Hentai History

Shunga, a Japanese form of erotic art, is the earliest known form of erotic art. Its appearance is dated between 704 AD - 1185 AD, the Heian period.

The earliest form of Hentai known in Japan dates back to the 16th Century, where it was highly suppressed.

During the Edo Period (between 1603-1868), the popularity of Shunga increased, as collecting erotic images became a common practice.

All forms of erotic literature were seized in 1842; a law was drafted stating that any person who distributes or possesses a profanity alluding document, drawing or object would be punished by imprisonment with work.

During the Meiji Era (between 1868-1912), many Western cultural practices and values were brought to Japan, forcing the ongoing cultural practices to be publicly scrutinized as a result of the West’s prudish ideologies; this lead to the development of strict obscenity laws, given the taboo nature and stigmatization of all sexual practices.

Upon Japan’s surrender during the Pacific War (which lasted from 1941-1945), pornographic publications finally had more freedom, with a few restrictions.

The original standard manga artwork, depicted by realistic characters, was influenced by pornographic images of the 19th and 20th centuries. Despite the existing adult imagery in manga since the 1940s, the modern look of manga was defined by Osamu Tezuka, otherwise known as the “God of Manga” — with his works such as Astroboy (1952), Lost World (1848), Metropolis (2001).

The Hentai industry was defined in 1979 through the works of Azuma Hideo’s Cybelle, as it shifted the style of Japanese pornographic comics from realistic to cartoon-like characters..

With the Technological Boom of the 1980s, the popularity of the pornographic industry heightened, due to the sudden and rapid popularity of arcade games, consoles and personal computers. This lead to the development of erotic games, otherwise known as Eroge.

In 1986, the creation of tentacle porn was developed by Toshio Maeda, known as “the God of Tentacle Hentai”, as a means to get past the censorship laws that were still in place, through erotic imagery of monsters and tentacles. Censorship laws were in place for over 100 year, as many things were outlawed up until the 1990s.

The earliest known use of the english word “Hentai” was written in 1990, in a post on an anime forum.

As of today, Hentai is a fast-growing genre that’s leading the frontier of modern entertainment, as its popularity continues to increase.

Its fan base includes a wide and diverse audience, that demands better and broader selections in order to cater to these unique and outrageous fetishes.

Did you know that some of the mainstream mangakas started their career in hentai? Shirow Masamune (Ghost in the Shell) and Shouji Sato (High School of the Dead) are two amongst many others!