is an artistic genre that puts its focus on

eroticism Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, sculp ...

, sexual corruption, and

decadence The word decadence, which at first meant simply "decline" in an abstract sense, is now most often used to refer to a perceived decay in standards, morals, dignity, religious faith, honor, discipline, or skill at governing among the members of ...

.Silverberg, Miriam Rom. "By Way of a Preface: Defining ''Erotic Grotesque Nonsense''". Galley copy of the preface for ''Erotic Grotesque Nonsense: The Mass Culture of Japanese Modern Times''. December 12, 2005. As a term, it is used to denote something that is both erotic and

grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

. The term itself is an example of , a Japanese combination of English words or abbreviated words: from ''erotic'' and from ''grotesque''. The "grotesqueness" implied in the term refers to things that are malformed, unnatural, or horrific. Items that are pornographic and bloody are not necessarily , and vice versa. The term is often mistaken by Western audiences to mean "

gore Gore may refer to: Places Australia * Gore, Queensland * Gore Creek (New South Wales) * Gore Island (Queensland) Canada * Gore, Nova Scotia, a rural community * Gore, Quebec, a township municipality * Gore Bay, Ontario, a township on Manitouli ...

" – depictions of horror, blood, and guts.

History

art experienced a boom when , a

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

characterized as a "prewar, bourgeois cultural phenomenon that devoted itself to explorations of the deviant, the bizarre, and the ridiculous", manifested in the popular culture of Taishō Tokyo during the 1920s. Writer

Ian Buruma Ian Buruma (born December 28, 1951) is a Dutch writer and editor who lives and works in the United States. In 2017, he became editor of ''The New York Review of Books'', but left the position in September 2018. Much of his writing has focused on ...

describes the social atmosphere of the time as "a skittish, sometimes nihilistic hedonism that brings

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

Berlin to mind." Its roots go back to artists such as

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Tsukioka Yoshitoshi ( ja, 月岡芳年; also named Taiso Yoshitoshi ; 30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892) was a Japanese printmaker. Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric. (2005)"Tsukoka Kōgyō"in ''Japan Encyclopedia,'' p. 1000. Yoshitoshi h ...

, who, besides erotic

shunga is a type of Japanese erotic art typically executed as a kind of ukiyo-e, often in woodblock print format. While rare, there are also extant erotic painted handscrolls which predate ukiyo-e. Translated literally, the Japanese word ''shunga'' ...

, also produced woodblock prints showing decapitations and acts of violence from Japanese history.

Ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surfac ...

artists such as

Utagawa Kuniyoshi Utagawa Kuniyoshi ( ja, 歌川国芳, ; January 1, 1798 – April 14, 1861) was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints and painting.Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric ''et al'' (2005). "Kuniyoshi" in He was a ...

presented similar themes with bondage,

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

and erotic

crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...

. 's first distinct appearance began in 1920s and 1930s

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...

. The Sada Abe Incident of 1936, where a woman

strangled Strangling is compression of the neck that may lead to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain. Fatal strangling typically occurs in cases of violence, accidents, and is one of two main ways that hanging ...

her lover to death and

castrated Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmaceut ...

his corpse, struck a chord with the ' movement but shortly led to the censorship of related media. Other similar activities and movements were generally suppressed in Japan during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, but re-emerged in the postwar period, especially in

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

and

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

.McLelland, Mark
'''Hentai'''"">"A Short History of '''Hentai'''"
. Over time, the movement's influence expanded into parts of Japanese

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

, manga, and eventually into film and music.

Later influences

is also an element of many

Japanese horror Japanese horror is horror fiction derived from popular culture in Japan, generally noted for its unique thematic and conventional treatment of the horror genre differing from the traditional Western representation of horror. Japanese horror tends ...

films and

pink films Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, ...

, particularly of the 1960s and 1970s. Examples include

Teruo Ishii was a Japanese film director best known in the West for his early films in the ''Super Giant'' series, and for his films in the ''ero guro'' ("erotic-grotesque") subgenre of ''pinku eiga'' such as ''Shogun's Joy of Torture'' ( 1968). He also dire ...

's ''

Shogun's Joy of Torture is a 1968 Japanese ''ero guro'' film directed by Teruo Ishii and distributed by Toei. The film, which can be classified as belonging to a subgenre of pink films, is considered a precursor to Toei's ventures into the "pinky violent" style of f ...

