Pink Box: Inside Japan's Sex Clubs
by Joan Sinclair
List Price:
Our Price: $13.99
You Save: $23.51 (63%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Joan SinclairEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-10-01
ISBN: 0810992590
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Book Reviews of Pink Box: Inside Japan's Sex Clubs
Book Review: A Deeply Illustrated Introduction to the Japanese Sex Industry
Summary: 5 Stars
Thanks to my best buddy for getting me something I'd never get for myself.
I've been to Japan a few dozen times, but have never cleared immigration or customs. I've connected in wretched Narita many times, but have never left the airport. Speed Racer, Ultra-Man and their kind deeply inform (and warp) my knowledge of Japan, but I've also done formal research on its modern history, defense structures, and terrorism/counterterrorism issues, so I'm not clueless when it comes to Japan. That being said, this book took me somewhere I've never been and almost certainly never will. It showed me things I knew only a little of, and taught me more. For just that, it's a great experience.
In essence, this is a coffee table book, long on illustration and short on text. It comes in at 8 ½" by 9 ½", and just under 200 pages, almost every one of them with photographs. It's got an introductory narrative that gives a bit of author story and situates the contents for the totally uninitiated, but the book's primary content is the photos, hundreds of photos deep inside the Japanese sex industry.
The James Farrer mid-length, photographer-author Joan Sinclair-illustrated intro does a great job of situating the uninitiated in the Japanese sex industry; strange, but the term "prostitution" rarely appears when referring to the subject. Sinclair gets her story in briefly at the end. Also at the end is the "Pink Dictionary," a dense but very interesting, four-page listing of all of the terms and concepts contained in the book, complete with Kanji renditions. Armed with this lexicon, I think I could find myself in very short order some very interesting times and new friends in Japan.
There is thankfully very little moralizing on prostitution, which is just the way it should be for a book like this. Sinclair's notes at the end offer her view that, "...These women are not powerless, they are not on drugs. They have made conscious choices; they have their own dignity." There is only a passing mention of the role, or more precisely the presence of organized crime in the pink industry, but nothing more. Sinclair's notes and Farrer's introduction attempt to explain the relationship of the rigid, highly formalized Japanese socio-cultural structure with its overt and pervasive sex industry, but neither is in depth or fully addresses the issue. This left me wanting to read more.
Rating? Strangely enough, I did not find the photos particularly erotic. There's plenty of nudity, sure, but nothing that arousing. If your fetish runs to the deeply mysterious Orient and its petite porcelain treasures, these photos will knock your socks off. Most of the photos would get a movie R rating for nudity. There are just a few instances of explicit sexual contact, but not necessarily in the subjects themselves, but on television screens in the background; this content is most definitely X-rated. Nevertheless, this book is indeed tasteful, and non-judgmental and respectful of its subjects.
My take is that most of the photos were not specifically posed or composed, with the cover photo being one of the more obvious exceptions. These are not really portraits, although some qualify as such, but are snapshots of various aspects of the pink trade workday. These are photos of men and women at work, in costume or out, going through the highly formalized Japanese process of exchanging sexual contact for money.
Bottom line: Those uncomfortable with nudity and sex, and the world's oldest profession need not bother. Those with a curiosity for the foreign, hidden and taboo will discover an interesting, entertaining, illustration-rich introduction into the way Japan deals with the most basic of human motivations.
Travel Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Travel Books
The Guadalupe Mountains of Texas (Elma Dill Russell Spencer Foundation Series)by Alan Tennant
University of Texas Press; Published: 1997; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.95
Wild South Africaby Alan G. Mountain
The MIT Press; Published: 1998-09-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $219.45
Prairie Passage: The Illinois & Michigan Canal Corridorby Edward Ranney, Emily J Harris
University of Illinois Press; Published: 1998-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $69.00
Chicago and Downstate: Illinois as Seen by the Farm Security Administration Photographers, 1936-1943 (Visions of Illinois)University of Illinois Press; Published: 1989-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.83
Price in other shops:
Travel Photographyby Roger Hicks, Frances Schultz
Focal Press; Published: 1998-11-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $74.20
A Southern Celebration: Charleston and Savannah Proclaimedby Jane Sobel, Arthur J. Klonsky, Christian Gehman
Skyline Pr; Published: 1985-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $39.99
Framing the West: Race, Gender, and the Photographic Frontier in the Pacific Northwestby Carol J. Williams
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2003-10-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.95
Price in other shops:
A Day in the Life of Ireland: Photographed by 75 of the World's Leading Photojournalists on One Day, May 17, 1991by Collins Publishers, Collins1, Jennifer Erwitt
Collins Pub San Francisco; Published: 1995-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $79.99
Over Londonby Jason Hawkes
Harpercollins Pub Ltd; Published: 2001-03; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Walking the Bible: A Photographic Journeyby Bruce Feiler
PBS; William Morrow; Published: 2005-10-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.93
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld, Expanded Editionby David E. Kaplan, Alec Dubro
University of California Press; Published: 2003-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japanby Robert Whiting
Vintage; Published: 2000-09-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japanby Jake Adelstein
Pantheon; Published: 2009-10-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.50
Price in other shops:
Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential: How Teenage Girls Made a Nation Coolby Brian Ashcraft
Kodansha USA; Published: 2010-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.52
Price in other shops:
Confessions of a Yakuza: A Life in Japan's Underworldby John Bester, Junichi Saga
Kodansha USA; Published: 1995-07-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.94
Price in other shops:
Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinemaby Jasper Sharp
FAB Press; Published: 2008-11-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $30.94
Price in other shops:
Love Hotels: The Hidden Fantasy Rooms of JapanChronicle Books; Published: 2006-11-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.17
Price in other shops:
Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughterby Shoko Tendo
Kodansha USA; Published: 2009-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.81
Price in other shops:
The Hedonist: World Vacation Guideby Brett Tate, Dr. Brett Tate
Cambridge Publishing, LLC; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.85
Price in other shops:
Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan (Vintage Crime/ Black Lizard)by Jake Adelstein
Vintage; Published: 2010-10-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.85
Price in other shops: