Health and Wellness Check-In

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I don't write as often as I used to for this blog. I usually prefer to let the pictures do the talking. However I know that no matter where you live in the world, the last few months have changed life dramatically. Many of us are sheltering in place, under government orders to socially distance from other people, or we have had our work lives seriously disrupted due to COVID-19.

I want to take a moment and reach across whatever oceans lay between us and express my unity with each of you as we struggle with the new situation this virus has brought to our lives. If you have fallen sick, or had loved ones who have died, I want to wish healing for you. I want you to know how profoundly sad I am for the loss of precious lives each day. Many of us are cut off from friends, families, and coworkers. The people we care for the most are the people we need to avoid, to keep them safe. And to keep us all safe.

While we are isolated, or in quarantine, it's easy to lose track of the days, or to let our motivations slip. I'd like to engage in a project with you while we pass these difficult days: let's express our love of fundoshi together.

Please feel welcome to share your photos with the readers of this blog. Show us your fundoshi, but also please share a little bit about how you're doing, how you're feeling, and how you're dealing with the challenges of the pandemic. Be seen. We may not be able to gather in public, but we can gather here and share our interest in fundoshi, while also sharing in some precious community.

You're always welcome to email me, to talk or to share pictures. Here's how to contact me.

I'm thinking of your safety and health in the days ahead of us, and praying for us all in my own special way. I love you!

Ghosts Of The Matsuri (or, The Three Friends)

It was not so many moons ago, on the night before Matsuri, that three young men were gathered to practice tying their fundoshi. Although there would be helpers tomorrow who very ably (and tightly) bound festival participants in crisp white cloth, these three men had already taken to the wearing of fundoshi. They wanted to arrive already attired, having each assisted one of the others in dressing:

The fairer-skinned friend learned the exact tightenings and twists prefered by the darkest friend. This friend in turn learned to wrap their tawny friend, who assisted the first, fairer friend in knotting his fundoshi.

These three friends had observed older men wearing fundoshi at an onsen, and had inquired with the gentlemen on how to tighten the cloth. Each friend learned from a different teacher. One friend learned from a stocky teacher. One learned from a slim gentleman. The third friend learned from a muscular sculpture of a man.

Each of the three friends had adopted idiosyncracies and customization of their teacher. One friend liked his fundoshi elegantly finished and braided. Another friend prefered his fundoshi efficiently cinched with little regard to loose ends. The last friend enjoyed his fundoshi tight, as though ready for battle.

It was as they joined one another that night before the festival, in the first friend's apartment, that the news broke. A terrible tsunami had struck the village where their fundoshi instructors lived. Many people fleeing the shoreline were swept away when a bridge came unmoored from its ancient wooden pilings. Among the lost were their three tutors, witnesses said. The men mourned, saying prayers for those lost in the tsunami. It was a somber meeting as they loosened their robes and stepped into the center of the apartment.

How Gay is this Blog?

The extreme ends of the Kinsey Scale seem old-fashioned as society forges its way toward individual equality. Humans have proven not to be as clear-cut beings as 100% straight or 100% gay. We truly inhabit all the colors of the rainbow.

Although the content of Fundoshi4 All favors homoeroticism, this is truly a reflection of the fundoshi-related imagery available online, rather than a wish to isolate interest in fundoshi to just men who enjoy men. I have no doubt that beyond the confines of the internet, people of all sorts and all shapes are enjoying fundoshi as an undergarment, as ritual wear, for comfort or indeed for the purpose of male lust.

Crotch Architecture

 Male genitalia is beautiful to many men and women alike, but to many others (dare I say most), the penis and scrotum are humorous, awkward, or even ugly. I don't agree with this viewpoint personally, but many think that the cock and balls abruptly break the smooth, aerodynamic, or muscular lines of the male form. No doubt this was one of the contributing factors to the invention of clothing, along with the delicacy and sensitivity of the masculine apparatus and the very obvious nature of male arousal.

