Go Mishima (1921- 1989)

Courtesy  Tom Finland Foundation While he is considered a genius of homoerotic art, very little is known about Go (or Goh) Mishima.  He first gained attention when his work appeared in Huzoku-Kitan, a magazine featuring both gay and straight erotic art, in the mid 1960s.   Influenced by another popular erotic artist of the time, Toshimi Oda, as well as the linear style of Ukiyo-e and other traditional Japanese art forms, Go Mishima became well known for his depictions of masculine Japanese men who sported close-cropped hair, muscular tanned bodies, facial and body hair, and wore the rokusyaku-fundoshi, a traditional form of underwear.  Like the outlaws popular in Japanese literature and cinema, his subjects usually sported elaborate tattoos.  In essence, Mishima presented in art form the image of what could be considered the Japanese version of rough trade.  Bondage and torture were also occasional subjects in his work. Mishima's work later appeared in Bara, and he was the first artist featured in Barazoku, Japan's first commercial gay magazine, in 1971.  In 1972, the magazine offered limited edition prints of Mishima's work to its subscribers, which were snapped up immediately.  Over the next eighteen years, Mishima's works graced the covers of Barazoku and its companion magazine, Sabu. Eccentric and reclusive, Mishima was especially fond of saki, and this indulgence proved to be his undoing.  Suffering from cirrhosis of the liver, he was admitted to Kitashinagawa Hospital in Tokyo in 1989, where he died on 5 January.  Following Mishima's wishes, his body was donated to medical research, and there was no funeral. Go Mishima continues to command a following among fans of homoerotic art in Japan, and a following for his work has also begun to develop outside Japan, especially in Australia and North America.  Among current artists he has influenced are Gengoroh Tagame and Sadao Hasegawa. Links: The Barazoku Collection Goh Mishima Gallery History of Gay Japanese Erotic Art - Go Mishima (in Japanese and English) Tom of Finland Foundation - Sadao Hasegawa & Go Mishima KeywordTitleAuthor