u/Full_Celery_8158

don't know when this photo was taken, but it seems to have been taken the day after the two of them received treatment at the University of Munich Medical Center. The person who wrote this letter is That international student's friend, and it looks like they made a copy of a photo he gave them and pasted it into this letter, which they sent to someone else. He says this photo is “rare.” The handwriting is in cursive and hard to read, so I’m currently trying to decipher it!

For more on Rosa and Josepha, check out this great post! ↓

https://www.reddit.com/r/SideshowPerformer/s/YQRFclydUx

If you trace the history of Japanese sideshow performers, you’ll likely notice that people from Japan’s former colonies played a significant role. They are said to have astonished audiences and, in some cases, brought in enormous sums of money for show promoters. Moon Young-man, known as the “Horned Man,” who toured the country, was one such performer.

On December 18, 1914, a doctor in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, sent the following letter to a fellow physician (the content has been summarized for clarity).
“Dear Sir, Yesterday, thanks to your introduction.I was able to examine a patient with unusual symptoms at your home. I am very grateful. Incidentally, that patient, Moon Young-man, is a truly rare case. I looked through existing literature on skin horns, but could not find any cases similar to this one.” (*History of the Yokohama Medical Association*, Yokohama Medical Association, 1941)

Detailed reports about this Korean man, Mun Yeong-man, did not appear in the media until 1915. From then on, he began traveling around the country almost every year, performing in traveling shows. However, he came to Japan not so much as an entertainer, but rather in search of a cure for his condition. Although he visited Japan numerous times during the Taisho and Showa periods, the doctors he consulted in Aomori, Niigata, Aichi, Fukuoka, Osaka, Kyoto, Kanagawa, and Tokyo were all unable to find a cure and ultimately seemed to give up on him.

Moon Young-man, a native of Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, developed a blister-like rash all over his body on the third day of his life, which gradually hardened. Furthermore, it is said that this hardened skin would grow like horns and, much like a lizard shedding its skin, would grow and fall off repeatedly in two-year cycles. It is also reported that he exhibited symptoms resembling allergies to beef, pork, and dairy products; when he consumed these foods, he experienced stomach pain and his entire body would turn bright red.

It’s said that his performances in traveling freak shows were intended to earn money for hospital visits, but at hospitals across the country, he was treated as if he were a “rare medical case study”—and it seems he was even given a small amount of money. Perhaps he eventually came to realize that his condition was incurable. Or maybe he was simply driven by a desire to help his mother, who had lost his father at an early age and was raising three other children besides him. On stage, he reportedly sang Korean songs while playing a folk instrument “resembling a violin.” That said, given that this was a freak show that thrived on sensationalism, it’s unlikely the audience listened to his singing seriously. What the audience really wanted to see was “that strange horn”—said to cover his entire body and emit a foul odor.

“Seikimatsu Club” （mean "the end of sentury club"）was a magazine published in Japan in the 1990s as a four-volume series and was a leading publication of the “demonic” cultural movement. This refers to a trend prevalent in Japan at the time, in which people found a somewhat twisted fascination in corpses, deformities, unusual sexual preferences, drugs, and crime. The final volume of this magazine featured a special section on freak show culture in Japan and abroad. Among the articles was one by a reporter named Carlos Yamazaki (who published a book in 1997 compiling “colored signs” used in Japanese freak shows, though his true identity remains unknown) based on an interview with a freak show promoter. This elderly man reportedly featured Moon Young-man in his own show in Tokyo. The article vividly depicts the mixture of “curiosity” and “disgust” that Moon Young-man faced at the time. It’s a bit long, but I’ve quoted the full text below.

“The ‘Man with Horns’ was a member of a traveling sideshow troupe in Tokyo, and the showman who employed him had run a roasted sweet potato stand before starting the sideshow. Horns about the size of a fingertip covered his entire body. The pointed horns were about 3 centimeters long and grew from his cheeks to various other parts of his body (though apparently not in the center of his face), and it seems he wore a hood most of the time. His hair was parted down the middle.

He was probably from the Korean Peninsula, and on stage he would sing Korean songs while playing a folk instrument shaped like a violin (though there is also a theory that he was from Taiwan and sang “Chinese Night”). When struck with a stick, his horns would make a “clack-clack” sound. As proof that the horns were real, he would let audience members touch them.

The Horned Man’s horns were jet black and gave off a truly awful odor. It didn’t exactly look like he was shedding his skin, but since it’s said that the horns fall off about twice a year (in spring and fall), he might have had some kind of skin disease, and the horns were essentially just scabs. When the horns fell off, a pus-like substance would ooze out, trickling down all around them and giving off an indescribably foul stench. Once it solidified, the smell would subside a bit, so he would wait for it to harden before “spraying it with medicine.”

He kept the shed horns in a bag stuffed to the brim and would show it to the audience on stage. He’d pull it out with a rustle, tap the horns, and say, “Look at this—they’re this hard,” but apparently the smell was really something else. At this “Horned Man” sideshow, no matter where he went, the audience would complain about the smell, so one day a police officer came to investigate. The officer watched while pinching his nose, but ultimately ordered the show to stop and took the Horned Man to a doctor. The doctor’s diagnosis was “syphilis.” With that, the Horned Man’s career as a sideshow performer is said to have come to an end. At first, a diagnosis of “syphilis” might seem hard to believe, but it’s certainly a shocking story.

No matter how intense the stench, the Horned Man was a key star for the showman. The showman tried to pair him with his own daughter, but she hated the idea so much that she ran away with another man; apparently, the Horned Man was in a pretty bad mood for quite some time after that. An older man who once rode in the passenger seat of the truck with the Horned Man on the way to a performance venue frowned as if it were yesterday and said, “Oh man, oh man, that stench… there was nothing else like it.” (*Seikimatsu Club*, Vol. 4 / 1999)

What do you think? Wherever he went, people found his appearance unsettling, wrinkled their noses at his smell, and, to top it all off, gave him the absurd diagnosis of “syphilis.” I don’t know what became of him after that. Japan’s freak shows did not always offer salvation. This reality, too, was one of the truths of the sideshow.

A brochure for the “Gekkōen” hotel, which once stood in Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture. In 1983, the hotel burned down in a fire that claimed the lives of four employees. A subsequent investigation revealed that the hotel’s owner, who was struggling with debt, had conspired with his mistress and an acquaintance to set the fire in an attempt to fraudulently collect the insurance payout on the building. The three were arrested and sentenced to severe penalties. The fire was determined to have been set in the grand hall shown in the second photograph; the owner’s mistress carried out the arson using benzene and kerosene. Because this mistress had stated, “I set the fire without anyone noticing. It was the perfect crime,” her intent to kill was recognized, and both the owner and the mistress were also charged with murder; however, they were each sentenced to life imprisonment. The acquaintance who devised the plan was sentenced to 60 years in prison.

[effacé]

Both of these are anatomical diagrams that were likely submitted to a teacher. Setting aside the frog on the left, I’m surprised to see that there was even a diagram of a chicken’s anatomy. Both bear what appear to be the teacher’s marks.

A will that was likely written around the Edo period. It was discovered in the storehouse of a samurai family in Fukushima Prefecture. The content is not the usual matter of inheritance, but rather a moral exhortation: “This world is temporary (a borrowed world), and there is another world—the world of Buddha. Until you reach that world, my descendants, live in harmony in this world.” Was it written by the head of the family?

1905年、韓国の全羅南道（チョルラナムド）にある霊峰チリ（チー・イー）山の寺で、僧侶の息子として生まれたキムは、出産時には「普通の赤ちゃんの3倍の大きさ」だったと伝えられている。母親はかつて彼に、「キムは赤ちゃんのころから背が高かったから、お腹の中でもずっと前かがみの姿勢のまま過ごしてたのよ」と話したことがあった。キムの父親は、キムが7歳のときに亡くなったが、身長は2.7メートルあったという報告がある。キム自身も大人になるにつれてどんどん背が伸びていった。

その後、キムは僧侶になったが、宗教上の理由で、食事はほぼ完全にベジタリアンだった。主な食べ物は大根とほうれん草。しかし食欲はすごかったようで、20歳ごろになると、なんと110枚のもち米のせんべい（もち菓子）を平らげたとされており、米に換算すると18kgに相当する。

1930年8月4日、韓国の首都・京城（いまのソウル）で開催されていたヘルス・エキスポに登場したとき、身長は2.3メートルだった。すると群衆が一気に集まり、警察が出動して交通整理をする必要が出た。キムは手に炭を塗って紙に押しつけ、その“手形”を売っていた。その年の12月に日本へ来て、東京を回った。1930年12月12日の『*東京日日新聞*』は、次のように報じている：