A combination of social and practical factors more than likely led to the loincloth, as a way to protect the genitals from harm from daily activities and as a way to obscure arousal. Even in societies where nudity is accepted, displaying arousal publicly can be seen as distasteful or even aggressive. Imagine the control that young men raised in such communities must develop over arousal!

Early loincloths may have been like skirts or aprons, roughly hewn bits of leather or fur belted onto the hips. With the creation and perfection of textiles however came a refining and perfecting of this basic essential attire all across the globe. Culturally identifiable variations on the loincloth like the Aztec maxtlatl, the Thai pakawma, the Indian langot, and the Japanese fundoshi appeared and their wearing became a highly developed and nearly ritualistic uniform. Many of these loincloths, where still worn, have not changed basic form in a millennium.

While some examples like the langot and the ettchu-style of fundoshi continue to use ties around the waist, most of the others are worn through a simple combination of looping, twisting, and friction. In the case of rokushaku fundoshi especially, a symmetrical appearance is achieved through a basic formula that must go back at least 1,200 years. What this does to the male crotch is: it holds the genitalia near the body for safety and support, it smooths the appearance of the crotch, and it provides an athletic V-shape that does not intentionally obscure the genital region. If anything, fundoshi accentuates the genitals of the wearer, not in a prideful way but in an acknowledgement of the masculine form and function, and with as little extra fabric as possible.

Fundoshi is a superb design, a supportive undergarment created for activity and comfort, with the usual Japanese attentiveness to ingenious form and minimal simplicity. A thousand years later, as I sit typing in my fundoshi, I feel uniquely blessed by those who perfected the Japanese loincloth (likely Shinto monks). Their design has persisted through the centuries because of it's engineering and its architectural beauty. It is a fine addition to the natural beauty of the male body.

Ayuzus Dream-Tribute Visual Diary

In a bit of a departure, I wanted to share some images I made with a digital camera while looking at the photography of Ayuzus, who I follow on both tumblr and twitter. He's a slender young Asian man with a great imagination. Armed with milky-smooth skin over a long lean frame, Ayuzus knows how to tie a fundoshi on and uses it to great effect as a focusing tool, subtly sensual and visually arresting.

While browsing his stunning underwear and fundoshi-themed self-portraits, I began to take pictures of the screen, but at very oblique angles. The result was these vibrant color-shifted pictures. There were no tweaks applied to these afterward, they are all full-frame and happened in camera.

My photos turned out mostly abstract, so if you seek something more literally erotic, check out the treasure-trove of images at the two links above! I hope you enjoy these. They were fun to capture and a surrealistic way to pay a tribute to Ayuzus for all his beautiful, inspiring, and sexy gay-themed cosplay and photography.

State Of The Fundoshi

What would people like to see from this site? Personally I really like the community aspect. I've met some really superb people by way of this website. 

It's been a while since we've done a reader feature. Would someone like to submit some new pictures? The thrill of seeing new fundoshi images is twinned with the honor of debuting the new material for the fundoshi appreciators of the world.

Brian Li? Are you reading this post? Maybe you could snap a few for us? ;)

Where and how? Contact info is here.

There are many other ways to get involved and share ideas or experiences. I'd like to explore that aspect in the coming months. How can this website get better?

Let's start things off with this ingenious design for a comfy jock made out of a simple athletic sock. This was thought up by ShyC, a longtime reader and long-distance friend. This is a cozy, sexy, sporty look and a clever way to upcycle. It's one of many DIY designs he's done, and I love it.

So I'm excited to learn what people would like from the Fundoshi4All site. Who has ideas? Try to keep things simple because I am just one man. I appreciate all 900 or so of you that visit from all over the world each day!

After the break is a selection of images to peruse while you think it over!

Late Winter Warm-Up

I tried something new today, just jeans -- no underwear, no fundoshi.  They were tight-ish, not enough to outline my cock but enough to make my butt look really good.  I suppose if you were following me up a flight of steep stairs you might get a pretty good look at my package too, but what I'm trying to say is that the jeans were fairly chaste, by modern standards.  It was my free balling that felt like it was illicit.  For I have had a boner, all day long.  If not a full on erection, I've maintained a tingly half-boner for the better part of the morning and afternoon, and it keeps dotting the inside of my jeans with little slippery droplets of leaking precum.  The possible explanation is that I've been looking at porn, well, "dry humping" porn to be precise, though I'd hardly call it dry.  The vaginas were wet and welcoming and the cocks that slid against their pink lips were soon glistening and slick.  The eventual orgasms of both partners look ecstatic, the semen was abundant.  I have no idea why I haven't relieved myself yet.

