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| Hasegawa - Dragon Castle |
Like many Japanese artists, Hasegawa had a great interest in tattooing and this beautiful picture expresses that very well. I confess I do not really share the attraction, but the body enhancing capabilities are well-illustrated on this beautiful boy that he has created.
The title (I think) refers to the tattoo design and is written on the picture in Malay - 'Puri Naga'.
Apart from those words you can also see other design influences and iconography that are not Japanese but drawn from across South East Asia. The model in this picture also seems to originate from that area. Hasegawa spent some years travelling in this part of the world, avoiding fame and no doubt widening his knowledge of spirituality and animalistic legends, which so often appear in his pictures.
The style of the image combined with the boy's ecstatic pose and tattoos make this seem like a ritualistic, almost religious image, a gay icon.
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| Hasegawa - Paradise Visions 10 |
One expects Japanese erotic artists to depict captives in complex 'shibari' bondage. In this example by Hasegawa a fleshy young man is suspended from a scaffold-like structure in a particularly complex arrangement that accentuates his buttocks and creates a pose reminiscent of the flying cherubs that adorn the borders of renaissance religious paintings. It's an uncomfortable position in reality and Hasegawa would have been well aware that the ancestor of what we call shibari today was a technique for restraining prisoners of war with the intention of causing 'discomfort'.
Sadao sends a legendary creature to taunt and play with the helplessly bound young man. I believe this is
Kappa, a cross between frog, monkey and turtle who, like the cats in Part 1, is capable of mischief and worse (with one particularly
nasty practise, described here). In this picture he is offering the captive a drink of red liquid and the painting is spattered with spots of blue from the erotically-shaped flask at the bottom suggesting 'substances' may be involved in this fantasy. The sketched diagram to the frog's right seems to show a intention to climb the post to torment the hanging captive.
This image couples the artists interest in erotic bondage with suggestions of punishment and danger portrayed in a specifically culturally Japanese way as though he is hinting at the conservative disapproval of society for such practices.
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| Hasegawa - Ground Spider |
Unspoken threats presented by various creatures in Hasegawa's work are made good in this picture.
It shows a man with his face in traditional theatre make up. He is the captive of two, larger than life, ground spiders. A storm is raging with a lightning flash visible in the background and candles guttering in the wind in the foreground. This picture echoes the plot of a famous
Kabuki play where the ground spider turns on his hunters, but the final action there is nothing like this!
The hero is armed but it looks like he's been paralysed by the spider's venom so was unable to use it. Somewhere along the way he's lost all his clothes and now he's being restrained and supported by the red spider (including one leg groping between his thighs) while the other one wraps him in silk thread (exuded from its spinneret bottom right). Presumably the victim is being wrapped for future consumption, but it's paying particular attention to his cock for some reason.
Beyond the theatrical fantasy we see here a fascination with death and exotic forms of sexuality (including bondage) whose attraction seems to hinge on the fear of the unknown and of falling under the power of others.
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| Hasegawa - Lion Dance |
Hasegawa also uses more naturalistic 'Kabuki' scenarios to create complex carnivals of eroticism in which realistic figures dressed in the masks and impedimenta of traditional theatre create a dreamlike atmosphere. The lengths of cloth that entwine the action are the discarded fundoshi
of the participants, one of them is tied round the neck of the central
figure like a sexual trophy (see also comments to this post). To Western eyes it seems to have an element of threat, due to the intruding Samurai sword and the extensive use of masks and body colouring. This work is unmistakeably Japanese, not just the faces and accessories but the culture, plays and legends it invokes to create a mysterious but exciting atmosphere. The presence of the lion is a reflection of the harmonic, respectful relationship which Oriental peoples have with animals which we in the West tend to relegate to childhood entertainment like Bambi and the Lion King.
