New Release: The Mysterious Stories of Ghost Moon Tower, Chapter Two

Hello, hello…

Finally! Another chapter of Ima Ichiko’s The Mysterious Stories of Ghost Moon Tower. You can download it here. I hope you enjoy it. Next time, Shouichirou attends a party at a haunted house, disguised as a famous artist.

This manga requires a lot of internet research. This chapter was easier than the first, but I still spent a lot of time researching various topics online. I’ve also been collecting interesting photographs and artwork, relating to geisha, courtesans, or life in Yoshiwara, along the way. One of the things I found was this collection of postcards, describing a typical day in Yoshiwara, drawn in 1906. That’s twenty or thirty years before Ghost Moon takes place and some of the customs had changed (for example, it was illegal to display prostitutes behind cages, or harimise, by the 1920’s) but they are still interesting to look at. The strange thing is, they are written in English. (I’ve written the words below each picture because some of them are hard to read.) The series is not complete, but this is all I could find. They are part of the collection at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (at least, most of them are…)

While we on the subject of artwork, I’m wondering if anyone out there can help me. I discovered that Ima-sensei started each chapter of the magazine version with a color page. In the current chapter, it’s page 49. As you can see, it’s black and white in the manga version. I was lucky enough to find someone with the color pages for most of volume 2. She sent me a photo of one, and they are much prettier in color. I’d like to include the color pages in the releases, if possible. So, if anyone has scans of Chara magazine from as far back as 2003 up to 2005, and you’re willing to share, please let me know. It’s a long shot, but you never know… ^__^