I have a solution to all of this:  Take a warm shower and play with myself.  Not just a quick tug, but the lingering drawn-out equivalent of foreplay.  Tease my nipples a whole bunch.  Try to masturbate without using the standard "grip."  Then after I'm all clean and washed up, tuck myself into a soft fresh fundoshi for the rest of the night, maybe pour a little glass of whiskey and start a new book.

This... could... be... working?

Years ago, when I first decided that the internet was my best bet of finding others interested in fundoshi, I had a parallel thought: why not use the internet to get more people interested in fundoshi? My chances of finding more fundoshi enthusiasts could only go up if... there are more fundoshi enthusiasts!  People need to know about fundoshi to get, er, wrapped up in it, right?  Of course many Japanese already know about fundoshi, but outside of Japan I would say relatively few do.  We tug on our boxer shorts and briefs, which occasionally come in some new color, cut, or pattern and that's about as revolutionary as undergarments get for us.  I had an absolute epiphany when I first tried tying my own fundoshi: this was for me.  This strip of fabric cleverly cinched around me was everything I was looking for through my vague loincloth obsession.  I wanted more people to try fundoshi out for themselves!  Once again, my chances of finding more fundoshi fans could only get better if more people found out about it!  Tear down the language barrier with the universal speech of the sensuous!

  

At least that was the theory.

I started off with a Myspace page (R.I.P.).  The very first Fundoshi 4 All profile garnered hundreds of Myspace friends, especially young people who seemed open to the idea.  Not as a fetish, but more as a curiosity, or something manga-related, or a way to be DIY and unique.  There was actually a lot of interaction for a while, but like Myspace in general over time the momentum waned.  Myspace never caught on with middle aged and elderly people like Facebook has, so the vast majority of that page's friends were young, technologically proficient, and had boundless curiosity.  Are there any of our old Myspace friends still with us?

Nowadays, you can find a brand new profile on Facebook by searching for "Ryan Rokushaku."

About time, you say?  Well, there was a short-lived Facebook profile a few years ago, but it was frequently censored, so I closed up shop on Myspace and Facebook, swore off society's busybodies and do-gooders, and moved to this blog.  It's been great being here.  For the first little while, I kept the blog public and focused on the uniqueness of the fundoshi.  But, like anything worn close to the skin, sooner or later the sexual aspects of the fundoshi came to the fore.  That shift and the generally homoerotic nature of much of the fundoshi-related content on the net made me decide to switch the blog to 18+.  The latent eroticism broke through the surface of caution I was maintaining.

This past year, I added a Tumblr and a month or so ago I swallowed my resolve and re-opened a Facebook profile!

There was a while that I thought I had seen pretty much all there was to see online, regarding fundoshis.  The same images, articles, and sites were all I'd find on repeated searches.  Granted, they were some good ones: the primary sources for whatever I know or have been able to find out.  I knew that there was a wealth of pre-internet material out there... books, magazines, personal archives.  And I knew there was a whole world of possibility ahead once peoples' imaginations lit fire.  For the last year or more though, I find new pictures every day.  Sometimes whole new sites!

There was a time more recently when finding fundoshi stuff online was difficult or impossible.  That's not the case anymore, even with Google's wonky new image search, which takes it on itself to make a lot of the moral decisions for you by making adult oriented searches maddeningly specific.  Sure, in the past you could Google "folding step ladder" and end up with images of full-on sodomy, but now the inverse is true: it's so bloomin' hard to find full-on sodomy (especially fundoshi-clad sodomy!) that I've turned to Tumblr and porn sites increasingly to find more fundoshi pictures, films, and art.  That, of course, has had an effect on the content you find here.  These days, it's naughtier.  If it was homoerotic before, it's often just plain erotic now.  

