In Edogawa Rampo's Moju: The Blind Beast, a deranged, scarred and sightless sculptor kidnaps a model and imprisons her in a psychedelic labyrinth of giant sculpted eyes and other outlandish body parts, before dismembering her in a fearful blood-orgy. Her limbs, head and torso are later found scattered throughout Tokyo. The blind killer continues his sexually-charged spree of amputation and decapitation, claiming several more victims before finally presenting his work at an acclaimed art exhibition in which the sculptures are a little too life-like for comfort... The most disturbing of Rampo's novels, Moju: The Blind Beast is a classic of grinding horror and weird sex, tainted with a virulent black humour. It represents one of the earliest literary examples of the Japanese "erotic-grotesque" genre, in which such subjects as dismemberment, mutilation, coprophilia and cannibalism are presented in a perverse sexual context. This first-ever English translation of Rampo's classic is illustrated throughout and also includes an introduction by Jack Hunter, author of Eros In Hell. Moju: The Blind Beast is a significant precursor to the prevalent Japanese horror fiction of today (such as The Ring), and as such will be of great interest to all fans of that genre in both literature and cinema.

MOJU: THE BLIND BEAST (Shinbaku Books: Fictions)

Rampo, Edogawa

Arts & Photography

Shinbaku Books

UKIYO-E images from the floating world were the most popular art-form of 19th century Japan. Like modern-day manga, these prints could be mass-produced and were admired by people from all sectors of society; and as in manga, the art of ukiyo-e included significant sub-genres dealing in violence. erotica and horror. With unflinching images of weird sex, bloody carnage and grotesque, demonic ghosts, DREAM SPECTRES is a powerful collection of the extremes of ukiyo-e, featuring the work of such artists as Yoshitoshi, Ekin, Kunichika, Yoshiiku, Kunisada, Hokusai, Kuniyoshi, Yoshitsuya, Hiroshige, and Chikanobu. DREAM SPECTRES features over 250 amazing full-colour images, including the complete Eimei Nijuhasshuku ( 28 Blood Atrocities ) of Yoshitoshi and Yoshiiku, and ranging in content from bondage and bestiality to decapitations, demons, dragons and designs for classic irezumi (body tattoos). This is Japanese art not only at its extremes of imagination, but often at its most highly accomplished and innovative. No comparable collection has previously been published in the English language. With text by Jack Hunter, author of the acclaimed and influential Eros In Hell. Here are the original images of female ghosts which inspired huge movie hits like The Ring and The Grudge; here are the gruesome samurai pictures, the demons, the panoramas of Hell, the mythical beasts and dragons, the blood-soaked scenes from kabuki theatre; here are the most explicit and exaggerated pornographic images of shunga; here are the legendary atrocity prints of Yoshitoshi; here are the amazing tattoo designs which were taken up by Japan's yakuza and now serve as inspiration for tattoo designers worldwide. And here is a compendium of some of the most innovative and dazzling works in the history of art.

DREAM SPECTRES

Hunter, Jack

Literature & Fiction

A hybrid beast that devours dreams; a flesh-eating spectre from the graveyards of hell; a shape-shifting phantom with no face; a demonic decapitator of babies; a huge goblin-spider that drinks human blood: all these plus many more strange and sinister creatures feature in the kwaidan ("ghost stories") collated and translated by the author Lafcadio Hearn (1860-1904) during his 14-year stay in Japan. This new edition of KWAIDAN collects twenty-nine weird tales from four volumes written by Hearn, presenting the very best of his work in a true expression of Japanese lore at its bizarre and phantastic extremes. Many of these stories are not currently in print. The stories are further enhanced by eighteen illustrations of the supernatural by master ukiyo-e artist Yoshitoshi Tsukioka, from his series 36 Ghosts (1889-92). The cover illustration is by ukiyo-e master Hokusai. Kwaidan was filmed in 1964 by Masaki Kobayashi, and is now regarded as a classic of Japanese cinema; it was recently released on DVD by Criterion.

