Rêve Ecarlate by Toshio Saeki

Rêve Ecarlate is the first volume in a chronological, curated anthology of Toshio Saeki’s work—a world premiere for an artist who, while widely revered, has been rarely published. Made from the artist’s original drawings and distributed in Japan, the book features colorization developed in close collaboration with Saeki himself, preserving the vibrant, pop-inspired palette of his original vision.

A living legend and underground icon in Japan, Toshio Saeki is the originator of a singular style in a genre he radically transformed: ero-guro, short for "erotic grotesque." Rooted in the traditions of classical Japanese illustration, this genre has produced countless prints over the centuries. But Saeki redefined it by blending traditional motifs with the anxieties of his generation—one shaped by the hopes and disillusionment of the 1970s.

In his work, the violence, chaos, and contradictions of modern life bleed into timeless scenes, giving rise to unprecedented monsters and surreal fantasies. Confronted by Japan’s strict censorship laws—where depictions of genitalia are prohibited—Saeki turned restriction into innovation, pushing one of humanity’s oldest themes—sex—into the absurd and dreamlike.

His instantly recognizable style, often compared by European audiences to the ligne claire of Hergé or the work of Joost Swarte, feels equally uncanny to both Japanese and Western viewers. Each finds in Saeki’s deceptively clean lines a new and unfamiliar kind of exoticism. This unique resonance can only be explained by the sheer originality of a body of work that seems to spring directly from the mind of an artist drawing what he sees when he closes his eyes.

PLEASE NOTE: this illustration book has a preface translated into three languages (French, English and Japanese)

• Published by Cornelius
• 192 Pages
• Hardcover
  
• 10" × 7" × 1" in
  
• Language: French