Fundoshi Art Tour

I enjoy finding artwork inspired by fundoshi, where it’s clear the artist loves the garment as much as I do. Whether classic, romantic, or erotic; fundoshi lends itself to sensuality in art! I’ve left all signatures and watermarks intact so the authorship of these images is obvious. Please support these artists!

Fundoshi Gallery

Meet the Readers: Icarian

For men in Japan, wearing fundoshi is a traditional activity. Outside of Japan, many people (including myself) discovered fundoshi through pictures, articles, or the internet. Inspired to try it for ourselves, we learn to tighten Japan’s historic loincloth and to pay tribute to its rich cultural heritage.

In recent years, I’ve been honored to learn that some of you have learned to tie a fundoshi through reading this blog. It is truly gratifying to know that others have found the path to a fundoshi lifestyle here, and I pledge to continue spreading the word.

For the first post published in 2022, I was privileged to have a conversation with Icarian, a fundoshi enthusiast residing in Sweden. You can read our conversation after the page break.

Meet the Readers: Fundoshiguy & susushi999

susushi999 

As I'm sure followers of this blog already know, reader interactions are my very favorite content to share. If I could only blog reader submissions for the rest of the year it would be amazing!

There's a link in the page navbar that initiates your own photos appearing right here in these venerable pages ;) 

Here are two fundoshi enthusiasts I started following on Twitter: @susushi999 and @fundoshiguy. Drawn in by their posts, I reached out and asked if they might enjoy being featured here at Fundoshi4All. 

I encourage everyone to follow them and see more of their content! Find pictures and their fundoshi experiences in their own words after the jump! Let's go:

Kuroneko Fundoshi

Fundoshi Men

Fundoshi Gallery

Hadaka Matsuri 2021 Season

Saturday, February 20 was the Saidai-Ji Eyo, one of the largest Naked Festivals in Japan, held annually for over 500 years. The winter festival is attended by over 9,000 participants and is probably the outside world's largest exposure to fundoshi as that is all that is worn.

After much consideration, this ancient Shinto festival was altered this year due to the ongoing pandemic. Attendance was limited. Crowds were not allowed inside the temple. While the interruption of tradition is unfortunate,  it was made with life and safety in mind and to make sure everyone will be around to enjoy future naked festivals.

Let's all attend in the future when it safe again!

Washoi!

(Enjoy a selection of Matsuri images from past years after the break)

ふんどしの日 February 14 is Fundoshi Day!

What could be better than Valentines Day? It turns out that February 14 is also Fundoshi Day in Japan! 

Let's celebrate this traditional garment and wear fundoshi today. 

バレンタインデーより良いものは何ですか？ 2月14日は日本のふんどしの日でもあります！

今日はこの伝統的な服を祝ってふんどしを着ましょう。

Meet the Readers: Sakda

IG: lionsakda

I can't think of a better way to finish the year than by sharing pictures from one of the blog's readers, Sakda, wearing his fundoshi while relaxing and playing among breathtaking scenery. It was a pleasure to get to know Sakda recently, and ask about some of his thoughts. 

The pictures he sent are spectacular. How nice it would be, to meet and talk with a handsome man wearing fundoshi in a green forest pool!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year filled with good fortune. Thank you for making this blog a part of your life this year. I look forward to another year of sharing pictures and experiences!

And now, more Sakda!

Journey Through The Past

2020 will be remembered as a year of great challenges and difficulty. Those challenges are not over. Our enemy is still Covid-19. Here in the USA, we are battling another infection of a different sort, a social and psychological weakening of our traditional bonds of trust and cooperation. This secondary infection is more than happy to feed bodies into the maw of the coronavirus for its own cynical and selfish motives.

I can't solve this. I can't even adequately describe it. Nor should I, in a blog devoted to fundoshi. Let me instead wish each of you strong health, emotional peace, and blessings as we close out 2020.

What better way to soothe the mind (and energize the loins) than with the stunning images taken by photographers of the past. I hope to write some in-depth posts about the great photo books of the 1970s and 1980s, captured by the camera shutter of Kurihama Yozo, Shun Kochi, Kenji Kimura, Tamotsu Yato, Kuro Haga, and others.

I also hope to showcase some of YOUR photography, showing off you and your friends wrapped in fundoshi! I'm looking forward to 2021 with you.

Exploring a Young Man who wears Fundoshi

I hope you'll enjoy this patient and sensual video where a fit young Japanese man is wrapped in a fundoshi, then caressed and pleasure to orgasm. Afterward, his tight and beautiful anus is explored with tongue, fingers, and a dildo. It leaves his fundoshi askew, and his rectum clearly hungering for more!

