Part 4 – The Artistry
of Tagame
In
this final part of my review of Tagame's work I want to pick out some
pictures by him that I particularly like.
Tagame - Student Ohashi from 'Pride', Vol 1
'Pride' contains some of Tagame's best drawing and story-telling and
this image depicts Ohashi, the handsome but selfish college student
who is destined to fall under the control of one of his Professors.
In this drawing, Tagame beautifully captures the young man's youthful
arrogance and charisma – and his vulnerability too.
Tagame - Ohashi Performs in a Telephone Box (from Pride, Vol 1)
This
is one of the highlights of Ohashi's early 'apprenticeship'. His dick
has been locked in a chastity cage for weeks and is going crazy with
sexual frustration. In order to obtain the combination that will
release his dick, he has to go to public telephone box and do what
the Professor tells him over the phone – which is to strip naked
and use a dildo on himself. I've never quite understood Japanese
artists' obsession with dildos and vibrators, it seems to be one of
those cultural things, but I do love the phone handset cradled under
the student's chin in this picture, it's an authentic little detail
that completely explains what is going on – even to someone who has
never known the old-style phone boxes.
Tagame
produces a gloriously muscular and hairy physique for the young man
although it isn't quite what you'd expect of a student. In this
picture he has finally been given the information to remove the cage
and you get real sense of his pent-up passion. In a significant act
of submission, he continues to obey the Professor's commands after
release. Unfortunately his mentor has alerted a policeman to
'discover' his indecent performance and arrest him.
.
Tagame - Ohashi Spanked in Pride Vol 3
Spanking
is not common in Tagame's stories and where it does occur, the scenes
are often fleeting and depicted as close-up details of buttocks with
impact symbols*. This is the only 'full view' example I have found.
Tagame seems to use spanking a man as a short, sharp, painful
punishment, rather than a way of humiliating him like a child. It's
surprising considering how much he uses humiliation techniques, I
don't know whether the reason is cultural or personal taste. Whatever
the case, this good, old fashioned OTK spanking, is a good picture
and once again it's from 'Pride'. It fits neatly into this story of a
Student drawn into an increasingly dependant relationship with the
Professor who becomes his S&M mentor.
Essentially
the 'Pride' story is a variation on the universal theme of
'self-loathing becomes self-discovery' which is an indispensable,
justifying ingredient in S&M porn of course. To coin a phrase,
“You like that don't you?” (no response required, so don't worry
about the gag). However, that's not to mock Tagame's working of the
theme which is masterly. What makes 'Pride' so fascinating is the
extended 'grooming' of the student through an inventive series of
increasingly humiliating and painful tests and trials. The Professor
exploits the student's attraction to him and uses manipulative,
psychological techniques to keep him coming back for more. I'm not
sure it's very scientific – or very nice, but it's an arresting
read.
*Incidentally, gags seem to be totally absent!
Tagame - The Lovers Kiss in 'Sensei '
This
invocation of love from 'Sensei' is challenging taboos in a quite
different area. There's a pleasing Yin-Yang flavour about the
coupling and the contrasting characterisation of the two lovers.
Despite their nudity, it's pretty non-explicit which allows the
romantic attraction to surface and it is no less erotic for that. The
swirling background patterning conveys the dreamy intensity of it all, an
effect which is amplified by the lack of body boundary lines on the
left as though emotions and body are one. This could easily be an
unintended by-product of editing in the background, but it's a
fortuitous one. Very nice.
Tagame - Funayama Handcuffed (from 'The Trophy')
Back
to business with a scene from 'The Trophy' where Officer Funayama
(fresh from a whipping) is being readied for the electro-torture
which I showed in Part 2. I have spoken of my preference for
uncomplicated bondage before and this certainly meets that
specification. It's actually quite hard to depict handcuffs
realistically in drawings because they are not bulky objects and the
real thing is quite unobtrusive when it's being worn, but this
rendering works well. The sound-effects don't get in the way too much
and are quite helpful in interpreting the captive's otherwise
ambiguous expression. The discontinuous background pattern suggests
his intense emotion and agitation. As in the previous picture,
Tagame's use of this technique adds powerful layers of meaning to his
imagery and shines through when the images are detached from their
natural comic book habitat.
Tagame - Ginjiro's Itching (from 'Shirogane no
Hana' Vol 2)
I
have devoted a substantial part of this review to 'Pride' but I also
should mention 'Shirogane no
Hana' (The Silver Flower) which is considered by many to be
Tagame's masterpiece. It's another 3-Volume work and I have never
seen a full translation, but it
concerns Ginjiro, a professional man sold into prostitution to pay his debts. In
this scene his ass has been lubricated with a potion containing
irritants and the only way he can scratch it is to use the dildo
attached to his heel. This fiendish torment greatly intrigued me when
I first came across it, not least for the way it manipulates a proud,
virile man and the embarrassing contortions the trick forces him to
perform. I believe there is a classic female illustration involving
the same device, by using it Tagame is accentuating the man's
humiliation.
Tagame - Ginjiro Recaptured (from 'Shirogane no
Hana' Vol 2)
The
enslaved man manages to escape and is sheltered by his fiancée, but he is
betrayed, recaptured and returned to his master, who in this scene
ponders how to punish him. No prizes for guessing what the cigarette
is for, but that's just the start! The wealthy, cultured, degenerate
villain is something of a cliché but his casual power over the
virile Ginjiro is still delicious.
There is something about suspension
of a captive, like meat on a rack, that adds an extra dimension of
threat and vulnerability and his futile struggling betrays his fear
after a brief taste of freedom and normality. Tagame has taken the
trouble to get the captive's marvellous, chunky physique looking
right and you can almost feel his body straining against the tight,
creaking ropes. The uncomplicated composition mitigates the confusion
introduced by upside-down imagery.
Tagame - Ginjiro Hard at Work (from 'Shirogane no
Hana' Vol 2)
The
brothel master's clothing in the previous picture reflects the
historical setting used for the story. Tagame also references
traditional Japanese customs and social graces in it and at one point
dresses the reluctant prostitute as a Geisha.
This is a double-edged
humiliation that not only questions his masculinity (it's not so long
ago that dressing as a woman was equally despised in the West) – it
also mocks his inadequate, male coarseness compared to famously
cultured and refined Geisha women. It spells out the lowly position
he now occupies, inferior to both men and women and this image shows
him hard at work in that role.
(another dildo, somewhat
ambiguous in character)
Also in evidence here is the lesser known
custom of tattooing genitals. It has been carried out on Ginjiro as
another (permanent this time) feminising humiliation. Indeed the
tattoo, chosen at random by him - a flower attracting butterflies -
is both feminine and subtly erotic . The flower (symbolically a
source of pollen) is tattooed on the head of his penis and it is from
this that the name of the story derives.
Tagame - Sterilising the Tattoo (from 'Shirogane no
Hana' Vol 2)
The
selection of the tattoo and it's application forms an extended
passage in the 'Shirogana' story and is very erotic. Ginjiro
does not realise fully what is happening until he is tied down
completely helpless and had his penis and balls tightly bound up, so
that they stay plump and firm for the painting on of the design and
the actual needle work. Being Tagame, it's not enough to simply dress
the tattoo wound afterwards, instead it is sterilised in a steaming
bath via a spectacular - and very painful – crab style suspension
(above).
Tagame - Ginjiro Fitted with Bells (from 'Shirogane no
Hana' Vol 3)
This
image takes the feminising embellishment a step further as Ginjiro discovers he has now been fitted with little bells which
tinkle as he moves. I'm unsure of the cultural background to this but
the humiliation of being subjected to such attachments is
self-evident. In the West bells like this relate to childhood,
merriment and clowning. Tagame uses penis bells in other stories to
betray the involuntary arousal of the victims as they are being
abused and to draw attention to them in public places. This scene is
low key by comparison, but a sweet example of the casual exercise of
control, calculated to degrade and dismay the victim.