Kwaidan: Weird Tales from Japan

Hearn, Lafcadio

United States

Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900) was one of the last great masters of ukiyo-e, the Japanese art of woodblock-printing which peaked in the late Edo and early Meiji periods. Inspired by the plays, actors and customs of kabuki theatre, and using vibrant new chemical dyes imported from Europe, Kunichika created a visually dazzling pictorial record of this long-lost, decadent underworld of old Edo. As well as creating "mirrors" of popular productions and stars, he also cast the most dynamic actors of his time in the roles of tattooed robbers, samurai, female bandits and other elements from society's fringes, immortalising them in dozens of intense and intricate print series and tableaux. Even as ukiyo-e came under threat from the emergence of new imaging technologies, Kunichika remained true to his art until the very end of the 19th century. DECADENCE AND DISSOLUTION ― edited by Jack Hunter (who also edited the ground-breaking extreme ukiyo-e anthology "Dream Spectres") ― collects over 150 of Kunichika's most striking and innovative designs from kabuki theatre, presented in large-format and full-colour throughout. Many have never been published before, even in Japan. Extensive sections on tattoo pictures, single-sheet actor portraits and wide-screen triptychs are augmented by a foreword and a listing of Kunichika's most important series. Fourth in a dynamic new series presenting the cutting edge of 19th century Japanese art.

Decadence and Dissolution: Tattoo and Kabuki Art By Kunichika (Ukiyo-e Master Series)

History & Criticism

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) is regarded as one of the true masters of ukiyo-e, the art of Edo-period Japan. Kuniyoshi produced thousands of prints and designs during his lifetime, but is perhaps best-known for his musha-e ("warrior prints"), with which he came to prominence in 1830. Kuniyoshi's series 108 Heroes Of The Suikoden from that year was revolutionary in its dynamics, colour and visual violence, epitomising the delirious, almost proto-psychedelic style with with the artist would recreate archetypal figures ― both human and demonic ― from Japanese myth over the ensuing decades. SAMURAIâ€ˆGHOST ANDâ€ˆMONSTERâ€ˆWARS, edited by Jack Hunter (who also edited the ground-breaking extreme ukiyo-e anthology "Dream Spectres"), collects and considers 100 of Kuniyoshi's most vivid and complex images of warriors, spectres, demons and monstrous beasts, presented in large-format and full-colour throughout. First in a dynamic new series presenting the cutting edge of 19th century Japanese art.

Samurai Ghost and Monster Wars: Supernatural Art By Kuniyoshi (Ukiyo-e Master Series)

Individual Artists

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, apprenticed to ukiyo-e master Kuniyoshi since his adolescence, was twenty years old when he first began to make sketches of severed heads and dismembered corpses. Soon he would start to incorporate this imagery into his work, and his vivid and bloody battle scenes quickly caught the public eye. All of Yoshitoshi's ukiyo-e series between 1863 and 1870 would include a quantity of his trademark scenes of carnage, in particular Eimei Nijuhasshuku (1866-68), a collaboration with fellow artist Ochiai Yoshiiku. Sometimes referred to as "The Sadistic Collection Of Blood", this series was an unashamed exercise in atrocity which took the concept of muzan-e ("cruelty prints") to new extremes of violence and gore. In 1868, Yoshitoshi was a first-hand witness to the Battle of Ueno, a cataclysmic clash which further inspired him to create new images of evisceration and decapitation. THEâ€ˆEYEâ€ˆOFâ€ˆATROCITY, edited by Jack Hunter (who also edited the ground-breaking extreme ukiyo-e anthology "Dream Spectres"), collects and considers over 80 of the most blood-drenched and disturbing artworks produced by Yoshitoshi during his career, presented in large-format and full-colour throughout. Second in a dynamic new series presenting the cutting edge of 19th century Japanese art.

The Eye Of Atrocity: Superviolent Art By Yoshitoshi (Ukiyo-e Master Series)

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, a student of ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi, showed a predilection towards two types of subject in his early work: exceptionally bloody musha-e ("warror prints"), and supernatural images of demons and ghosts. Yoshitoshi maintained an interest in depicting the haunted realm of Japanese myth right up until his last major series, 36 Ghosts, in 1889 (two years before his death). Like all Yoshitoshi's art, these prints are now considered to be the work of ukiyo-e's last master practitioner. DEMONSâ€ˆFROMâ€ˆTHEâ€ˆHAUNTEDâ€ˆWORLD, edited by Jack Hunter (who also edited the ground-breaking extreme ukiyo-e anthology "Dream Spectres"), collects and considers over 150 of Yoshitoshi's most striking and disturbing images of spectres, monsters and demons ― including the series 100 Ghost Stories, Heroic Beauty, and 36 Ghosts in their entirety ― presented in large-format and full-colour throughout. Third in a dynamic new series presenting the cutting edge of 19th century Japanese art.