「東京に着くと、まず51cmの靴をすぐ履き、車に乗って銀座の路地にある喫茶『アカタマ』で休憩した。二人掛けのベンチに、少し窮屈そうに座って、興味津々であたりを見回していた。また、山の僧の性格どおり、日本語で『iidesune』（「いいね、そうだね」みたいな意味）というような簡単な言葉を口にしはするが、酒もタバコも絶対に触ろうとしなかった。物腰はやわらかいのに元気いっぱいで、給仕の女性たちに小さな名刺を配っていた。（省略）喫茶店の前では大騒ぎになり、通行人がようやく通れるくらいだった。...宿に落ち着くと、いちばん好きな野菜料理の4.5kgの食事をぺろりと平らげた（たぶんご飯の量のことだと思われる；著者注）。本人は『東京にはしばらく滞在してお金をためて、それから世界を回り、自分の身長をほかの人と比べたい』と言った。夜は布団を3枚広げ、その上にのびのびと寝ていた」

その後、1934年に台湾と中国を訪れた。そこで北京動物園の門番をしていた“巨人”と身長対決みたいな競争をしたとされ、勝ったという。さらに面白いのは、1937年にもう一度日本を訪れたとき、日本の雑誌『*婦人公論*』（1937年5月号）の取材で「次は、アメリカで世界一の背の高い男と自分の身長を比べてみる」と語ったことだ。ロバート・ワドローに会いたかったらしい。キム・プゴイは1943年に亡くなったとされているが、それまでにワドローと連絡を取れたかどうかはよく分からない……。

This is a report of a stillbirth（image1）and a petition for permission to bury the stillborn child（image2）,issued in Toyohira Village, Nagano Prefecture (now Kayano City). It was likely submitted to the village office, which was established in 1889. This document provides a concise account of the entire process surrounding death in everyday life at that time.

This was a very small old photograph—the kind often referred to as a ‘bean-sized photo’—but when I enlarged it, I could clearly see why. Although they were obviously students, the child in the foreground was smoking a cigarette. These were the naughty kids of yesteryear

In China, it is customary for the bride and groom to go around lighting cigarettes for their guests at the wedding reception. Cigarettes and marriage seem to be deeply intertwined in China; even before the ceremony begins, guests are given candy and cigarettes along with their invitations.

An Giang Province in Vietnam is a rural area located in the Mekong Delta that borders Cambodia, but it is also known as a mysterious region where many strange legends and rumors persist. The story of Khao Nha Ban is one such tale.

Born in 1849, Le Van Tuy（Lê Văn Thùy）lost his wife and child to a plague and ended up in this area. His parents, who had participated in the resistance movement against the French colonial government, had been killed in battle, leaving him without any relatives. Here, he met many monks and revolutionaries. However, one day, his life would change completely.

It is said that on that day, while on his way to climb a mountain, he caught and ate a golden catfish swimming against the current of the river. The next day, he developed a high fever and a headache. Despite receiving treatment, his condition did not improve, and strangely, his arms and legs began to grow rapidly.

Was this the work of a god? By the time his limbs had fully stretched out and his height exceeded 2 meters, he is said to have recovered and gained extraordinary knowledge of medicinal herbs and the ability to tell fortunes. Walking barefoot because he could not find shoes that fit, wearing enormous custom-made hats and clothes, and sleeping in a 2.5-meter-long custom-made bed, he used his knowledge to help the villagers. The villagers came to call him “Khao Nya Ban.”

This postcard uses a photograph taken after he won the “Giant Contest” held by the French colonial government in 1904 in the city of Chau Doc, An Giang Province. When Khao Nha Ban visited Chau Doc, large crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of him. Some even touched his body in hopes of receiving his blessings. In other words, he had become a figure akin to a “living god.” This is a phenomenon often seen among Asian sideshow performers. He remained in Chau Doc Province, but the French colonial government, wary of gatherings of Vietnamese people, sent him back to his hometown. Yet even there, people gathered around him. This was getting out of hand. The French injected him with a “health tonic.” Almost immediately, Khao Nha Ban’s body became paralyzed, his limbs atrophied, and his pulse could no longer be detected. Yet he survived and once again became the focal point of Vietnamese gatherings, so the French continued to send people to work under Khao Nha Ban under the pretext of supporting his participation in the “World’s Tallest Man Contest.” The kind-hearted giant’s health deteriorated rapidly, and he died in 1925. His remains still rest in a tomb as massive as his own body, located in the mountains of Tinh Bien District, An Giang Province.