:Ero guro
{{Short description|Japanese genre of grotesque erotica}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Distinguish|Ero guro nansensu}}
{{Nihongo|Ero guro|エログロ|lead=yes}} 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 Culture of Japanese Modern Times. December 12, 2005. {{doi|10.1525/9780520924628-002}} As a term, it is used to denote something that is both erotic and grotesque.
The term itself is an example of {{lang|ja-Latn|wasei-eigo}}, a Japanese combination of English words or abbreviated words: {{lang|ja-Latn|ero}} from erotic and {{lang|ja-Latn|guro}} from grotesque.{{cite journal |last=Tyler |first=William J. |title=Introduction: making sense of nansensu |journal=Japan Forum |date=27 Apr 2009 |volume=21 |issue=1 (Special Issue: Urban Nonsense) |pages=1–10 |doi=10.1080/09555800902856932|s2cid=144905121 }}
The "grotesqueness" implied in the term refers to things that are malformed, unnatural, or horrific. Items that are pornographic and bloody are not necessarily {{lang|ja-Latn|ero guro}}, and vice versa. The term is often mistaken by Western audiences to mean "gore" – depictions of horror, blood, and guts.
History
{{lang|ja-latn|Ero guro|italic=no}} art experienced a boom when {{lang|ja-Latn|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",{{cite journal |last=Reichert |first=Jim |title=Deviance and Social Darwinism in Edogawa Ranpo's Erotic-Grotesque Thriller Koto no Ōni |journal=Journal of Japanese Studies |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages =113–114 |year=2001 |doi=10.2307/3591938 |jstor=3591938|pmid=20039478 }} manifested in the popular culture of Taishō Tokyo during the 1920s.{{cite book|author-link=Ian Buruma|last=Buruma|first=Ian|title=Inventing Japan, 1853–1964|pages=[https://archive.org/details/inventingjapan1800buru/page/67 67]–68|year=2003|publisher=The Modern Library|location=New York|isbn=978-0-679-64085-1|url-access=registration|url= https://archive.org/details/inventingjapan1800buru}} Writer Ian Buruma describes the social atmosphere of the time as "a skittish, sometimes nihilistic hedonism that brings Weimar Berlin to mind." 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.
{{lang|ja-Latn|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 {{lang|ja-Latn|ero guro nansensu}} movement but shortly led to the censorship of related media.{{cite book|last=Johnston|first=William|title=Geisha, Harlot, Strangler, Star: A Woman, Sex, and Morality in Modern Japan|year=2005|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-231-13052-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/geishaharlotstra0000john/page/11 11, 114, 160]|url= https://archive.org/details/geishaharlotstra0000john/page/11}} 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.McLelland, Mark. [http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue12/mclelland.html "A Short History of {{'-}}Hentai{{'"}}]; {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170622163120/http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue12/mclelland.html |date=2017-06-22 }} ([https://web.archive.org/web/20120220023537/http://bangkok2005.anu.edu.au/papers/McLelland.pdf PDF version]). Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, issue 12 (January 2006). {{ISSN|1440-9151}}.
Over time, the {{lang|ja-Latn|ero guro nansensu}} movement's influence expanded into parts of Japanese theatre, art, manga, and eventually into film and music.
Later influences
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{{lang|ja-latn|Ero guro|italic=no}} 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 {{lang|ja-Latn|ero guro}} in cinema is Sion Sono's Strange Circus (2005).
There are modern {{lang|ja-latn|ero guro|italic=no}} artists, some of whom cite {{lang|ja-Latn|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 {{lang|ja-latn|ero guro|italic=no}} 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 {{lang|ja-latn|ero guro|italic=no}} manga artists include Suehiro Maruo, Hideshi Hino, Hajime Yamano, Jun Hayami, Go Nagai, Shintaro Kago, Toshio Maeda, Henmaru Machino, Yamamoto Takato, Horihone Saizō, Katsuhisa Kigitsu, Uziga Waita, and Osada Not.
The modern genre of tentacle rape began within the category of {{lang|ja-latn|ero guro|italic=no}} (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 bands have a concept or theme relating to {{lang|ja-latn|ero guro|italic=no}}, most notably Cali Gari.[http://www.bounce.com/article/article.php/3419/2/ Bounce Di(s)ctionary Number 13—Visual Kei] {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080616173324/http://www.bounce.com/article/article.php/3419/2/ |date=June 16, 2008 }}. 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 album You're Dead! prominently featured {{lang|ja-latn|ero guro|italic=no}} 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
References
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Further reading
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- Aguilar, Carlos (editor). Bizarre Sinema! Japanese Ero Gro & Pinku Eiga 1956–1979. Firenze, Italy: Glittering Images, 2005. {{ISBN|88-8275-065-5}}.
- Silverberg, Miriam Rom. [https://web.archive.org/web/20061114220255/http://www.history.ucla.edu/silverberg/Document3.pdf 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. [https://books.google.com/books?id=0XSFa0fbkG4C Erotic Grotesque Nonsense: The Mass Culture of Japanese Modern Times]; {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617104627/https://books.google.com/books?id=0XSFa0fbkG4C |date=2016-06-17 }}. Asia Pacific modern, 1. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-520-22273-3}}.
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{{Horror fiction}}