While we’re on the subject of pornography, Brigid found a story from Mongrel Magazine (Note: Link is NOT SAFE FOR WORK, or for the kids, for that matter) that delves in to the history of tentacle porn:

There seem to be two main theories about how tentacle porn got started. One is that it originated with the early-nineteenth-century Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, a painter and wood engraver noted for his dramatic landscapes and also something of a perv. The idea of erotic woodcuts might seem an odd one, but apparently in nineteenth-century Japan they were massive. Hokusai engraved numerous shunga, or erotic prints, and his 1820 collection Kinoe no Komatsu (Young Pine Shoots) featured this gem, ‘The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife’ in which a giant octopus generously pleasures a young pearl diver. So. The Japanese interest in young women being caressed and penetrated by the suckered appendages of sea creatures – and apparently it’s an interest keen enough to qualify almost as mainstream, in porn terms – may have begun with the fevered imaginings of a lonely wood engraver.

Aren’t you glad you know that now?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 9:52 am and is filed under Manga, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.