What do you think happens to him next?

Fundoshi Sightings

This is the first post I've made using blogger's new interface... and boy is it awkward. Why do platforms roll out major overhauls like this? Many small changes spread out over time would make for a far better user experience. It doesn't feel like user feedback makes much impact on the programmers at these platforms who've already decided what they're going to do.

Anyway here are some men enjoying fundoshi "in the wild."

Tied in Fundoshi

A photo essay: the beauty of fundoshi-clad men entrapped in ropes... struggling in ecstatic bondage!

More images after the break!

Fundoshi Patterns

One of the beauties of wearing a fundoshi is its expressive possibilities. Whether you prefer classic white, bright red, traditional Japanese textile patterns, or playful contemporary prints; the fundoshi you tie can become an extension of your inner spirit. There's floral patterns, abstract colors and shapes, geometric designs, all manner of bold or subdued prints. What's your favorite color or pattern to wear?

There are so many possibilities. Click continue for a collection of all types of men showing off their patterned loincloths.

Reader Pics!

Over the years that I've been keeping this blog, the number of photos on the Internet featuring fundoshi has mushroomed. Interest in fundoshi has swelled. I  used to just find the same few dozen images over and over, but today there is a wealth of fundoshi imagery blossoming all across the web. From professional models to selfies, every day I see pictures I've never seen before.

By far my favorites are those that readers submit to this blog. Nothing makes me feel more validated than receiving an email with pictures attached, along with your kind words of encouragement.

This week, in honor of LGBTQ+ pride, I'm featuring a selection of reader submissions from over the past ten years. Would you like to see yourself on the Fundoshi 4 All! blog? If you'd like submit your pictures, see the link in the tool bar at the top of the page.

Happy PRIDE!

Odaiko: The Pulsing Heartbeat

Three Great Photographers Of Yesterday

When looking into the past for photographs of Japanese men wearing the fundoshi, three photographers come to mind: Tamotsu Yato, Kuro Haga, and Kurihama Yozo.

I want to share a brief profile of each artist. All three too beautiful and accomplished photos of men in homoerotic scenarios or displaying their physiques; sometimes nude but often dressed in fundoshi or brief underwear.

Blue laws of the time meant that penises, if shown at all, must be blurred or censored. These photographers found that leaving their models semi-clad could reveal their arousal and raw sensuality, while skirting the censorship rules.

Tamotsu Yato (矢頭 保, 1928-1973)

The first name to come to mind is Tamotsu Yato. His association with author Yukio Mishima has generated considerable interest, but Yato was a highly accomplished artist on his own. He was also a long-term romantic partner of Meredith Weatherby, an expatriate American publisher and translator of Mishima's works into English. Unfortunately Yato had a falling out with Weatherby in later life.

Yato was a heavy smoker with a heart defect, and died early and alone. Relatives who denounced his homosexuality seized all his belongings after his death, likely destroying his negatives. Yato's family refused to allow reprints of his three highly influential photo books (Naked Festival, Young Samurai: Bodybuilders Of Japan, and Otoko), however copies of the first Japanese and English printings can still be found with a little effort. They are gorgeous volumes.

Kuro Haga (波賀九郎,  1920-2002)

Haga is best known for publishing Bon Magazine, a series of 16 bound volumes that began in the 1973. Like Yato, Kuro Haga's works featured muscular and masculine men posing outdoors or occasionally in bondage. His work is an exciting mixture of color and monochrome photography, often more explicit in its depiction of male sexuality than Yato, but still within the limits of Japan's censors. Copies of Bon are not easy to purchase outside of Japan, but occasionally turn up on book dealer's websites.

Kurihama Yozo (栗浜陽三)

I only know of a single photo book by Yozo, Kon'Yu: Poetry Of Loincloth, published in 1973. There are strong similarities to the works of both Yato and Haga. Well built men pose at the seaside, at temples and shrines. Their tautly-knitted physiques are framed by fundoshi. Of the traditional loincloth, Yozo says "I don't think there is any clothes that can express the beauty of a man's body so simply. It may even be modern." Information about Yozo is scant. I'd like to learn more about him.

Have you got a favorite photographer who is working with fundoshi today?  Who is helping express the poetry of this loincloth in the present day? I'd love to know your suggestions in the comments! It would be nice to do a feature post about contemporary fundoshi photography.