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 Eros In Hell.
8.5 X 8.5 inches, 128 pages, 250 full-colour illustrations