Demons from the Haunted World: Supernatural Art By Yoshitoshi (Ukiyo-e Master Series)

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) is regarded as one of the true masters of ukiyo-e, the populist art of Edo-period Japan. Kuniyoshi produced thousands of prints and designs during his lifetime, but is perhaps best-known for his musha-e ("warrior prints"), with which he came to prominence around 1830. Kuniyoshi's series 108 Heroes Of The Suikoden was revolutionary in its dynamics, colour and visual violence, establishing the delirious, almost proto-psychedelic style with which the artist would recreate archetypal heroes, outlaws and renegades from Japanese history and legend over the ensuing decades. "Outlaw Swords Of Death" collects over 160 of Kuniyoshi's most striking and innovative early musha-e designs, presented in large-format and full-colour throughout. The collection includes all 74 prints in the series 108 Heroes, and also a wide selection of the most dynamic images from his follow-up series 800 Heroes (1830-36), amongst numerous other examples of the genre in which Kuniyoshi remains unsurpassed. The designs range in date from around 1825 to 1845, his most productive and successful period. Many of these images became standard tattoo designs for fire-fighters and yakuza gangsters. The Ukiyo-e Master Series: presenting seminal collections of art by the greatest print-designers and painters of Edo-period and Meiji-period Japan.

Outlaw Swords Of Death: Warrior & Hero Designs 1825-45 (Ukiyo-e Master Series)

Muzan-e ("cruel pictures") and Chimidoro-e ("bloody pictures") together constitute a significant strand of ukiyo-e, the populist art of late Edo-period Japan. The most famous example of this genre remains Eimei Nijuhasshuku (1868) by the artists Yoshitoshi and Yoshiiku. Yoshiiku's violent contributions to this series are matched in horror by many other of his prints, ranging from news-sheet illustrations of misogynistic murder to kabuki scenes of torture and images of warriors harvesting severed heads in battle. Such gore-splashed pictures were also produced by numerous other artists, including Kunisada, Kuniyoshi, Yoshitoshi, Yoshiyuki, Kunichika, and the unsung creators of garish Osaka sex-crime news-sheets. "Cruelty And Carnage", edited by Jack Hunter (who also edited the ground-breaking extreme ukiyo-e anthology "Dream Spectres"), collects and considers over 100 of the most blood-drenched and disturbing artworks produced by Yoshiiku and others, presented in large-format and full-colour throughout. The Ukiyo-e Master Series: presenting seminal collections of art by the greatest print-designers and painters of Edo-period and Meiji-period Japan.

Cruelty And Carnage: Superviolent Art by Yoshiiku & Others (Ukiyo-e Master Series)

Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-89) was only 6 years old when he joined the school of the great ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi, along with such fellow pupils as Yoshitoshi, who followed him in 1850. Later Kyosai studied traditional Japanese painting at the Kano school. As befits this varied apprenticeship, Kyosai would embrace many styles and methods during his artistic career. His eclectic approach may also be partly attributable to a legendary sake-drinking habit, which could account for the more bizarre extremes of his chosen subject matter ― in particular, weird demons and the bloody tortures of Hell. Kyosai can now be regarded as not only one of the last true ukiyo-e masters, but also as one of the first truly modernist painters of Japan. "Night Parade Of Hell Creatures", edited by Jack Hunter (who also edited the ground-breaking extreme ukiyo-e anthology "Dream Spectres"), collects and considers over 100 of Kyosai's most innovative, demented and bizarre images ― including multiple yokai, ghosts and demons ― presented in large-format and full-colour throughout. The Ukiyo-e Master Series: presenting seminal collections of art by the greatest print-designers and painters of Edo-period and Meiji-period Japan.

Night Parade Of Hell Creatures: Bizarre Demonic Art By Kyosai (Ukiyo-e Master Series)

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