More Japanese tampons:
Anshin (1977) Tampons, box, directions. ORIGAMI applicator. (Tambrands gift, 1997) It's the same as Ortex Gold and Cameo tampons.
Shampon Young stick tampon (Japan, 1977)
Instructions for making JAPANESE WASHABLE MENSTRUAL PADS (early 20th century?), successors of the uma (pony or horse)
See ads for JAPANESE COMMERCIAL MENSTRUAL BELTS from the early 20th century with a discussion of how Japan influenced European art and vice versa.
Visit the ODOR page.
ALL TAMPONS on this site.
HOMEPAGE
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
HOMEPAGE |
MUM address & What does MUM mean? |
Email the museum |
Privacy on this site |
Who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! |
Art of menstruation (and awesome ancient art of menstruation) |
Artists (non-menstrual) |
Asbestos |
Belts |
Bidets |
Birth control and religion |
Birth control drugs, old |
Birth control douche & sponges |
Founder bio |
Bly, Nellie |
MUM board |
Books: menstruation & menopause (& reviews) |
Cats |
Company booklets for girls (mostly) directory |
Contraception and religion |
Contraceptive drugs, old |
Contraceptive douche & sponges |
Costumes |
Menstrual cups |
Cup usage |
Dispensers |
Douches, pain, sprays |
Essay directory |
Examination, gynecological (pelvic) (short history) |
Extraction |
Facts-of-life booklets for girls |
Famous women in menstrual hygiene ads |
FAQ |
Feminine napkin, towel, pad directory |
Founder/director biography |
Gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux |
Humor |
Huts |
Links |
Masturbation |
Media coverage of MUM |
Menarche booklets for girls and parents |
Miscellaneous |
Museum future |
Norwegian menstruation exhibit |
Odor |
Olor |
Pad, towel, napkin directory |
Patent medicine |
Poetry directory |
Products, some current |
Puberty booklets for girls and parents|
Religion |
Religión y menstruación |
Your remedies for menstrual discomfort |
Menstrual products safety |
Sanitary napkin, towel, pad directory |
Seguridad de productos para la menstruación |
Science |
Shame |
Slapping, menstrual |
Sponges |
Synchrony |
Tampon directory |
Early tampons |
Teen ads directory |
Tour of the former museum (video) |
Towel, pad, sanitary napkin directory |
Underpants & panties directory |
Videos, films directory |
Words and expressions about menstruation |
Would you stop menstruating if you could? |
What did women do about menstruation in the past? |
Washable pads |
Read 10 years (1996-2006) of articles and Letters to Your MUM on this site.
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.


The Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health

Cellopon menstrual tampon
(1968, Eisai, Japan)

Because of reasons discussed below Cellopon seems to be a Western tampon reworked for the Japanese market just as the origami tampon Anshin (Japan, 1977) was (it's the same as Ortex Gold and Cameo tampons). But I might be wrong. Mysterious Japan!

All tampons, pads, belts, bidets, miscellaneous, puberty booklets, art, underpants, teen ads
MORE in column at left.
More Japanese tampons: Anshin (1977), Shampon Young (1977), Elldy (with finger cots, 1990s). Japanese MENSTRUAL BELTS ads, how to make JAPANESE WASHABLE MENSTRUAL PADS (both early 20th century)
The former Tambrands, which made Tampax tampons, kindly donated the box and contents as part of a fabulous gift of hundreds of menstrual products.

Below: The cardboard box measures 5 1/2 x 2 1/4" x 1" (13.1 x 5.5 x 2.54 cm).
The box is actually more faded than the scan shows.
A Tampax hand at the former Tambrands company wrote on the box.
The English words and possibly Western woman might mean
that this is a Western product for the Japanese market. But the ways
of Japan are mysterious and it might not mean that. But what's L-type??
Below: Someone once called Japanese the most unnecessarily complicated language in the world. Here's
part of the reason why: the large, dark type below is in the Japanese phonetic script katakana, which Japanese use
to reproduce the sounds of non-Japanese-and-Chinese words - like Cellopon. The second character, the square one,
is actually pronounced somewhat like RO; Japanese does not have a European L sound. The other Japanese phonetic script,
hirogana - you can see two examples right above the left-most katakana to the right of the end character (a kanji
character, derived from Chinese, pronounced SHIN, that means "new") is used for verb endings and other grammatical words
or for words the writer prefers not to write using kanji, the traditional way to write Japanese.
See why it's complicated?
Read more about Japan and its menstrual language.
 
Below: I hugely enlarged the back of the box so anyone knowing the language can read it. MORE at right.
Right below: After the phonetic for Cellopon you see L and three phonetic characters
roughly sounding out the English word type. What puzzles me is type is not translated into Japanese,
just phoneticized, suggesting that it was not important for the Japanese market but was for
the probably original English-language market.
 
 
 Below & right: The ends.
The box cost 180 yen. At this time 360 yen equaled $1 so the box cost $0.50.
(See http://www.yen-to-dollar.com)

NEXT: Instructions (enlarged here & here, van Gogh comparison) - tampon package - tampon itself
ALL tampons on this site. More Japanese tampons: Anshin (1977), Shampon Young (1977). Japanese MENSTRUAL BELTS ads, how to make JAPANESE WASHABLE MENSTRUAL PADS (both early 20th century)

© 2008 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any of the work on this Web site
in any manner or medium without written permission of the author. Please report suspected
violations to hfinley@mum.org\