Nureki Chimuo Archive

Translation from the event page for the Sex Industry Museum’s showing of Shizuhiro Usui’s paintings The event was a huge success. The venue was pacted to capacity, with so many people in attendance that we were at the very limit of our capacity, even having some guests standing. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to those who had to stand during the performance. Thank you to everyone who attended. Shizuhiro Usui: A Slideshow of Forbidden Art ~A one-night-only nightmare banquet where the darkness of the Showa era is resurrected. You must never speak of this night to anyone else.~ Date: Thursday, September 1, 2011 Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Doors open at 6.45 PM) Admission: 500 yen (limited capacity) Venue: Museum of Adult Entertainment As this is a small library, seating is limited. If capacity is exceeded, standing room only will be available. Thank you for your understanding.

Twenty years ago, Shizuhiro Usui’s slideshow was held just once at the Sex Industry Museum, a

secret gathering exclusively for members. To commemorate the release of “The Secret Scroll of Cruelty: Shizhuhiro Usui, Takashi Shima, Kazunori Kanze, Selected Works from the Sex Industry Museum's Hidden Collection Vol. 2,” published by Atelier Third, we are reviving this event for one night only this summer. Over 160 secret images not included in the art book will be projected onto the screen using a nostalgic magic lantern. After the slide show, you will also have the opportunity to view the powerful original hand-painted artwork. Scheduled Screening (from Shizuhiro Usui’s Original Sketches) Three works: “The Woman’s Auction Market,” “The Cruel Scenes of Torture,” and “The Tragic Scroll of the Diva.” This is not a digital screening. On the day of the event, we will manually project the original film frames one by one using the magic lantern. Please enjoy the original artwork emerging from the darkness accompanied by the nostalgic sound of “click, click.” The Sex Industry Museum is normally a members-only library, but the general public is welcome to attend this lantern slide show. Please note, however, that you will not be able to view the library’s collection other than the original artwork on display. From “Mania Club” (Sanwa Publishing, Issue No. 273, September 2011, Vol. 26) From the Sex Industry Museum Newsletter The World of Shizuhiro Usui’s Cruel Pictures and the Magic Lantern Shows Text by Nakahara Rutsu (Director, Sex Industry Museum) Do you recall the illustrations by the artist Shizuhiro Usui that were published in “Mania Club” a while back? These unique, cruel picture stories, based on very old works created from shortly after the war through the 1950s and brought back to life in the present through a timeless collaboration with Hiromi Oka, were something I personally looked forward to in every issue. Those paintings were, in fact, a secret collection commissioned by a single connoisseur who entrusted his desires and fantasies to the painter Shizuhiro Usui, asking him to create them exclusively for his own enjoyment. The collection is vast, comprising over a hundred scrapbooks, each containing about fifty pieces. These were not works created for publication, nor were they intended for public release. They were an extremely private collection meant solely for the secret enjoyment of the two of them. Miraculously escaping dispersal, they

remained hidden away for a long time, kept exclusively within the walls of the Sex Industry Museum. While Shizuhiro Usui’s body of work includes single illustrations, most of it consists of serialized stories reminiscent of kamishibai. Female prisoners in dire circumstances, the traps of ruthless criminal organizations, kidnapping, confinement, human trafficking… each is a terrifyingly cruel tale that mercilessly torments women. The bondage is filled with humiliation, and the faces contorted by pain show not a trace of ecstasy. The torture inflicted on the face is particularly relentless. Chemical burns, noses being sliced off, eyeballs being gouged out, acts of cruelty beyond imagination. Casts and bandages that can only be described as torture devices, the humiliating shaving of heads, and bizarre forms of forced labor. The amputation of limbs and vigilante punishments that sometimes lead to death are carried out with utter nonchalance. In an era when read-made SM gear didn’t exist, the array of restraints, all drawn from pure imagination and fantasy, is truly breathtaking. The tools, meticulously devised solely to torment women effectively, are ingenious and sometimes even evoke a sense of humor. Perhaps it’s the uncompromising joy of weaving a single narrative world. Every work leaves you breathless with its dizzying, relentless pace. Filled with bitter resentment, the women repeatedly seek opportunities to escape or exact revenge. Yet with each capture, the gears of fate grind further out of alignment, their faint glimmers of hope are trampled underfoot. Trembling with the terror of being cornered and bound hand and foot by inescapable misfortune, the stories hurtle headlong toward a hopeless conclusion. What is depicted here is, of course, not SM play. Neither the image of “SM practiced consensually with pleasure as the premise” nor any context linking it to positive human relationships, such as love or trust, exists in this fictional world. What lies there is a raw, cruel fantasy that has likely been stirring deep within the heart since a time when one couldn’t even distinguish whether it was a sexual shock or something else. It was an era where dark desires could not be spoken of even more than they are now. What thoughts must have filled the minds of these two as they miraculously met and shared their dreams? They must have stoked each other’s desires and fantasies, immersing themselves in this secret creative endeavor. I envy their fervent obsession, their pure passion, as they continued to express their fantasies and delusions with such directness, and the happiness of their relationship. How meticulously, how lovingly, every corner of this work is rendered. Though its content is incompatible with the romantic with the romantic love ideology that pervades the world, I feel compelled to call this sentiment love as well. I believe the utterly ruthless pictorial scroll left behind by Shizuhiro Usui is a romantic work brimming with dreams and a longing so poignant it aches. This summer, the Sex Industry Museum will host the “Shizuhiro Usui Magic Lantern Show” for the first time in twenty years. A one-night-only, nightmarish feast emerging from the darkness. Fans captivated by Shizuhiro Usui’s poison, please do come and join us.