, two-storied, clapboard structure in simple neo-Yedo style, which crouched with a distinct leer on a side street corner within kite-flying distance of Sannomiya station...The single uncompromising English word 'Sex' glared like a beacon in sunken white lettering on a scarlet board above the front swingdoors, where the three banners of nazi Germany, Mussolini Italy and Japan drooped dutifully from an entwined triangle of bamboo poles... The Kobe Honourable Sex Shop sustained its commercial success largely by goodwill and word-of-mouth-advertising. But it also published a catalogue - today, a rare collector's item - which was distributed widely and freely at Oriental seaports from Shanghai to Singapore, and which, despite picturesque infirmities and deficiencies in pidgin English, was sufficiently explicit to attract a regular and rewarding clientele. From the street, the Shop's windows gave little clue to the specialized merchandise on sale within. There were dusty bottles of liniment and pills, anonymous tins and tubes and strange cardboard devices with Japanese calligraphy in one window, and non-committal posters vaguely evocative of a horse-dealer's clinic in the other." The piece concludes with a colorful anecdote (as one might expect) to the effect that the Japanese police were quite amused to see foreigners exporting sexual aids in late 1940. Based on this I would say that Jonathan is quite right, the shop was aimed mostly at the foreign community. Since Mr. Hughes is at pains to inform the reader that he only went into the shop for a light-hearted prank, I should inform the reader that I do not only remember sex-related anecdotes. I swear! Your post jogged my memory of a book I read a long time ago by Richard Hughes,
entitled “Foreign Devil: Thirty Years of Reporting in the Far East.” He has a
sketch entitled “Sex Shop Sayonara” that seems (at first glance) to refer to
this very shop. Here are some exerpts:
“A dark quarter of a century has dustily unrolled, but I still nurture fresh and
tender memories of the Honourable Sex Shop in pre-war Kobe, rightly esteemed by
lonely mariners plying the China seas in the twenties and thirties. It was
doomed, alas, to destruction by US fire bombings in 1944. In distant ports, I
do not doubt, gnarled sea captains heard the tidings of its violent passing
with bowed heads and a sentimental pang…
My own affectionate and grateful tribute to the old cultural establishment harks
back to December 1940…
Kobe’s Sex Shop was a modest, two-storied, clapboard structure in simple
neo-Yedo style, which crouched with a distinct leer on a side street corner
within kite-flying distance of Sannomiya station…The single uncompromising
English word ‘Sex’ glared like a beacon in sunken white lettering on a scarlet
board above the front swingdoors, where the three banners of nazi Germany,
Mussolini Italy and Japan drooped dutifully from an entwined triangle of bamboo
poles…
The Kobe Honourable Sex Shop sustained its commercial success largely by
goodwill and word-of-mouth-advertising. But it also published a catalogue -
today, a rare collector’s item – which was distributed widely and freely at
Oriental seaports from Shanghai to Singapore, and which, despite picturesque
infirmities and deficiencies in pidgin English, was sufficiently explicit to
attract a regular and rewarding clientele. From the street, the Shop’s windows
gave little clue to the specialized merchandise on sale within. There were
dusty bottles of liniment and pills, anonymous tins and tubes and strange
cardboard devices with Japanese calligraphy in one window, and non-committal
posters vaguely evocative of a horse-dealer’s clinic in the other.”
The piece concludes with a colorful anecdote (as one might expect) to the effect
that the Japanese police were quite amused to see foreigners exporting sexual
aids in late 1940.
Based on this I would say that Jonathan is quite right, the shop was aimed
mostly at the foreign community.
Since Mr. Hughes is at pains to inform the reader that he only went into the
shop for a light-hearted prank, I should inform the reader that I do not only
remember sex-related anecdotes. I swear!

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