Goh Mishima

This 1968 piece by Goh Mishima is more restrained than most of his work.

 

Bondage Day, Part 2

Extending the bondage theme into our Friday art series with some works by Japaese artist Goh Mishima.  We start with a piece that crosses over into S&M, something Mishima took much farther in some of his art that you won't be seeing here.  He could go positively bloody, guys.

He doesn't seem to be overly worried about what might happen next.

Mishima didn't do many derriere works, but I managed to find this one for the Bum Brigade.

The subject of this drawing may be tied up, 

but he looks like he's the one in control of things.

Some interesting subtexts in this Mishima piece.

Japan Day, Part 2 - The Art of Goh Mishima

Goh Mishima, aka Tsuyoshi Yoshida (1924-1988) was a gay Japanese erotic artist.  Upon being drafted into the army in 1942, he had a torrid ongoing love affair with his commanding officer.  (Sounds like our kind of guy.)  In post-war Tokyo he became heavily involved in gay night life and became fascinated with yakuza gangsters' flat top hair styles and tattoos.  Mishima's developing art featured bondage, sado-masochism, hypermasculinity, and fundoshi traditional underwear.  He published in gay magazines as early as 1964, a time when it was illegal to depict a penis in Japan.  So it's Goh Mishima day, and in our first piece, we see tattoos, ropes, and a peek of pecker.  Nice.

The tan line on this rear view is a striking reminder of Mishima's varied depiction of fundoshi underwear.  In this case it isn't there, but then again, it is.

Some of Mishima's work is graphically violent, including at least one gory ritual suicide image.

This is about the mildest of that lot and as far as I care to go with it.

The fundoshi element appeals along with the pose of the two lovers.  When Mishima started producing such work in the 1960's, it caused quite a stir in Japan.

Compared to a lot of Mishima's work, this guy is only lightly tattooed . . . 

some of it is, however, in a rather delicate location.