018. Sadao Hasegawa

Beyond Desire: Sadao Hasegawa and the Mysticism of the Male Form

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Jun 13, 2025

A greyscale portrait of Sadao is pictured. He has short black hair, with shaved sides. There are hoops and circles all around him. He is wearing a striped scarf. In the bottom right corner, it has the date May 31, 1988, and his signature. — Grayscale drawing of Sadao Hasegawa. Image courtesy of *Making Queer History*.

Introduction

Sadao Hasegawa (1945–1999) was an autistic, Japanese graphic artist whose beautifully intricate homoerotic illustrations melded muscular male forms with mysticism, bondage, and a rich tapestry of Asian mythologies. Born in Japan’s Tōkai region, he began creating art in his twenties, culminating in his first solo show, Alchemism: Meditation (1973), in Tokyo. Though his work included highly explicit themes—bondage, sadomasochism, and fetish elements—it transcended eroticism through spiritual gravitas and a devotional rendering of the male body.

A blue and purple colorful background features a nude Asian man laying down horizontally in the center. His penis is erect, and he looks peaceful. He is very muscular, and his eyes are open looking up. He has short pink spiky hair. In the background, there are light beams, white polka-dots, and Japanese clouds. He has a light yellow halo surrounding his head. — Sadao Hasegawa, *Red Dan.*, March 1988. Mixed media including tempera, watercolor, ink, and metallic paint on paper. 285x420 mm; 11 1/4x16 1/2 inches, 12 3/4x18-inch sheet. Image courtesy of MutualArt.com.

His aesthetic drew deeply from Southeast Asian cultures—Thai, Balinese, Tibetan, Indian—and African motifs, fusing them into surreal landscapes populated by hyper-masculine figures adorned with symbolic ritual markings. These were more than erotic fantasies: they were visual hymns steeped in Buddhist symbolism, lotus thrones, and ascetic iconography.

Despite offers to exhibit abroad, Hasegawa chose a quiet, introspective path, keeping his work largely within Japanese queer publications—Barazoku, Sabu, Samson, Adon—and refusing substantial international exposure. He tragically died by suicide in Bangkok on November 20, 1999, echoing the demise of Yukio Mishima, to whom he left a painted stone portrait of and a note entrusting his art to Tokyo’s Gallery Naruyama, ensuring its preservation. Right after Sadao died, his family originally found his art and trashed it. It wasn’t until they found his note and the stone that they retrieved his works and honored his wishes, thus preserving his works for years to come.

A light blue background with an oblong stone in the center is pictured. There is a black and white painting of Yukio Mishima in the middle of the stone. He has short black hair and a black shirt. — The stone in the will of Sadao Hasegawa. Acrylic on stone, 1979. Painting of Yukio Mishima. Courtesy of Naruyama Gallery’s Instagram.

Early Life and Background

Cultural and Personal Influences

Born into postwar Japan in 1945, Sadao came of age during rapid societal change, yet gravitated toward introspection. Self-taught, he said he “took up drawing in his twenties,” which eventually led to his first Tokyo exhibition in 1973 . Early on, he idolized Go Mishima and Tom of Finland—Mishima for his powerful male imagery, and Finland for his stylized European erotic art. In fact, he penned a memorial for Mishima in Barazoku, calling him “a master illustrator of the male physique.”

Hasegawa’s early style mirrored these Eurocentric influences: taut, fetishistic, and intimate. But as his travels began in the late ’70s—to India, Bali, Thailand—his palette expanded into Southeast Asia’s iconography and mythologies. Over time, his renderings became saturated with tantric symbols, ritual ceiling, decorative patterns, lotus thrones, and dark spiritual nuance.

An Asian man's head is being wrapped around a bird's body. There is a dark yellow spiral in the background. The bird is mostly white, with blue and purple splotches of color. The man's eyes are open, and he has short blue spiky hair. The bird's claws are wrapped around the side of his head, and the bird's beak is right by his ear. — *Hawk Boy* (1985). Image courtesy of ka-os.blogspot.com.