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| Hasegawa - Elephant Dreams |
The sun ray effect here, like the example in part one, suggests god-like
qualities in gay men and enlightenment for the dreamer with the ancient, wise
elephant spirits providing affirmation and approval. Some of Hasegawa's work is self-consciously 'arty'where he has attempted to modernise and adapt traditional forms to a gay palette, but there is plenty of meat in amongst it for aficionados of the male form and it's not always submerged in busy fantasy. Hasegawa draws the most handsome and desirable of men and generally without compromising ethnic origins. In style, his work has a semi-photographic appearance like Tom of Finland's work but there is a grainy texture in the shading which creates a most satisfying effect somewhat like pointillism.
His technique in depicting hair and stubble is striking. This interest in subtle body hair sets him apart from Tom, his anatomy is more realistic and his models have a lithe muscularity and youth which is delicate and enchanting.
His portraits of lovers can be stunning, creating a vision of tenderness and love that is unforgettable. In the example above a lover protectively embraces his tearful partner. In this context, the abundance of flowers, sprinkles of glitter and bubbles seem to be legitimate and meaningful elaborations,
emulating the joyful exuberance of South Asian weddings.
Of course you might reflect on what has caused the tears and why is the lover looking at us?
Is the yin-yang symbol (made of fishes) telling us of contradictions in this relationship?
Or is the look an expression of defiance for those who would make gay men sad?
In Hasegawa's world, however, even the most tender lovers (right) are haunted by ties and binding. It's as though the artist regards Bondage as akin to Commitment. This does not have to be a negative sentiment. After all, to an aficionado, bondage is a temporary restraint intended to focus and intensify the relationship between the two participants in a way that is mutually pleasurable.
Commitment can be the same.
Even the hunkiest of men can fall prey to the twining ropes. But in this image there's a disturbing hint of coercion by unseen forces. This fantasy seems to depict a yearning to restrict and control which is quite different to the submission depicted in the previous picture. The bleak setting is devoid of romantic flowers or mythological allusion.
It seems to represent a dark, soulless, lonely, sexual existence, a casting out that is chilling.
Submission is voluntary here and this image seems reminiscent of the youthful experimentation we saw in Part One. The face of the supplicant ,sucking on a lover's thumb like a baby, is beautifully drawn with an expression that seems to want to please. The traditional flower symbols unmistakeably convey the sexual excitement of both participants. The prominent geometrical patterns seem to speak of high nervous energy or perhaps the noisy confusion of a gay meeting place or watering hole.
Speaking of which! The contrast with this work could not be greater. There is no romance, no distracting symbolism, except perhaps the banana stripped back to expose the raw fruit within. Raw being the right word for this sex which is of the earthiest kind. And yet it's a sexual encounter without true intimacy, involving artificial penetration by dildo and the touch of a bodily fluid that is warm but separated from it's distant producer. There's a sort of honesty in this image, as though the artist is acknowledging his true self in some way, presenting it without artifice or artistic mediation.
The loneliness that haunts other images is no more.
The words on this image are in Indonesian and read from top to bottom:-
lust-passion-magic-love-fuck
In Hasegawa's work there is so often a subtle sense of isolation, loneliness and confusion and this picture seems to draw that out.
Cat's cradle is a game for two and it seems to illustrate here the mystery of partnerships, sex and love. The game goes un-played while a hairy man shaves his body, preoccupied with himself.
In summary, I can only register my profound admiration for Hasegawa's sometimes perplexing art. His depictions of men in fetishistic situations seem to me quite beautiful and the complexity and sometimes the serenity of the world he depicts strike me as showing an essence of what it is to be gay.
~
Sadao Hasegawa briefly enjoyed fame as an erotic artist after publishing 2 books of his works in 1990 and 1996. He did not revel in celebrity and sadly took his own life in 1999 at the age of 54.
His images seem to offer subtle but ultimately undecipherable clues to his feelings
His legacy however continues to thrill and inspire.
He published two collections in book form - 'Sadao Hasegawa (paintings and drawings)'
and 'Paradise Visions' They are the principal source of his work for us.
I can't find an official on-line gallery for him but there's a good collection at
LustSpiel and an image search throws up lots of examples
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This article originally published in June 2009
was comprehensively revised and extended in May 2019
Read Part 1 here
For other articles in the A-Z series click on the A-Z label below
or visit my
artists index.
