Description: Check out our store under the "Books > Catalogs " category for similar items and save on shipping! Estate sale find, vintage original Prophylactic Condom Catalog Arita Drug & Rubber Goods Kobe Japan, circa 1930s. A cursory search on the internet is from the froginawell website: Arita Drug & Rubber Goods, Kobe?Posted on October 5, 2006 by Jonathan Dresner "...The huge English sign at the top of the building, however, reads “Sex Store.” What this suggests to me is that these products were primarily marketed to non-Japanese buyers; the location of the shop in Kobe reinforces that, since it was the site of a substantial American/European merchant population... 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 excerpts: “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… 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..." The item measures approximately 4.5" X 5", approximate shipping weight 3 ounces. PLEASE SEE DESCRIPTION AND PHOTOS FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS - AS IS - COVER POSSIBLY MISSING - SIGNS OF WEAR - The item is in overall Fair to Good Minus used condition, signs of wear, creases, fading, tears, chipping, sunning and age toning, soiling, stains, no writing, no odors, please see images. (C2E3-309)
Price: 209.3 USD
Location: Bakersfield, California
End Time: 2025-01-03T13:13:23.000Z
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Material: Paper
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Flavor: Vintage Condom Catalog Arita Drug & Rubber Goods Japan 1930s
Brand: Vintage Condom Catalog Arita Drug & Rubber Goods Japan 1930s
Type: Vintage Condom Catalog Arita Drug & Rubber Goods Japan 1930s
Unit Type: Unit
Number in Pack: 1
Model: Vintage Condom Catalog Arita Drug & Rubber Goods Japan 1930s
Vintage Condom Catalog Arita Drug & Rubber Goods Japan 1930s: Vintage Condom Catalog Arita Drug & Rubber Goods Japan 1930s
Features: Vintage Condom Catalog Arita Drug & Rubber Goods Japan 1930s
Country/Region of Manufacture: Japan
Unit Quantity: 1