His identity emerged at the intersection of queer desire, ritual art, and spiritual invocation. He carved a unique space: drawing from queer eroticism, layering it with spiritual gravitas, and setting it against a broad multi-cultural backdrop. Sadao’s refusal to conform to a conventional art world pathway reinforced his personal ethos: create for self, not for fame.

Early Exposure to Art and Education

Without formal artistic training, Hasegawa discovered art through travel and magazines. His 1973 exhibition featured oil painting, sculpture, and collages, showing his versatility and conceptual depth. His entry into Barazoku in 1978 marked a new phase: public acceptance in Japan’s gay media and visual culture.

A muscular black man with a toucan head is standing against a dark purple background. There is a marsupial on a branch to his left. He is wearing a yellow thong, and you can see a green cape behind him. On the bottom right, there is a blue orb on the red floor. There are 2 chains in the upper left corner. — *Toucan* (1978), thought to be Hasegawa's first publicly available work. Image courtesy of ka-os.blogspot.com.

It was through such publications and personal journeys that he absorbed Eastern aesthetics—learning traditional ornamentation, Buddhist iconography, and the mysticism of Tantric and Shamanic symbolism. His travels were not passive; they were homework, spiritual immersion, and aesthetic research.

In his later years, this unconventional education bore fruit in works that place muscular figures in ritualistic poses: floating, bound, or isolated in cloud-like, psychotropic landscapes. His renderings cross cultural boundaries, yet each line is informed by meticulous observation—impasto gouache strokes, detailed ink, gouache, and pencil layering . Sadao’s art was self-education in motion—ever-reinventing.

Artistic Influences and Style

Key Influences

From the outset, Hasegawa’s work was shaped by his predecessors. Tom of Finland’s hyperreal male form and fetish playstyle are clearly visible in his early works. Meanwhile, Japanese artist and illustrator Go Mishima’s classical musculature and tattooed spiritual warriors profoundly affected his aesthetic; Sadao explicitly revered Mishima in print.

A large mass of nude men are stacked together to make one big penis. Some men are supporting the others, while others are engaged in sexual acts. There is a yellow beam of light coming from the top of the image, shining on the tip of the man-made dick. It has a black background, and on both the top and the bottom center of the piece, there is some Japanese text. — *Stupa* (1982). Image courtesy of ka-os.blogspot.com.

The years he spent in Bali and Thailand are peaks in his creative timeline—adding Buddhist lotus thrones, ascetic figures, tantric symbolism, and Southeast Asian decor into his erotic compositions. He blended these with elements from Tibet, India, and Africa, weaving a cross-continental tapestry of myth: shamans, gods, tattoo motifs, and spiritual geometry .

These influences merged into a surreal, ritual-fetish style that was unmistakably Hasegawa. His figures—often nude, always strong—were embedded in larger metaphysical tableaux, as if ritual dancers in a hidden cabal, bound to gods, spirits, or mythic beasts.

Art + Identity

Sadao’s work is an unapologetic exploration of gay desire. He celebrates gay identity as something sacred, not secret, by placing queer bodies in mythic landscapes and spiritual allegory. He positioned the queer male form as a vessel of the divine: lotus-throned ascetics, suffering yet exalted bodies, tortured into transcendence.
Erotic images—bondage, ropes, penetration—are rendered as ascetic acts: bodies in suspension, offering, ritualized suffering and ecstasy, linking sexual submission with spiritual ascent.

An Asian man is seen bound and gagged in different positions. In the center, he is bound and gagged by one long rope tied around his whole body. On the bottom left, his mouth and chest have a blue rope around it, loosely tied up. In the top right, his mouth is taped, and on the top left, his mouth is bound by rope. He has short black hair, and he sits against a yellow background, with some ink blotches. — *Untitled, 20th October 1999*. Image courtesy of ka-os.blogspot.com.

He doesn’t sanitize the kink; instead, by embedding it within spiritual iconography, he declares queer sex as a legitimate path to self-realization. There’s no shame here—only sacralized embodiment.