As we've all read on Wikipedia, the fundoshi "fell out of use after WWII due to the introduction and popularity of Western-style briefs."  As with most bland generalizations, that one's not entirely accurate: the fundoshi did not fall out of use entirely but it did get marginalized and to some extent forgotten, and I hope that all of us have been instrumental in remembering and rekindling interest in this ingenious (and yes, sexy) strip of fabric.

Tipsy with a Camera

I broke one of the cardinal rules of being drunk and horny: stay away from the camera!  After an afternoon of google-searching fundoshi stuff I got distracted by some rather spicy bisexual porn.  The next thing I knew, I had consumed a few beers and made an amateurish attempt to truss myself up with some clothesline like some of the artistic/erotic kinbaku rope bondage I've posted here before.  I also liberally lubed up a brand new butt plug (the biggest one I've ever attempted!) and secured it in place underneath the ropes and a black gauze fundoshi.  Then I posed and snapped away.

I Was Wrong!

Throughout this site you'll find many, many tips on how to make and tie your own fundoshi loincloth, based on an ancient Japanese design that's been in use for over 1,200 years.  I've spent years gathering together and sharing as much knowledge as I can about the fundoshi, and it's been gratifying to watch the reader numbers grow and see more and more photos and other blogs popping up around the 'net featuring fundoshis.  One of the pieces of advice I've passed on many times is that making a fundoshi out of satin or silk won't work, since the fabric is not "grippy" enough.  Well, at least as far as satin is concerned, I was wrong about that!

My fiance had bought some black satin for a project that got scrapped, so last week I asked her if I could have some of it.  I cut a wide strip about 3 yards long and looped it between my legs and around my hips, cinching the sumptuous fabric into a fundoshi... and... it worked!  It stayed relatively secure, and it felt and looked divinely luxurious.  This was a fairly thick satin so it was a touch bulky, but it felt great between my cheeks and cradling my tackle.  The shiny black looked fantastic too.

Now I don't have the budget for silk, but I can just imagine how amazing a light silk fundoshi might feel.  I can tell you that satin might not be suitable for strenuous activity, but it definitely works and I'm looking forward to experimenting with it more!

Does anyone else have any experiences with satin, silk, or other shiny, slippery fabrics?  Alan?

Also, while we're in the mea culpa mood, I have fallen a little behind in posting up recent reader submissions!  And there have been some really good, creative ones.  So, if you have been eagerly awaiting seeing yourself in a fundoshi here, I'm sorry and don't despair -- feel free to send me a reminder e-mail if you've been waiting a long time.  Things have been busier for me lately and I've let a few things get away from me.  Please keep the great reader submissions coming!  It's amazing to see so many people get taken with the idea of a fundoshi, and I love seeing the results of your fun!

Pornography and the Fundoshi

Even a cursory web search for fundoshi photos or videos will turn up a majority crop of what's identified as "porn." Whether it be simply "too much" skin, obvious bulges, exposed genitalia, suggestive poses, bondage, bodily fluids or just plain sex caught on film, the fundoshi in contemporary times is frequently a part of the action.

With the abundance of fundoshi erotica out there, it becomes hard (and how!) to remember that this simple cloth knot has served a utilitarian purpose for over a thousand years; that it has been worn without (sexual) incident on a daily basis by millions.

Of course, millions have also probably been seduced in a fundoshi, or done the seducing, or have succumbed to the temptation to pleasure themselves in a fundoshi.  After all, it touches the male anatomy in ALL of the most sensitive and erogenous areas: the pouch cradles the balls and scrotum and stretches tautly across the penis; the twisted thong lays against the rectum.  Short of flicking your nipples for you, the fundoshi all but insists on arousal.  It invites the male and female gaze; the gay and straight gaze.  It's basically impossible to ignore -- it covers and supports the genitalia but it also provides the eye with a powerful focal point.  The eye transmits to the brain, the brain dispenses the sex chemicals.  We feel a flutter in our naughty regions.

