The Muzan-e, also known as the 'Bloody Prints' or the 'Twenty Famous Eight Murders with Verse', is a collection a of Japanese ukiyo-e by artist Yoshitoshi from the 1860s, which depicted several gruesome acts of murder or torture based on historical events or scenes in Kabuki plays.[1] Although most of the works are solely violent by nature, it is perhaps the first known example of ero guro or the erotic grotesque in Japanese culture, an art sub-genre which depicts either erotic or extreme images of violence and mutilation. The Muzan-e has influenced many modern day art formats and ero guro can be found in manga with the works of Suehiro Maruo, Shintaro Kago or Toshio Maeda; in many live action films such as the pink film movement and most of the works of director Takashi Miike and even non-Japanese artists such as Trevor Brown.
Muzan translates from Japanese as cruelty or atrocity,[2] and the works were said to spread a general panic amongst the populace at the time of publishing, with the extreme violence depicted in the paintings taken as a sign of social and moral decline.