He transmuted queer identity from marginal sexual fantasy into spiritual complexity. Each piece asserts that homosexual desire can be sacred and powerful, worthy of ritual reverence—and not secondary to heterosexual or religious norms .
Retaining the explicitness of fetish art, Hasegawa elevated it with mythic and ascetic allegory. These were not crude erotic prints—they were explorations of martyrdom, ecstasy, discipline, and devotion, with queer bodies at their spiritual center.

Art + Activism

Hasegawa’s art was radical in stance, though not overtly political. In 1970s–90s Japan, queer art existed on the margins—but by publishing consistently in gay magazines and refusing mainstream appropriation, Sadao enacted soft activism.
By depicting gay men across cultures and epochs—with icons that suggested connections to Asia’s spiritual traditions—he implicitly challenged Western tropes. His aesthetic refusal to conform to Eurocentric stereotypes or submissive roles represented a form of queer assertion.

A portrait of a young black man is seen against a red background. It shows him from the neck up. He has chiseled facial features, and a short haircut, with geometrical lines shaved in. There are 3 lines shaved into his hair, one blue, one red, and one yellow. He has brown eyes and is looking straight ahead. — Sadao Hasegawa, *Untitled*, 1981. Acrylic on canvas. 13 × 11 in | 33 × 28 cm. Courtesy of Artsy.net.

Due to the sale of his prints through the Tom of Finland Foundation's then-president, Durk Dehner, Hasegawa's works were known to audiences outside Japan via only reproductions. He declined various invitations to exhibit abroad, fearful that his drawings and paintings would never make it back through Japanese customs. In 1995, Sadao wrote to Durk Dehner of the Tom of Finland’s Foundation, with the following note:

“Born in 1950. Tell you the truth, I have never had formal training of art.

I was kind of an autistic child who could not enjoy playing with other kids at all, rather, it was even painful for me.
Instead, communing with mother nature, loving flower, animals, and tiny insects were my mentor.
It was my supreme happiness when I indulged in reveries, fantasies, and my own paintings.

Although I acquired sociability in my later years, my habit to ‘trip’, to communicate with super-nature still remained and it has become part of the most important source of my inspiration.

My past motif have been Grecian, Indian, Egyptian, Japanese Kabuki, folklore, and Buddhism.
Now I’m enthusiastic about Indonesian and Thai religious motif.

I have strong interest in Asian men, religion, sense of beauty.
My desire is to create the universe of beauty of men, in a way which differs from Western point of view.
Especially these days, I try to pursuit spiritual, profound beauty and eros rather than a pornographic worlds which is something like furious orgies or sadism and masochism.

I have had exhibitions several times in Japan. Unfortunately, no museums has my work in their collections.
Japanese society is still very conservative and museums are not ready to exhibit Gay art yet.

My work is now published every month on the ‘BARAZOKU’, Japanese gay magazine. This year, a plan is on foot to publish a book of selective pencil-drawings from BARAZOKU.

I travel to Indonesia 3 or 4 times a year, [gaining] new ideas from an cultural exchange between local boys.”
— Sadao Hasegawa in a letter to Durk Dehner, 13 February 1995

A Tom of Finland style man is in the front bottom left. He's wearing a black police hat, has blue eyes, and a mustache. He is smoking a cigarette and the smoke from it is hiding the genitals of the man behind him. His body is red and muscular, with well-defined abs and pecs. He has on a leather chest harness, and he has pierced nipples. He is wearing a black leather mask, spike bracelet, and is holding a whip. There are also chains in the background. — Untitled, Unknown. Acrylic on board. 310 x 228 mm. Sadao Hasegawa. Courtesy of Baron and AnOther Magazine.

Within Japanese queer circles, his repeated publication contributed to visibility—helping define gay aesthetic in print media when public spaces remained restrictive .
By merging eroticism and spirituality, he confronted both queer community and cultural conservatism—demanding that erotic desires be taken seriously, non-judgmentally, even reverentially.