It's hard to gauge what sort of part the fundoshi played in the sexual history of Japan.  No doubt many a warrior or fisherman had his fundoshi unwound as a prelude to sex, but what sort of responses did the garment provoke when it was worn commonly for swimming and labor?  Was it as ordinary as socks are to us?  No doubt some were taken in by the spell of the fundoshi, and erotic "shunga" artwork seems to support this, but much of the garment's erotic and homoerotic pulse through time is lost to history.

When I first started Fundoshi 4 All, I took the high road of sorts, talking about the practicality and brilliance of the fundoshi's design, but there was no denying the homoerotic charge of most of the photos I found.  Lean, muscled bodies with canted hips and smoky eyes glowed up from my computer monitor, their straining fundoshis not really hiding anything.  Hinting, in fact, at a world of "what might come next."

On top of that, there was plenty that wasn't suggestive at all -- it was explicit in its sexiness.  Sometimes it was even raunchy.

I Am A Fundoshi

I Am A Fundoshi

You drape me over your shoulder
And I feel the cool air move through my pores
As I descend 
Over the tanned muscle 
And gently trace your clavicle
And neck

I fall across your chest and stomach
Gently licking over
Your cinnabar rosebud nipple
 And you gather me in your hand
Twisting and coiling 
Drawing me over
The low-pitched twitches
Of your manhood

You pull me across the humming muscle-mound
Behind your quivering shaft
And I know you feel me
Brushing your velvety tip

Twisting and roping me
Drawing me upward
Tightening beneath you
Passing between you
Touching your shadows
Caressing your secrets

You loop me around you
Passing me over myself
Passing back under myself
Pulling me snug, cinching me tight
Releasing me to soft friction
Fabric fibers gripping and slipping
Finding their balance
I hold

Now I descend from your shoulder to your ankle
A soft fluttering arc through the air
Passing your trembling heart
Feeling your coursing blood
I'm touching your fevered flesh
Through the weave of my own flesh
Cotton white
Snow and blossoms

You pull me taut, over myself
Through and around and around
Myself, over and over myself
My shape takes form
Defining you and confining you
My form takes flight
Arousing and enticing you
My flight takes repose
Refreshing and seducing you 

You move within me
You grow and change
Within me
Beauty
Within me
Strength
Within me
One with you
Within me
You and I
Within me 
You
Within me

Fundoshi 4 All Salutes Underwear!

Whatever your fig leaf of choice, the once lowly loincloth has been elevated to new great heights -- from the intricate, elegant knotwork of the fundoshi so many of us here prefer, to the lux status symbol undergarments offered by big-name designers and gracing the hips of chiseled models, actors, and sports stars.  So much fantasy is bound up in this first, simplest layer of fabric.  All loincloths, whether they be made of tanned animal hide or have brand-name elastic waistbands "draw attention to the genitals at the same time as they conceal them," writes Otto Steinmayer in his paper The Loincloth Of Borneo (which is highly recommended reading if you're interested BTW).  It's a vehicle of modesty as well as a cache-sexe, an "increment in sexual arousal or foreplay."  The longer this leaf lingers under eyes, tongues and fingers, the harder the arrow grows in its quiver; the tauter the bowstring before its shivering release, the further the flight of the liquid silver.

At least in my experience!

Fundoshi Social

If it can squirt juice, our society covers it up.  If it changes shape during sexual arousal, we shroud it in secrecy.  Thus, the female nipple, which gives milk, is forbidden, but the visually near-identical male nipple, which doesn't, causes nary a ripple -- even in "family" publications!  It seems arbitrary, but it also creates the mystique and sensuous tension that a garment like the fundoshi introduces into the proceedings.  It becomes an "interval" in our arousal, foreplay, and sexual imagination -- a stop along the way to the juice squirting part.  By itself, it often initiates the shape changing part.  

Fundoshi Diaries #5: Afternoon Delight, Indeed!

