In this paperback, The Age of Hentai, KANNO Satomi describes a conceptual history of hentai (変態)。Hentai literally means transformation or deviation.

In the Meiji period, abnormal psychology was imported from Europe and the phrase hentai shinri (abnormal mind) came to be widely known.  This category included a variety of topics such as psychological disorders, characters of criminals and geniuses, visions, and hysteria.  In that time, the word hentai had not yet been exclusively associated with the sexual matters.

In the history of hentai, the translation of Richard Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopatia Sexualis was epoch-making.  The best-seller book, which was published in 1913 under the title Hentai Seiyoku, or deviated sexual drives,  made the word hentai stimulating and fashionable in initially academic and then more popular discourses of sexuality.  As Kanno emphasizes, the category hentai seiyoku in that age implied not only phenomena like sadism, masochism, or fetishism, but also homosexuality, masturbation, or impotence.

Its application to reports of curious sexual crimes in mass media also added a sensational connotation to the word hentai more and more.  As a result, publication relating hentai was subject to censorship by the government as more militaristic the Japanese society became. Instead of hentai, the expression ero guro, came from the abbreviation of “erotic and grotesque,” became a buzz term around 1930.

Unfortunately, the book hardly treats the post war period.  As far as I recall, in the 1980’s hentai was frequently used in chatty communication to degrade kiddingly or hatefully someone who showed any distinct behavior especially regarding sexual preference.   It was sometimes spelled in katakana, in order to divert out-of-dated taste of the term to novel and pop impression.

In the modern history, hentai has been used in different contexts and it seems to reflect social openness for diversity at the time.  Of course, the word is popular even now, as the comic work of hentai kamen, which I never recommend you to google it!

TEXT:  菅野聡美『〈変態〉の時代』講談社現代新書、2005年．

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