Japanese genre of grotesque erotica
Ero guro
(
Japanese
:
エログロ
)
is an artistic genre that puts its focus on
eroticism
, sexual corruption, and
decadence
.
[1]
As a term, it is used to denote something that is both erotic and
grotesque
.
The term itself is an example of
wasei-eigo
, a Japanese combination of English words or abbreviated words:
ero
from
erotic
and
guro
from
grotesque
.
[2]
The "grotesqueness" implied in the term refers to things that are malformed, unnatural, or horrific.
[1]
Items that are pornographic and bloody are not necessarily
ero guro
, and vice versa. The term is often mistaken by Western audiences to mean "
gore
" ? depictions of horror, blood, and guts.
History
[
edit
]
Ero guro
art experienced a boom when
ero guro nansensu
, a
subculture
characterized as a "prewar, bourgeois cultural phenomenon that devoted itself to explorations of the deviant, the bizarre, and the ridiculous",
[3]
manifested in the popular culture of
Taish?
Tokyo during the 1920s.
[4]
Writer
Ian Buruma
describes the social atmosphere of the time as "a skittish, sometimes nihilistic hedonism that brings
Weimar
Berlin to mind."
[4]
Its roots go back to artists such as
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
, who, besides erotic
shunga
, also produced woodblock prints showing
decapitations
and acts of violence from Japanese history.
Ukiyo-e
artists such as
Utagawa Kuniyoshi
presented similar themes with bondage,
rape
and erotic
crucifixion
.
Ero guro nansensu
's first distinct appearance began in the 1920s and 1930s
Japanese literature
. The
Sada Abe Incident
of 1936, where a woman
strangled
her lover to death and
castrated
his corpse, struck a chord with the
ero guro nansensu
movement but shortly led to the censorship of related media.
[5]
Other similar activities and movements were generally suppressed in Japan during
World War II
, but re-emerged in the postwar period, especially in
manga
and
music
.
[6]
Over time, the
ero guro nansensu
movement's influence expanded into parts of Japanese
theatre
,
art
, manga, and eventually into film and music.
Later influences
[
edit
]
Ero guro
is also an element of many
Japanese horror
films and
pink films
, particularly of the 1960s and 1970s. Examples include
Teruo Ishii
's
Shogun's Joy of Torture
(1968) and
Horrors of Malformed Men
(1969) and
Yasuzo Masumura
's
Blind Beast
(1969), the latter two based on the works of
Edogawa Ranpo
. A more recent example of
ero guro
in cinema is
Sion Sono
's
Strange Circus
(2005).
There are modern
ero guro
artists, some of whom cite
ero guro nansensu
as an influence on their work. These artists explore the
macabre
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
. Others produce
ero guro
as a Subgenre of
Japanese pornography
and
hentai
involving
blood
,
gore
,
disfiguration
,
violence
,
mutilation
,
urine
,
enemas
, or
feces
. This Subgenre of pornography is colloquially known among internet circles simply as "guro".
Well-known
ero guro
manga artists
include
Suehiro Maruo
,
Hajime Yamano
,
Jun Hayami
,
Go Nagai
,
Shintaro Kago
,
Toshio Maeda
,
Henmaru Machino
,
Yamamoto Takato
,
Horihone Saiz?
, Katsuhisa Kigitsu, Uziga Waita, and
Rei Mikamoto
.
The modern genre of
tentacle rape
began within the category of
ero guro
(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
[
edit
]
Some
visual kei
bands have a concept or theme relating to
ero guro
, most notably
Cali Gari
.
[7]
Western visual kei fans assumed their theme was a subgenre of visual kei and linked it with other similar bands.
The 2014
Flying Lotus
album
You're Dead!
prominently featured
ero guro
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.
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
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.
doi
:
10.1525/9780520924628-002
- ^
Tyler, William J. (27 Apr 2009). "Introduction: making sense of
nansensu
".
Japan Forum
.
21
(1 (Special Issue: Urban Nonsense)): 1?10.
doi
:
10.1080/09555800902856932
.
S2CID
144905121
.
- ^
Reichert, Jim (2001). "Deviance and Social Darwinism in Edogawa Ranpo's Erotic-Grotesque Thriller Koto no ?ni".
Journal of Japanese Studies
.
27
(1): 113?114.
doi
:
10.2307/3591938
.
JSTOR
3591938
.
PMID
20039478
.
- ^
a
b
Buruma, Ian
(2003).
Inventing Japan, 1853?1964
. New York: The Modern Library. pp.
67
?68.
ISBN
978-0-679-64085-1
.
- ^
Johnston, William (2005).
Geisha, Harlot, Strangler, Star: A Woman, Sex, and Morality in Modern Japan
. New York: Columbia University Press. pp.
11, 114, 160
.
ISBN
978-0-231-13052-3
.
- ^
McLelland, Mark.
"A Short History of '
Hentai
'"
Archived
2017-06-22 at the
Wayback Machine
.
- ^
Bounce
Di(s)ctionary Number 13?Visual Kei
Archived
June 16, 2008, at the
Wayback Machine
. Retrieved November 19, 2008.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Aguilar, Carlos (editor).
Bizarre Sinema! Japanese Ero Gro & Pinku Eiga 1956?1979
. Firenze, Italy: Glittering Images, 2005.
ISBN
88-8275-065-5
.
- McLelland, Mark.
"A Short History of '
Hentai
'"
Archived
2017-06-22 at the
Wayback Machine
(
PDF version
).
Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context
, issue 12 (January 2006).
ISSN
1440-9151
.
- 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
Archived
2016-06-17 at the
Wayback Machine
. Asia Pacific modern, 1. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
ISBN
0-520-22273-3
.
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