Toshio Saeki - Unnen

Toshio Saeki
Unnen

Published by Innen, 2019
Book size 13 x 19 cm
Pages 28
Soft cover
Staple binding
Offset printing, black and white
First edition

Toshio Saeki's black-and-white illustrations exploit subjects and themes from historical Japanese folklore—horned demons, elderly succubi, visitors from the spirit world—as well as the artist's unconscious desires and fears in this zine of horror erotica. Saeki's female characters are erotic subjects seduced by relentless and increasingly bizarre malevolent forces—subversive sexual images that most Western viewers have come to associate with a subterranean Japan through prints like "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife." Scenes reminiscent of postwar film noir and horror, such as Kuroneko (1968) or Onibaba (1964), evoke night terrors in isolated dwellings where the supernatural and the sexual converge.