Japanese art has always been a huge inspiration in my work, ever since my father first showed me a giant book on Hokusai when I was just a wee little runt. I remember it quite clearly – I was immediately awestruck by the way the Edo artist would pare down the elements to their simplest forms, mastering the use of negative space in the composition and leaving out any unimportant detail so you could use your imagination to fill in the blanks. I’d never seen anything so simple be so effective. Since then I have always kept an eye out on Japanese artists old and new.

I recently came across the work of the painter and illustrator Toshio Saeki. Now 66, Saeki’s work is quintessentially Japanese, yet he fuses together many periods to create his own body of work. On the surface, the main themes seem to be obsessively rooted in sexuality and violence, however upon further inspection one begins to notice monsters drawn from early Japanese mythology, depictions of traditional Japanese dress and housing (futons, sliding paper doors), the exaggerated hypersexuality of the Shunga period, along with elements taken from modern Hentai and Anime.

Toshio prints many of his works in a traditional printing technique known as chinto offset, which gives each print a unique graininess. After being questioned by an interviewer as to why he always paints and draws images filled with sex and death, Saeki responded:

“Hmm, why do I? “I’ve never really thought about it. I guess I’m just mischievous and like to surprise people. I don’t really do art for self-expression…I see it as a form of entertainment. It can’t be boring; it must be entertaining. The more I produce the work, the more I want to top myself each time, to shock people even more. I’m not a violent person myself. I don’t engage in the morbid acts I depict.”

 

To view more of Saeki’s work, visit here