There was even an image club that mixed nurse cosplay with night-visit play (Sendai, 2002) Literary works as inspiration The first image club in Japan opened in 1986 (Showa 61) in a room of an apartment near Uguisudani Station on the JR Yamanote Line in Tokyo. The store, called Yume, had the concept of “Sleeping Beauty.” Customers would watch a woman in pajamas wearing an eye mask, then undress her to view her naked body while pleasuring themselves—an extremely soft form of night-visit play. Direct contact with the woman was prohibited; breaking this rule would trigger a bell button by the bedside to notify the reception. Women never removed their eye masks until the play ended. All the women were amateur part-timers, and word of mouth gradually increased the store’s popularity. Customers were recruited through short newspaper ads in evening papers, and from the start, devoted fans were gained. The concept appealed to the intellectual class, and there were rumors that many regulars were elite civil servants in Kasumigaseki. In 1991 (Heisei 3), the store was featured on television as a place where night-visits were possible, gaining explosive popularity. The idea of just watching a sleeping woman was inspired by two literary works: Sleeping Beauty by Yasunari Kawabata and The Key by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, conceived by a staff member who had taught Japanese in junior high school. Sleeping Beauty depicts humanity’s fundamental desires and loneliness. The story, also popular overseas, has been adapted into films and operas. In it, an elderly man is allowed to sleep beside a young woman sedated with sleeping pills, reliving memories of past women—secret lovers or affairs—within a private space where pranks and sexual acts are forbidden. The sleeping girl acts as a catalyst to evoke the man’s youthful memories, highlighting the sadness of aging. The Key portrays an age-gap couple secretly reading each other’s diaries, using jealousy as a stimulant for sexual activity. When published, it caused a sensation, debated as either art or obscenity, and is a representative work of Tanizaki’s erotic literature. What these two masterpieces have in common is the fantasy created by middle-aged men’s obsession with sex. The former teacher who invented the image club likely realized from these works that fantasy can be enjoyable—and monetized. Believing a store like this would appeal to stressed salarymen, he opened the shop. The motivation for opening was to pay off debts. The first image club’s play—experiencing fantasy while watching a sleeping woman and climaxing oneself—was modeled after Sleeping Beauty and emphasized psychological engagement. The authors of the novels could never have imagined their works would inspire a popular segment of the sex industry. By the late 1980s, night-visit clubs appeared in Takadanobaba, Tokyo. In this setup, the customer sneaks into a room where a woman sleeps. First, the customer picks up a map from the office, then walks through the streets to a specific apartment room. Upon opening the door, it is pitch dark; holding a penlight, the customer finds the bed where the woman sleeps. These story-driven performances became hugely popular. Even here, the play remained soft: “The woman does nothing and is made to do nothing. The customer only watches her and pleasures himself.” [Part 2] goes on to detail the thriving 19th-century image rooms in Paris. [Part 2]: The origin of Showa-era love hotels? 19th-century image rooms enjoyed by the British crown prince. References Fuzoku Shinka-ron (Evolution of the Sex Industry), Fumio Iwanaga, Heibonsha, 2009 Paris, Shofu no Yakata (Paris, House of Prostitutes), Shigeru Kashima, KADOKAWA, 2013 Love Hotel Ichidaiki, Tatsuo Koyama, East Press, 2010 Postwar Sex Industry Compendium, Keiichi Hirooka, Asahi Publishing, 2000 Sex Industry Chronology: Showa [Postwar] Edition, Koji Shimokawa (ed.), Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2007 Other books and online media