'' (1968) and ''

Horrors of Malformed Men is a 1969 Japanese horror film directed by Teruo Ishii, who also co-wrote the film. It is based on the novels and by Edogawa Rampo. Plot Hirosuke (Teruo Yoshida), a medical student with almost no recollection of his past, is trapped in an as ...

'' (1969) and

Yasuzo Masumura was a Japanese film director. Biography Masumura was born in Kōfu, Yamanashi. After dropping out of a law course at the University of Tokyo he worked as an assistant director at the Daiei Film studio, later returning to university to study ph ...

's ''

Blind Beast , aka ''Moju the Blind Beast'' is a 1969 Japanese film directed by Yasuzo Masumura. It is based on a novel by Edogawa Rampo. Plot Young aspiring model Aki Shima is kidnapped by a mysterious blind man and taken to his home in a warehouse, which ...

'' (1969), the latter two based on the works of

Edogawa Ranpo , better known by the pen name was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery and thriller fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogoro Akechi, who in later books was the le ...

. A more recent example of in cinema is

Sion Sono Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Plac ...

's ''

Strange Circus is a 2005 Japanese horror drama film written and directed by Sion Sono. A narrated fiction presents the story of school principal Ozawa Gozo, who rapes his daughter, Mitsuko, after she sees her parents having sex. Her mother Sayuri witnesses th ...

'' (2005). There are modern artists, some of whom cite ' as an influence on their work. These artists explore the

macabre In works of art, the adjective macabre ( or ; ) means "having the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere". The macabre works to emphasize the details and symbols of death. The term also refers to works particularly gruesome in natu ...

intermingled with sexual overtones. Often the erotic element, even when not explicit, is merged with grotesque themes and features similar to the works of

H. R. Giger Hans Ruedi Giger ( ; ; 5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as " biomechanical". Giger later abandoned airbrush for pastels, mark ...

. Others produce as a genre of

Japanese pornography Pornography in Japan has unique characteristics that readily distinguish it from western pornography. Pornographic films are known as "adult videos" (AV) in Japan, so Japanese adult videos are "JAV", referring to the Japanese pornographic f ...

and

hentai Hentai is anime and manga pornography. A loanword from Japanese, the original term ( ) does not describe a genre of media, but rather an abnormal sexual desire or act, as an abbreviation of . In addition to anime and manga, hentai works exis ...

involving

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the c ...

, disfiguration,

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...

mutilation Mutilation or maiming (from the Latin: ''mutilus'') refers to severe damage to the body that has a ruinous effect on an individual's quality of life. It can also refer to alterations that render something inferior, ugly, dysfunctional, or imper ...

urine Urine is a liquid by-product of metabolism in humans and in many other animals. Urine flows from the kidneys through the ureters to the urinary bladder. Urination results in urine being excretion, excreted from the body through the urethra. Cel ...

enemas An enema, also known as a clyster, is an injection of fluid into the lower bowel by way of the rectum.Cullingworth, ''A Manual of Nursing, Medical and Surgical'':155 The word enema can also refer to the liquid injected, as well as to a device ...

, or

feces Feces ( or faeces), known colloquially and in slang as poo and poop, are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. Feces contain a relati ...

. This genre of pornography is colloquially known among internet circles simply as "guro". Well-known

manga artists A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist bef ...

include

Suehiro Maruo (born January 28, 1956 in Nagasaki, Japan) is a Japanese manga artist, illustrator, and painter. Biography Maruo graduated from junior high school in March 1972 but dropped out of senior high school. At the age of 15, he moved to Tokyo and began ...

Hajime Yamano is the Japanese word meaning . In the Japanese traditional martial arts such as karate, judo, aikido, Kūdō and kendo, it is a verbal command to "begin". Hajime is also a common Japanese given name for males. In the Amami Islands, Hajime (元) i ...

Jun Hayami Jun or JUN may refer to: People and anthroponymy * Jun (given name), a common Japanese given name * Jun (singer), a member of South Korean boy band U-KISS * Tomáš Jun, Czech footballer * A spelling of common Korean family name Jeon (Korean surn ...