Significant Works

Tattoo Series, 1980-1989

In Sadao Hasegawa’s Tattoo Series, the body becomes a sacred canvas, richly inscribed with mythic motifs and fetish fervor. Influenced by the bold inkwork of Go Mishima’s tattooed yakuza men, Sadao’s designs breathe new life into the erotic—merging S&M symbolism with Asian spiritual symbology .

1) There are 2 legs that are tattooed in traditional Japanese style in the center of the image, on a black background. There is text around each tattoo, like Spiral, Cloud, Dragon, and Fire. 2) Half of a tattooed muscular man is seen in the top left and the bottom right. Each of his shoulders is covered in traditional Japanese style tattoos. There are light beams coming out of different places, including his nipple in the lower right corner. 3) A muscular tattooed man is seen against a red background. Only one of his arms is fully drawn, and both shoulders are covered in traditional Japanese tattoos. He is wearing a white and black polka-dot thong, and there is some blue rope wrapped around his chest, and in his mouth. 4) A black and white piece showing a muscular tattooed Asian man. There is rope in the background, and he is holding some rope in his mouth. He has tattooed shoulders and pecs, and short black hair. 5) A dark blue background, with different tattooed limbs in the center. There are 2 arms, and one leg, tattooed with traditional Japanese style tattoos. There are also different colored circles with Japanese text in them scattered around the art piece. — 1) Tattoo III (1985) 2) Tattoo II (1985) 3) Ryu Tattoo I (1985) 4) Tattoo V (1984) 5) Tattoo IV (1985) by Sadao Hasegawa. Images courtesy of ka-os.blogspot.com.

The series reflects Hasegawa’s deep affinity for Southeast Asian heritage. Lotus mandalas, ritual masks, tantric symbols, and cosmic geometries—elements he gathered in Bali, Thailand, and India—are transformed into corporeal ornamentation. The tattoos are not ornamental but talismanic, each pattern a gateway to discipline, devotion, or inner divinity.

By rendering these powerful images as tattoos, Sadao declared that queer flesh, discipline, and devotion are interwoven. These artworks challenge the viewer to see beyond erotic allure, recognizing queer bodies as living embodiments of ritual, resistance, and sacred lineage.

1) The backside of a man with a half-tattooed back is seen against a yellow background. There is white lotus flower to his right, and a spiritual symbol on his left. There is a rainbow gradient surrounding his head and shoulders, and he has a very muscular butt. 2) The backside of a fully tattooed muscular man is seen on a red background. He is covered in traditional Japanese tattoos, and there are different colored circles with Japanese text around him, as well as a white swirl. His arms are behind his head, one hand crossed over the other.3) The backside of a fully tattooed muscular man is seen on a dark green background. He is covered in traditional Japanese tattoos, and he is wearing a white, braided rope thong. There is some Japanese text in the top right corner, and on the left side of his butt. 4) The backside of a fully tattooed muscular man is seen on a white background. He is covered in blue and white traditional Japanese tattoos, and he is wearing a red braided rope thong. There are small splashes of color around his body, as well as some Japanese text in the top right corner. 5) The backside of a fully tattooed muscular man is seen on a blue gradient background. He is covered in traditional Japanese tattoos, and there are different colored circles with Japanese text around him, as well as a white swirl. His arms are behind his head, one hand crossed over the other. — 1) Untitled, Unknown 2) Hu Jin Zu I - Wind God I (1986) 3) Kintaro II - Carp Boy Tattoo II (1986) 4) Kintaro I - Carp Boy Tattoo (1986) 5) Hu Jin Zu II - Wind God II (1986) by Sadao Hasegawa. Images courtesy of ka-os.blogspot.com.

Secret Ritual, 1987

In Secret Ritual, Sadao Hasegawa conjures a mystical world where the boundaries between body, spirit, and myth dissolve. The painting immerses the viewer in a kaleidoscopic realm of otherworldly creatures, tantric symbols, and lush, surreal patterns that swirl around a serene male figure. There’s no sense of danger or domination—instead, the composition hums with sacred stillness. The man at the center seems to float in spiritual rapture, as if mid-ritual or dreaming within a temple of the cosmos.

A serene Asian man is seen against a colorful background of mythical creatures and spiritual symbols. He has a light beam coming out of his hand to shine on a grasshopper butterfly creature. The background is full of flowers, branches, mushrooms, and mythical and spiritual creatures. He has short spiky red hair, elf-like ears, and he is nude, with pubic hair around his dick. He is wrapped in vines around his chest, abdomen, and crotch. — *Secret Ritual* (1987) by Sadao Hasegawa. Image courtesy of ka-os.blogspot.com.

This work reflects Hasegawa’s deep engagement with Eastern metaphysics and queer spiritual embodiment. Drawing from Thai, Balinese, and Hindu iconography, he populates the canvas with protective spirits, hybrid beasts, and celestial energies. The “ritual” here is not one of physical ordeal, but of inner awakening—a trance-like state where self and surroundings are in perfect alignment. In Secret Ritual, Sadao envisions queer masculinity not as taboo, but as divine.

That Floating Feeling, 1980

That Floating Feeling (1980) features a naked man sleeping or meditating in a celestial haze, a jewel between his eyebrows resembling a Buddhist urna, while his crimson skin and flaming hair liken him to Agni, the Hindu god of fire.

A dark blue background has a reddish nude Asian man in the center, and he's floating diagonally. He has a light blue aura around him and smoke coming from his mouth. He has short, spiky flame-like hair, and his eyes are closed. — Sadao Hasegawa, *That Floating Feeling, 1980*. Acrylic on canvas board, 41 x 32 cm. Commissioned by *Barazoku*. Courtesy of a. SQUIRE and Gallery Naruyama, Tokyo. Photo by Jack Elliot Edwards.

In That Floating Feeling, Sadao masterfully captures a surreal sense of weightlessness, portraying a muscular figure suspended in space—neither bound nor free—evoking the meditative drift between flesh and spirit. This atmospheric reverie draws deeply on the artist’s explorations in Southeast Asia, channeling Buddhist notions of transcendence and unmoored consciousness. The body becomes a vessel of contemplation, adrift in an ethereal realm that blurs the boundaries between erosion and elevation.

This piece reflects a turn in Hasegawa’s art away from explicit fetishism toward introspective, almost mystical exploration. Here, the erotic merges with the transcendent: flesh meets void, and the viewer is invited to share in a moment where spirit ascends beyond physical confines—an emotional evocation of peace that floats between worlds.

Acclaimed for their craftsmanship, these works stand as major milestones in queer erotic art—they defined a uniquely Japanese synthesis of sex and spirituality. Though never exhibited internationally during his life, these works circulated in queer magazines like Barazoku and Sabu, proliferating his vision in the 1980s–90s Japanese gay underground. They remain the benchmarks of his lasting legacy.

Recent/Upcoming Exhibitions

Sadao Hasegawa: English Companion Inc. - a. SQUIRE - London, UK (Mar 8, 2025 - Apr 26, 2025)

a. SQUIRE hosted an exhibition of works on paper by Sadao Hasegawa (長谷川サダオ), English Companion Inc., which was organized in collaboration with Gallery Naruyama, Tokyo. This is the only solo exhibition to happen outside Japan and the first presentation of his work in the UK.

1) The table full of works is in the center of the image. It has a black frame and a clear top. There are also several frames of Sadao's work hanging on all the surrounding walls. 2) A straight down view of a table is seen showing many different drawings from Sadao. There are various sketches, and a cover of a gay magazine. 3) A clear showcase table is in the middle of a room, with a window to the left. There is a long horizontal frame on the wall full of Sadao's work on the back wall, and another black framed image on the right wall. The table in the center is full of his drawings. — 1-3) Installation views. Images courtesy of a. SQUIRE.

How to introduce Hasegawa's dazzling universe for the uninitiated? It is starry-eyed and joyous and tender, richly sensual and brimming with fecundity. A hallucinogenic realm of priapic gods and demi-gods, shibari and romance, it is unfettered in its adoration of Asian men's bodies, and in its holism and attention to all living beings, imparts a Buddhist sensibility. It is supremely skillfully rendered, a dissertation in modulation and Day-Glo colours.