From late last month:

Today my sweetheart surprised me with a stack of new fundoshi she made for me; silver gray, charcoal gray, navy blue, pumpkin orange, and a sort of powder lavender that she referred to as "the gayest color."  But I finally have a decent tan, so it looked good tied on me!  She had made them all a little skimpier and narrower than I usually do, but that's what she likes.

She was also carrying a small dish of what looked like vegetable oil into the bedroom, and set it down on the dresser.

Before long I was standing there in my pale lavender fundoshi and nothing else, and we were kissing and touching.  She told me to turn around, bend over, and put my hands on the wall.  She pushed the heel of her hand against my rounded glutes and let her index finger and pinkie wander between my thighs, tracing the edges of my fundoshi's pouch and the twist of cloth that covered my mounded perineum.  It thrilled.  I told her not to stop and she obliged for a few minutes.  Then her other hand reached smoothly around my waist and stroked my shaft through the fabric.  Already hardening, it was just seconds before I was engorged and rock-solid.

Her palm was still pressing and kneading my buttocks and her fingers grazing my soft sensitive inner thighs and cloth-pouched balls when her thumb started teasing aside the twisted thong that bisected my butt.  She paused to dip her thumb in the cup of oil and I realized what it was for in a hot, sudden, spreading flush of excitement and...a little fear?

Fundoshi Diaries #4: Keep On Pluggin'

I got a package in the mail today!

I came home to sun-etched tree branch shadows on my porch thrown across a small brown cardboard box.  I carried it inside and up my stairs, setting it on the nightstand while I slipped out of my jeans and soft gray boxer-briefs.  They're the Hanes kind with the covered waistband, they come as box-cut trunks and are super-comfy.  Some days I'm a fundoshi guy, some days a Hanes guy!

I laid a navy blue towel on the bed and got out of my shirt, laying down on my left side on the bed and propping myself up on one elbow to open up my box.  Inside there were two smaller boxes.  One contained an anal enema kit and the other a black silicone butt plug.  I've been really excited for these to arrive!

Fundoshi Poem

I wore this fundoshi overnight, wrapped and twisted comfortably and a little loosely.  It was a warm night, I only needed a thin sheet to cover up.  I had some fantastic dreams!  In the morning, I was able to work the fundoshi down over my hips and drop it to the floor without really untying it.  Using available natural light, I took about 40 photographs of it on my bedsheets, simply picking it up and dropping it from a couple feet in the air so that the twists and knots continued to loosen and disintegrate.  The white-on-white photos reminded me of windswept arctic tundra, yet also blushed my imagination with drops of lust as I imagined which parts of my body had been cupped or bound by the various twists and valleys of gauzy fabric...

Here's some of my favorites from the shoot!

Fundoshi Diaries, Part Three: Keeping It Under Wraps

A day off, finally. It feels so good to laze in my sheets for a while before the siren call of coffee lures me to my feet. After toast with a little too much butter, I shower and shave, towel dry and smooth my hair. Today I wear a rust-colored fundoshi under dark jeans that aren't exactly tight (but they do make my butt look good!) and a soft old Radiohead t-shirt. Lots of dark colors today, they make my watery green eyes look really bright, even with my winter tan.

Lately I've been really turned on, almost in a constant state of horny arousal. No amount of masturbation seems to quench my lusty body, and today is no different. I can feel my plump cock in its fundoshi-hammock, and every twist and movement my body makes just seems to feed its constant erection even more. What gives? I'm not pent up. My girlfriend and I have been having sweet, passionate, pillow-gripping sex quite regularly. I haven't been looking at more porn (than usual). I guess I've had a few sexy dreams, but did that lead to my aroused state, or did my aroused state lead to the dreams? I reach under the waistband of my jeans, hook my thumbs under the twisted belt of the fundoshi, and give a hearty hitch. The fabric cocooning my balls and shaft pulls tight, relaxing deliciously when I unhook my thumbs. Maybe I need to masturbate again? Is it possible to jack off this much, and still be unsatisfied? I think about the millions of sperm that have spurted out of my cock this week alone, each probably convinced he was going to fertilize some lucky egg and become a future Nobel Prize winner -- only to splash hotly on my hand and then get washed down the sink.