Go Nagai , better known by the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist and a prolific author of science fiction, fantasy, horror and erotica. He made his professional debut in 1967 with ''Meakashi Polikichi'', but is best known for creating popular 1970s ...

Shintaro Kago is a Japanese guro manga artist. He debuted in 1988 on the magazine ''COMIC BOX''. Style Shintaro Kago's style has been called "fashionable paranoia," although he has stated the term stems from Western media and he doesn't use it himself. He ...

Toshio Maeda is an erotic manga artist who was prolific in the 1980s and '90s. Several of Maeda's works have been used as a basis for original video animations (OVA) including ''La Blue Girl'', ''Adventure Kid'', '' Demon Beast Invasion'', ''Demon Warrior Ko ...

Henmaru Machino Henmaru Machino (町野変丸 ''Machino Henmaru'', sometimes given as 'Hanmaru', born 1969, Aomori Prefecture) is a Japanese artist, described as the Magritte of the eromanga world, whose works prominently feature themes of bestiality, dysmorph ...

Yamamoto Takato Yamamoto (written: lit. "base of the mountain") is the 9th most common Japanese name, Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese politician *, Japanese World War II flying ace *, Japanese judoka *, Japanese manga artis ...

, Horihone Saizō, Katsuhisa Kigitsu, Uziga Waita, and

Rei Mikamoto is a Japanese horror manga artist who wrote and illustrated , , and . The last was adapted in 2010 as a feature movie as ''Big Tits Zombie is a 2010 Japanese fantasy- horror film. It was adapted from the manga ''Kyonyū Dragon'' by Rei Mi ...

. The modern genre of

tentacle rape is a type of pornography most commonly found in Japan which integrates traditional pornography with elements of bestiality and a fantasy, horror, or science-fiction theme. It is found in some horror or hentai titles, with tentacled crea ...

began within the category of (although it has much older roots in Japanese art; see '' Girl Diver and Octopi'') but became so popular that it is now usually considered separately.

In music

Some

visual kei is a movement among Japanese musicians that is characterized by the use of varying levels of make-up, elaborate hair styles and flamboyant costumes, often, but not always, coupled with androgynous aesthetics, similar to Western glam rock. Som ...

bands have a concept or theme relating to , most notably

Cali Gari Cali Gari (stylized as cali≠gari) is a Japanese visual kei experimental rock band formed with the concept erotic grotesque.

.Bounce ''Di(s)ctionary Number 13—Visual Kei''
. Retrieved November 19, 2008. Western visual kei fans assumed their theme was a subgenre of visual kei and linked it with other similar bands. The 2014

Flying Lotus Steven Ellison (born October 7, 1983), known by his stage name Flying Lotus or sometimes FlyLo, is an American record producer, Disc jockey, DJ, filmmaker and rapper from Los Angeles. He is also the founder of the record label Brainfeeder. Flyi ...

album ''

You're Dead! ''You're Dead!'' is the fifth studio album by American music producer Flying Lotus, released on October 6, 2014 by Warp Records. Flying Lotus recorded the album at his home in Los Angeles, using Ableton Live and other instruments and software. Li ...

'' prominently featured artwork from Japanese manga artist Shintaro Kago on the cover and inner sleeve, with further art being utilised in the accompanying live show. Much of the drawings featured men and women being disfigured and mutilated in unrealistic, hi-tech ways, with a significant amount of gore and nudity.

Notes

* Aguilar, Carlos (editor). ''Bizarre Sinema! Japanese Ero Gro & Pinku Eiga 1956–1979''. Firenze, Italy: Glittering Images, 2005. . * McLelland, Mark
'''Hentai'''"">"A Short History of '''Hentai'''"

PDF version
. ''Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context'', issue 12 (January 2006). . * Silverberg, Miriam Rom
Galley copy of the table of contents and preface for ''Erotic Grotesque Nonsense: The Mass Culture of Japanese Modern Times''
December 12, 2005. * Silverberg, Miriam Rom
''Erotic Grotesque Nonsense: The Mass Culture of Japanese Modern Times''
. Asia Pacific modern, 1. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. . {{Horror fiction Visual arts genres Arts in Japan Hentai Japanese pornography Visual kei Erotic horror Japanese sex terms

History

Later influences

In music

See also

Notes