Kink and isolation: Inside the debut issue of Tokyo’s Cult* magazine

How do you combat loneliness? The question feels strikingly pertinent in the current state of the world, when social isolation is a global epidemic and political divisions are thornier than ever.

“I wanted this whole magazine to be an antidote to that,” says Lisa Tanimura, the founder of Cult* – a bilingual art, fashion, and culture magazine from Tokyo. Featuring photo stories and essays by Tokyo-based creatives, or those with a strong link to the city, its inaugural issue is curated around the theme ‘Aloneness’.

This manifests both literally and abstractly. We see new work from Erika Kamano that celebrates the beauty of Japanese-Black women, accompanied by a text by one of the models, Leiya, who discusses the complexity of racial identity in Japan. We also dive into the heady underworld of Department H, Tokyo’s longest-running fetish night. Joshua Gordon’s gritty, hedonic snapshots illustrate an interview with the event’s founder, who reveals the inner workings behind the monthly party. Elsewhere, Ayaka Endo’s ethereal images of animals that live in herds question consciousness and community, as well as humanity’s growing isolation from nature. 

The issue theme developed organically, but it all started with Tanimura’s own experience of loneliness, one that most of us will relate to: a break-up. Just over a year ago, the writer and editor was mourning the end of a long-term relationship. One Saturday night, after a long period of moping alone in her apartment, her friends dragged her out for dinner to lift her spirits. There, while smoking a cigarette outside the restaurant, she met French photographer Hugo Comte.

They got chatting, bonding over a love of architecture, but also a mutual heartbreak. “We’d both broken up with our partners, one day apart from each other,” she says. “We were talking about loneliness, and funnily enough he was staying at the hotel where Lost in Translation was filmed.” Comte wanted to shoot a story in his hotel room, inspired by Copolla’s romantic tale of isolation. Tanimura offered to produce it. It was then, unknowingly and through a chance encounter, that Cult*’s first cover story was born. 

A year and a half later, Cult* launched with an impressive list of contributors, stamped with a logo by Makoto Orui: the legendary 74-year-old graphic designer and former art director at Purple. The magazine itself, designed by Aiko Koike, is unusually small for an arts publication. It’s only slightly bigger than a passport and wrapped in a dust jacket that disguises its cover. These aesthetic decisions are typical of Japanese ‘bunkobon’ (文庫本) – small-format paperbacks designed to be affordable, space-saving and anonymising. “Who has time to sit on the sofa and read a magazine? I want people to be able to carry it around, or read it on the train,” says Tanimura.

Cult* is an embodiment of Tanimura’s love of printer paper, particularly magazines from the 90s and 00s. In Japan, fashion magazines always include a manga strip [Japanese comic] in the centrefold. Following this tradition, Cult* features a manga by feminist artist Toretate Club – a humorous, uplifting tale about a young girl's struggle with body dysmorphia. 

The contributors are diverse in age and experience, but also race, gender identity and sexuality. This wasn’t intentional. Before Cult*, Tanimura's passions manifested in personal projects like Waifu – a queer femme party series – and essays that centred around her identity as an Asian woman. “There was a point where I started to feel choked by those categories,” she reflects. “It’s important to gather together, especially if you’re an oppressed minority group, but, with this, I didn’t really think about that, though most of the people I ended up working with are minorities or outsiders in one way or another. That’s why I picked the name Cult*, because I wanted to create a community connected by the same beliefs, not categories.” 

So, how do you combat loneliness? For Tanimura, it was in finding fulfilment through collaboration. “It feels rewarding to create in a non-monetary way,” she says, revealing that she funded the printing through trading cryptocurrencies. “I’m not going to break even, but I’m not looking to create profit,” she continues, “these relationships are all built on trust, rather than money.” Creativity – even in the smallest gestures – can be a radical act against the clutches of loneliness and the systems that enable it. “For the first time in years, I don’t feel lonely.” 

Cult* is available to buy online here now. cult-mag.com. It will be distributed in bookstores around the UK and EU from April 2023.