I decide to hold off on the masturbation. It feels kind of good to be sexily buzzing all throughout the day. I can't wait for my girlfriend to get home. I can greet her at the door with some wet sweet kisses, and after she unzips the fly of my jeans maybe she'll fumble with the twisted cloth of my fundoshi for a minute, before I just shove the fabric to one side and free my impossibly hard cock, taking her right there on the couch with my fundoshi still on.

The Fundoshi Questionaire Extraordinaire!

Getting to know other fundoshi-wearers shows how diverse and different everyone is -- different backgrounds, different paths, different futures. One of Fundoshi 4 All's readers (Tim) had a great idea for some reader feedback. I adapted it and played with some of the questions, including my own answers as examples.

It'd be great to hear everyone's own experiences -- just cut and past the questions into the comments if you'd like! Be as forthcoming as you'd like, even if you are new to fundoshi your impressions and ideas will be great to hear in this non-judgmental format.

The Fundoshi Questionaire Extraordinaire!

1. How did you first discover fundoshi?

I was looking at a Time-Life book about Japan, and there was a black and white photo, taken with flash, from the 1940s, of a "seething mass of swarming youths, naked except for loincloths" taken during one of the winter festivals. The "loincloths" were rokushaku fundoshi. It was a grainy and dark photograph, with young men lined up on every beam and rafter in the ancient temple. Some of them were diving off the rafters into the crowd below. It was physical, dangerous-looking, and completely exotic and foreign to me. It really captured my imagination. I think I was about 9 at the time, but I kept furtively returning to that photo. Paintings in National Geographic magazines of the Aztecs, Egyptians, or Native Americans wearing loincloths had a similar effect. I wanted to be wearing loincloths too!

2. Do you prefer fundoshi to underwear?

Yes I do. I still wear regular underwear 50-75% of the time (usually boxer-briefs or trunks), but if it was practical, I'd wear fundoshi all the time. Also, most of my fundoshi are homemade, out of what is probably a slightly bulkier fabric than traditional. I think that plays a factor. That said, I wear fundoshi all day at least a few times a week, and when I wear etchū fundoshi I am so, so, so comfy. I really think etchū fundoshi could catch on in a big way.

3. What's your favorite color fundoshi?

Light sky blue. White is very nice too.

4. Are you wearing fundoshi right now? What color? What fabric?

I am! It's olive green, made out of a lightweight cotton fabric that has a slight sheen to it. Very breathable and comfortable.

5. How long did you know about fundoshi before you tried it for yourself?

Years and years. I think I was in my mid- to late 20s before I got interested enough to try it myself, though I had made loincloths and breech cloths a few times over the years. After moving out on my own, I felt free to express myself more with underwear, and meeting girls at college made me more concerned with looking good in my skivvies. I started off wearing boxers, but moved relatively quickly to boxer-briefs, which I preferred for the support since I kept fairly active.

6. What was your first fundoshi-tying experience like?

Well, I ripped up a soft old white bedsheet. I think the first several tries were awkward, getting the tightness just right and figuring out the steps. It felt pretty strange, but I was flushed with excitement and nervousness, in case my housemate walked in on me. I think I was erect the entire time, excited by the idea and the unfamiliar sensations of the lightweight cloth sliding over my penis. At first the portion between my buttocks felt pretty uncomfortable, but I really liked how the fundoshi looked from the front! At last, I was wearing a loincloth like the men in that old photo. And I looked hot. I spent a little time admiring my fundoshi in the mirror, and then I'm pretty sure I masturbated and it was very, very erotic.

7. Do other people know you wear fundoshi? Have they seen you in fundoshi? What do they think?

Yes, a couple girlfriends have seen me in my fundoshi. I think they regarded it as a little strange, but fun and sexy at the same time. I incorporated it into massage and lovemaking and showed them how it was tied. My current girlfriend of several years loves my fundoshi. It's often present in our love life, and she likes untying it, or seeing me cleaning house in only a fundoshi. It makes me think of those "Porn for Women" books. Outside of that, no one else really knows -- but then I don't know anything about their undergarments either.

