Seiu Ito

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Lore & Background

Ito was born Hajime Ito in Asakusa district, Tokyo, and started his education in painting by 1890. His father was a metalworker and he also received training in ivory carving, later sculpture. He adopted the alias Seiu at age 13. Around 1907, he began working for newspapers. In 1919, Ito hired a young art school model named Kise Sahara. Kise became Ito's second wife after she got pregnant and posed willingly for her husband. Ito became the target of censors in 1930, which led to draining of his fortunes and he lost his works at the Great Tokyo Air Raid. In 1960, he was awarded by the Japan Artists Association. He died in Truro, England.

Reader's Guide

Ito’s artistic practice was deeply rooted in his fascination with kabuki and the cultural traditions of the Edo period. Following the Kanto earthquake, he published a book documenting the manners and customs of Edo and Tokyo. To create his depictions of Edo-period tortures, he developed a distinctive method: he would bind his models in various positions, photograph them, and then use those photographs as reference material for his paintings. One particularly notorious instance involved his pregnant wife, Kise Sahara, whom he bound and suspended upside down to produce a drawing that imitated Yoshitoshi’s ukiyo-e *The Lonely House on Adachi Moor in Michinoku Province*. This approach reflected his broader interest in the aesthetics of restraint and historical cruelty. Ito is now recognized as “the father of modern kinbaku,” a term for Japanese erotic bondage, and his work significantly influenced the development of that field. His life and art were later dramatized in director Noboru Tanaka’s 1977 Nikkatsu Roman porno film *Beauty’s Exotic Dance: Torture!*, which served as the final entry in Tanaka’s “Showa Era trilogy.”

Did You Know?

• Ito was born Hajime Ito in Asakusa district, Tokyo, and adopted the alias Seiu at age 13.
• His father was a metalworker, and Ito also received training in ivory carving and later sculpture.
• In 1919, he hired art school model Kise Sahara, who became his second wife after she got pregnant.
• Ito bound his pregnant wife Kise and suspended her upside down for a drawing imitating Yoshitoshi's ukiyo-e *The Lonely House on Adachi Moor in Michinoku Province*.
• He died in Truro, England.