''Muzan-e'' (), also known as "Bloody Prints", refers to Japanese woodcut prints of violent nature published in the late Edo and

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

s. One of the earliest and most well-known examples is the collection by the artists

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 ...

and Yoshiiku from the 1860s, which depicted several gruesome acts of murder or torture based on historical events or scenes in

Kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought to ...

plays.

Reception

Although most of the works are solely violent by nature, it is perhaps the first known example of

ero guro is an artistic genre that puts its focus on eroticism, sexual corruption, and decadence.Silverberg, Miriam Rom. "By Way of a Preface: Defining ''Erotic Grotesque Nonsense''". Galley copy of the preface for ''Erotic Grotesque Nonsense: The Mass C ...

or the erotic grotesque in Japanese culture, an art subgenre which depicts either erotic or extreme images of violence and mutilation. The Muzan-e has influenced many modern day art formats and ero guro can be found 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 ...

with the works of

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 ...

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 ...

; in many live action films such as the

pink film in its broadest sense includes almost any Japanese theatrical film that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content. This encompasses everything from dramas to action thrillers and exploitation film features. The Western equiv ...

movement and most of the works of director

Takashi Miike is a Japanese film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has directed over one hundred theatrical, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. His films run through a variety of different genres, and range from violent an ...

and even non-Japanese artists such as Trevor Brown. Muzan translates from Japanese as cruelty or atrocity, and the works were said to spread a general panic amongst the populace at the time of publishing, with the extreme violence depicted in the paintings taken as a sign of social and moral decline.

References to the Muzan-e in other media

, a

manga artist 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 be ...

whose works are heavily influenced by the original woodcuts, and artist

Kazuichi Hanawa is a Japanese manga artist. Life Hanawa was born in Yorii, Saitama Prefecture. Since 1970 he worked as an illustrator. After reading the works of Yoshiharu Tsuge, he decided to switch to comic books. Hanawa's first work as a cartoonist was in ...

, created a modern version of the Muzan-e in 1988 with an art book entitled Bloody Ukiyo-e. While just as bloody and disturbing as the collection it is based on, Bloody Ukiyo-e also show cases a higher degree of full frontal nudity, sexual perversion and includes pop-culture references and modern real life events, such as painting a gun wielding

Marc Bolan Marc Bolan ( ; born Mark Feld; 30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977) was an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a pioneer of the glam rock movement in the early 1970s with his band T. Rex. Bolan was posthumously inducted int ...

as a mercenary or the suicide of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

. * The Muzan-e is intrinsic to the concluding story arc of the

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series ''

Requiem from the Darkness is an anime television series produced by TMS Entertainment based on the series of short stories written and collected under the title by Natsuhiko Kyogoku. The series was initially licensed in English by Geneon USA and now licensed by Discotek ...

''. * ''Muzan-E'' or Celluloid Nightmares is a 1999 Japanese movie about a female reporter investigating underground snuff tapes.

References

External links

* {{Ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e genres