Ero Guro - History

History

Ero guro nansensu, 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 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 like Yoshitoshi, who, besides erotic shunga, also produced, in the mid-1860s, woodblock printings 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's first distinct appearance began in 1920s and 1930s Japanese literature. The Sada Abe Incident of 1936, where a woman choked and castrated her lover, struck a chord with the ero guro movement and came to represent that genre for years to come. This and other activities and movements were generally suppressed in Japan during World War II, but re-emerged in the postwar period, especially in manga and music.

Over time, the ero guro movement's influence expanded into parts of Japanese theatre, art, manga, and eventually film and music.