Tagame - Medical Restraint and Operation
I
have a weakness for Medical scenarios. The Doctor-Patient power
relationship and the S&M-like procedures involved in surgery give
great scope for bondage fantasy (and I explored this in my own 'S&M
Clinic' story). I have no idea what story if any this image comes
from and the procedure it depicts looks decidedly fanciful, but the
terror of the strapped-down patient in the face of multiple invasion
by faceless attendants is compelling. Compare with Rex's slightly more authentic treatment of the subject.
(Also click on the 'medical' label below for more medical bondage)
Tagame - Undergoing Treatment (from Kranke)
It
seems fitting to conclude this ramble through Tagame's work with a
blockbuster moment, also on a medical theme, from 'Kranke'. This
story has none of the subtlety of Pride or the humanity of 'SIPOW'.
Simply, a young jogger is abducted following a faked road accident
and deliberately incapacitated by surgery while he is unconscious. He
is then subjected to a series of drugs and pseudo-medical procedures
designed to reduce him to a mindless puppet, capable only of sex.
Tagame
crams in every imaginable pseudo-medical, body-invasive torture along
the way (perhaps a little too many to really take in properly). The
spectacular climax for the 'patient' (above) is a 10 hour ordeal
alone with the painful body attachments and machines which
continuously medicate, arouse and drain him. His torment does not end
there, three months later even his teeth have been removed and he is
facing the amputation of all his limbs. The villain's motivation in
all this is a mystery, but he does not simply carry out his fiendish
plan, he takes the trouble to explain it to the victim, who it seems
has been chosen entirely at random, in fact he looks the picture of
bemused innocence.
This
bleak storyline is not unique in Tagame's output, none of them make
for easy reading and yet they have a elemental fascination that is
both puzzling and disturbing. The wreaking of terrible revenge for
great injustice suffered is not unknown in Japanese art, (the film
'Confessions' is a recent example) and the custom of Hara-Kiri
has similar roots in cultural norms relating to offence, shame and
honour. So while it's tempting to equate these stories to Hollywood
Horror films involving the random, mass slaughter of teenagers
(films, by the way, whose obvious, sexual sub-text is apparently
invisible to the porn censorship lobby), it's probably reasonable to
assume that a Japanese reader of Tagame's story will infer the
existence of a significant (if unexplained) motivation.
I see
in this piece a revenge which springs from a deep anger at a terrible
injustice. Many of us will empathise with that to some degree. If the
revenge here mirrors the original offence, we see a young, undeserving
victim, the paralysis of his free will, an unidentified but heartless
oppressor, randomly inflicted pain, control of sexuality, gradual
destruction of identity. I leave it to you to imagine the injustice I
have in mind, perhaps each of us would choose a different one, maybe
that is the beauty and point of the piece.
The
size of this article is testament to my regard for this artist but I
have hardly scratched the surface of Tagame's work. I'm not totally
familiar with his recent stuff so there may be some significant
omissions. Even so there are many more amazing images that are just
too subversive to share in this blog. His inventive and thoughtful
approach to S&M is probably unparalleled today so it is a real
shame that there are so many obstacles to enjoying his work.
His
choice of character types is wide, from very young to very mature,
but he really seems to come into his own when drawing chunky,
muscular, hairy, 30-ish men with luxuriant moustaches and eyebrows –
not everyone's cup of tea perhaps and a tad out of fashion right now.
Tagame's
uncompromising challenging of taboos will probably test most of us
too at some point. I can only say that any fetish art enthusiast owes
it to himself to explore Tagame's work and dig into the stories
beyond the isolated images like those in this article. Don't be put
off by the stuff you don't like, just pass it by, you won't be
disappointed.
See
more of his work at Tagame's
website
Some
his stories are available, in English, in book form at sites like
Amazon.
This
is the natural way to enjoy his work and it's not terribly expensive.
For
previous articles in this 'mitchmen' series click on the A-Z label
below
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