Sanshi Funayama (c. 1920s – c. 1999) was a Japanese homoerotic fetish artist. Funayama, along with
Goh Mishima,
Tatsuji Okawa, and Go Hirano, is regarded by artist and historian
Gengoroh Tagame as a central figure in the first wave of contemporary gay artists in Japan.[1]
Funayama's artwork first appeared in the early 1960s in Fuzokukitan, a fetish magazine that published gay content alongside straight and lesbian content. He later contributed to Bara, a private circulation gay magazine, and Barazoku, the first commercially published gay magazine in Japan.[1] From the 1970s until the late 1990s, Funayama disappeared from public life, and did not publish or circulate art for over three decades.[2] In 1999, he resurfaced to submit two illustrations to the magazine G-men, with a promise to submit additional works. No further works were submitted by Funayama which, combined with his presumed advanced age, led his contemporaries to assume he had died.[3] Little is known about Funayama's private life. Married with a daughter,[3] Funayama worked as a police officer; he drew while on night shift, and kept his illustrations in his work locker.[2] He was an acquaintance of the writer Yukio Mishima, who would visit Funayama while in Kansai.[2]
Funayama is noted for his depictions of "macho-type" men, often in extreme scenarios involving BDSM, torture, and graphic violence. Police officers appear frequently in his work.[2] Funayama is a favorite artist of Gengoroh Tagame, who has praised Funayama's works as "one of the peaks in gay erotic art."[1]
My published books:
