Tsuyoshi Yoshida (1924 – January 5, 1988), known by the pen name , was a Japanese

homoerotic Homoeroticism is sexual attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female. The concept differs from the concept of homosexuality: it refers specifically to the desire itself, which can be temporary, whereas "homose ...

fetish artist A fetish artist is a sculptor, illustrator, or painter who makes fetish art: art related to sexual fetishism and fetishistic acts. Fetish artists, 1930s–1990s * Charles Guyette * John Willie * Eric Stanton (a.k.a. John Bee, Savage, Stanten) ...

and founder of the magazine . He is noted for his illustrations of " macho-type" men, often with

yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...

-inspired ''

irezumi (also spelled or sometimes ) is the Japanese word for tattoo, and is used in English to refer to a distinctive style of Japanese tattooing, though it is also used as a blanket term to describe a number of tattoo styles originating in Japan, inc ...

'' tattoos. Mishima, along with Tatsuji Okawa, Sanshi Funayama, and

Go Hirano was a Japanese homoerotic fetish artist. Hirano, along with Go Mishima, Sanshi Funayama, and Tatsuji Okawa, is regarded by artist and historian Gengoroh Tagame as a central figure in the first wave of contemporary gay artists in Japan. Biog ...

, is regarded by artist and historian

Gengoroh Tagame is a pseudonymous Japanese manga artist. Regarded as the most influential creator in the gay manga genre, he has produced over 20 books in four languages over the course of his nearly four decade-long career. Tagame began contributing manga ...

as a central figure in the first wave of contemporary gay artists in Japan.

Biography

Mishima was born in 1924 in

Yokosuka is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 409,478, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The city ...

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kanag ...

. At 18, he was drafted into the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

, where he had his first homosexual experience with his commanding officer. Upon the end of the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

in 1945, Mishima relocated to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, where he immersed himself in the nascent gay nightlife of the city. Many bars and nightclubs during this era were operated by the

; Mishima's fascination with their

crew cut A crew cut is a type of haircut in which the upright hair on the top of the head is cut relatively short, graduated in length from the longest hair that forms a short pomp ( pompadour) at the front hairline to the shortest at the back of the crow ...

hairstyles and

tattoos would figure heavily into his art. During the late 1950s, Mishima discovered the art of

Tom of Finland Touko Valio Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), pseudonym Tom of Finland, was a Finnish artist who made stylized highly masculinized homoerotic art, and influenced late 20th-century gay culture. He has been called the "most influential ...

, who came to influence his own work. In 1955, Mishima met the writer

Yukio Mishima , born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered fo ...

at a gym, and formed a friendship on their shared interest in athletics,

bodybuilding Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's muscles (muscle building) by muscle hypertrophy for aesthetic purposes. It is distinct from similar activities such as powerlifting because it focuses ...

, and

hypermasculine Hypermasculinity is a psychological term for the exaggeration of male stereotypical behavior, such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression, and sexuality. This term has been used ever since the research conducted by Donald L. Mosher and Ma ...

sexuality. The two men drew

artistic nude Depictions of nudity include all of the representations or portrayals of the unclothed human body in visual media. In a picture-making civilization, pictorial conventions continually reaffirm what is natural in human appearance, which is part of ...

s together as a pastime; Go Mishima began to pursue a career in homoerotic art in earnest with Yukio Mishima's encouragement, and adopted Mishima's last name to use as his pen name in tribute. After Yukio Mishima's death by ritual suicide, Go Mishima began to depict more violent material and themes in his art, including bondage,

masochism Sadomasochism ( ) is the giving and receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation. Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual pleasure from their acts. While the terms sadist and masochist refer ...

, and torture. In 1964, Mishima was published in and ''Bara'', two of the first magazines in Japan to publish gay and gay pornographic content. He was an early contributor to ''

Barazoku was Japan's first commercially circulated gay men's magazine. It began publication in July 1971 by Daini Shobō's owner's son and editor , although before that, there had been ''Adonis'' and ''Apollo'', its extra issue, around 1960 serving as a ...

'', which in 1971 became the first commercially circulated gay magazine in Japan. Dissatisfied with the ''

bishōnen (; also transliterated ) is a Japanese term literally meaning "beautiful youth (boy)" and describes an aesthetic that can be found in disparate areas in East Asia: a young man of androgynous beauty. This word originated from the Tang dynas ...

'' art style of ''Barazoku'', Mishima founded in 1974, which focused on images of masculine men, and was more explicitly pornographic. On January 5, 1988, Mishima died of complications from

cirrhosis Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue rep ...

. A commemorative issue of ''Barazoku'' was published in tribute to Mishima in 1989, in which

Sadao Hasegawa was a Japanese graphic artist known for creating homoerotic fetish art. His works are noted for their extensive detail, elaborate fantasy settings, and for their juxtaposition of elements from Japanese, Balinese, Thai, Tibetan Buddhist, Afric ...

referred to him as "a master illustrator of the male physique." The first solo exhibition of Mishima's art was held in 1999, at Gallery Naruyama in Tokyo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mishima, Go 1924 births 1988 deaths 20th-century Japanese painters Deaths from cirrhosis Fetish artists Gay artists Gay male BDSM Japanese erotic artists LGBT artists from Japan LGBT people from Japan Pseudonymous artists Imperial Japanese Army personnel of World War II Gay military personnel 20th-century LGBT people

Biography

See also

References