Gōjin Ishihara is a Showa-period Japanese artist who did ghastly illustrations of yokai in Illustrated Book of Japanese Monsters (1972) with a mastery of Indian ink for comic-esque vibrancy in absolutely mesmerizing scenes of chaos. Additionally, the artist offered his talent within many other educational books on monsters, and later produced weird fiction with strong eroticism incorporating strange icons from the likes of Charles Manson to Aleister Crowley.
Appropriate for his intricately dazzling style captivating attention easily, he would regularly complete the flamboyant covers of pulp magazine such as Kasutori Zasshi and even provided realistic illustrations in the magazine Shūkan Sankei of Yagyū Jūbē, with occasionally controversial scenes, as a romanticized samurai of Japan’s history. Furthermore, he completed cover art for novels such as those of horror author Edogawa Ranpō However this proved controversial as he work was known contain spoilers within his elaborate artwork.
Ishihara formed an outlandish legacy of surreal juxtaposes of figures with eroticism, vivid violence meshed with folklore, in addition to contributing extensively to gay magazines with the alias of ‘Hayashi Gekkō’ in magazines such as QJ and Sekimatsu Club.
Undoubtedly, Ishihra was an exciting figure with a varied, colorful legacy, albeit controversial to a degree. With so much more to discover, the reader would be served to check out the plethora of his work on their own, but you can check out a slideshow below for a small sample.
More Manga Reviews:
Helter Skelter Manga Review -“No Matter How Pretty the Bunny, It’s Just a Lump of Meat Once it’s Skinned”
Helter Skelter: Fashion Unfriendly by Kyoko Okazaki defaults to a simplistic style similar to older, nostalgic manga. Yet the style still works for high-impact, fashion-heavy scenes where it effectively conveys…
Manga Review: My Dearest Self With Malice Aforethought Vol. 1 – A Deliciously Dark Psychological Head Trip
This past year, I have come to grow a deep appreciation of digitally distributed manga. Certainly the appeal of owning a physical book will never be beat, but the digital…
HoloX Meeting! Vol.1 Manga Review – V-Tuber Supremacy
HoloX Meeting! is a two-volume comedy manga series, written by Omcurry G. K. and illustrated by Anmitsu Okada. The manga is based on COVER Corp.’s 6th generation of V-tuber talent…
Man Eater Manga Review – Yosuke Takahasi’s Deadly Obsessions
Always on the prowl for new horror manga to check out, you sometimes have to browse off the beaten path. Randomly looking into titles lead me to Man Eater by…
Honey Room’s Obscenity Trial and the Horrors of Scapegoating
Every anime-inclined teen’s worst nightmare is to have their parents find their secret stash. Imagine that not only your parent finds some rather questionable content, but decides to write to…
Siren Rebirth Manga Review – Volume 3 & 4
Siren, or Forbidden Siren in PAL areas, is a horror video game series in a Japanese style, created by Keiichiro Toyama (also known for the games Silent Hill 1 and…