8. Do you know others who wear fundoshi? Have you seen them in their fundoshi?

Strangely, no -- outside of the fundoshi-appreciators I've found on the internet I don't know anyone else firsthand who has ever worn fundoshi. That said, I know lots of people in the tattoo community, people who attend Burning Man, and people who have visited Japan and gotten deeply into the culture -- so I can't say for sure at all that no one around me isn't wrapped up in a fundoshi at any given time. I like that thought.

9. What's your favorite fundoshi fantasy?

Wow. I have many, and they are long and have lots going on in them. Many are pretty spicy. I think my favorite is one where a man and woman are both wearing fundoshi. They leave their fundoshi on, but kiss and touch and embrace each other languidly, truly enjoying one another and stoking their arousal to blissful heights. It could also be two men, or two women. Or two men with a woman, or two women with a man. There just needs to be lots and lots of fundoshi, and they should be creative with them. If it culminates in sex, it should be because every other means of enjoying their wrappings has been explored and there's just no other way to quench their desire for one another. It's not entirely clear to me whether I'm an observer or a participant -- I think either would be just fine!

10. What's your favorite thing, overall, about fundoshi?

That it's simple -- just folds and twists, no buttons, zippers, or elastic. It's infinitely adjustable, and there are many, many different ways of tying it. It's beautiful and ancient, easy to make, easy to use, inexpensive, and as sexy as you want it to be.

11. How would you describe your lifestyle?

I'm a young, lower middle-class guy living in a modest neighborhood in a a committed relationship. I'm not quite as active as I used to be, but I try to exercise and eat well. When I'm doing push-ups, curls, or pull-ups I wear my fundoshi. It makes the glances in the mirror to measure my progress that much better! I shed the fundoshi for crunches/sit-ups, since the knot in back can interfere. I walk a lot, and I'm up and down ladders for work. I limit the amount of meat, processed foods, salt and sugar I eat; and instead try to eat as much fresh and organic food as I can afford. A spoonful of raw honey everyday and drinking lots of water is the key to health, in my opinion.

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Fundoshi Diaries, Part Two: Two Colors of Thought

I spent the day in the water; a hot, bright July day that also included lots of driving to-and-from, plus a couple stop-and-start traffic jams. I had opted for a new pair of blue board shorts, and in retrospect, the amount of time I spent in the car made that a good choice. When I got home, though, I decided it was time to put on a fundoshi.

Once again, I selected a snowy white fundoshi, and as I started to put it on the cool fabric felt refreshing and soft as a cloud against my skin. Before I had a chance to do more than start tying it, a friend stopped over unexpectedly -- so I let the fundoshi cloth fall to the floor and pool at my feet, and hastily pulled on some khaki cargo shorts.

Later, I excused myself for a minute, went upstairs, and finished donning my fundoshi. I put the cargo shorts back on over top of the freshly-tied fundoshi and returned downstairs.

It truly did feel remarkable on my lake-softened skin. But I got to thinking about my decision earlier, to go with the conventional (shorts) instead of the article of cloth I'm really passionate about (fundoshi). It started a whole chain of thoughts.

I think I've alluded elsewhere that for some Japanese, the fundoshi is an item of fierce national pride: something gaijin such as myself should not ever wear. For this minority, my wearing fundoshi is an insult.


I can see this perspective -- it's like any other incidence of cultural co-opting. And to be fair, they probably feel this way about Westerners wearing any sort of traditional clothing (kimonos, etc.). Like it's some sort of dress-up, and the Western wearer can never truly appreciate the amount of ceremony and refinement that goes in to wearing these items. I think I get that. Westerners dressing like Easterners is our own version of cosplay, scratching the superficial surface of the tradition but not engaging it on a truly personal and respectful plane. Everything worn in traditional Japan took time to put on, and required an enormous amount of care. A new silk kimono can be worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars these days. Everything from the sleeve length to the colors and patterns has an underlying meaning or connotation that Westerners are -- most likely -- too culturally tone-deaf to see.

So, it made me wonder: on foreign hips, is a fundoshi still a fundoshi?