He lived in Tokyo, longed to travel to India, and in 1978 began working regularly with publisher Itō Bungaku, who seven years earlier had founded the first commercial gay magazine in Japan, Barazoku (薔薇族). During the earlier half of the 80s, Sadao’s work gained fast attention domestically, illustrating the pages and covers of Sabu (さぶ), The Adon (アドン), and Samson (月刊サムソン). It was around this time, too, that his images started to appear in gay publications in the West, among them In Touch for Men [I.T.] and Mach (a Drummer title).

1) 3 works are seen hanging on a white wall. Each ones shows a different act of intimacy between two men. 2) A shirtless man is seen with another hand reaching out to pinch one of his nipples. There are ink blotches and black stars on him. There is some black text with a yellow background that says Act Now in the bottom right corner. 3) A piece showing two men kissing is seen. There are ink splotches all around them, on some on their chest and neck. They are French kissing, and there is the number 1 in the top left corner, with the number 2 on the first man's neck. The piece is in black and white. 4) A naked man is laying down, with another man sucking his dick. He is making a face of pleasure, and there is a circled 1 in the middle of his chest. There are wings around him as well, and a circled 2 on his arm. 5) A rectangular black frame with a black matte has an art piece in the middle. There are two men, who appear like statues standing amongst light blue thorny vines on a dark red background. There are a few color splotches on their faces and in their hair. 6) A square black frame holds a light yellow matte, with the artwork in the center. The art features a giant muscular rock-man, who has chiseled legs and a chiseled penis. There is another man's face in the bottom right corner, looking worried. There is a planet in the background, and some pieces of the planet moving around in the background. — 1-4) Untitled, 1980s. Pencil, ink, and collage on paper, in 3 parts. Inserts for the magazine Barazoku. AS-HASES-0007. 2) i. 22.5 x 15.4 cm, 8 7/8 x 6 in. 3) ii. 21.9 x 22.5 cm, 8 5/8 x 8 7/8 in. 4) iii. 21.9 x 21.2 cm, 8 5/8 x 8 3/8 in. 5) Lover, 1983, Pencil, ink and gouache on paper with stamping. Cover concept for the magazine Samson. 26 x 19.5 cm, 10 1/4 x 7 5/8 in. Frame: 40.8 x 33.7 cm, 16 x 13 1/4 in. AS-HASES-00136) SNOWMAN, 1980s, Pencil, ink and gouache on paper. Image: 17.5 x 19.6 cm, 6 7/8 x 7 3/4 in. Frame: 39.5 x 45.4 cm, 15 1/2 x 17 7/8 in. AS-HASES-0012.

"In Bangkok's National Museum, when the guards were not looking, Sadao liked to touch the large stone sculptures of Khmer and Hindu deities, 'for their power'," recalled his friend, the late Berkeley professor Frits Staal. Hasegawa began making frequent trips to Indonesia and Thailand in the 1980s, and with these his syncretic vision of Asia emerged. It was not only a guiding superstructure but also constituted a politics of its own. In his works, Balinese cult pools with Hindu iconography, Thai mythoi and Confucian legend interweave on a seamless plane.

Sadao Hasegawa: Magazine Cover Original Illustration Exhibition - Gallery Naruyama - Tokyo, Japan (Apr 3, 2025 - Jun 7, 2025)

Since acquiring Sadao Hasegawa’s estate in accordance with his 1999 will, Gallery Naruyama has served as the primary guardian of his oeuvre. Gallery Naruyama has continued to mine his archive with exhibitions highlighting distinct phases of his creative life. The 2014 show 1978–1983 dug deep into his ritualized homoerotic illustrations from the late 1970s, while Winter/Spring curatorial series (2023–24) explored both intimate drawings and spiritual allegories . In 2024, the gallery even partnered with Toga Aoyama to present Sadao Hasegawa 70s, an exhibition bringing early psychedelic and painting works to fresh eyes. In 2025, they hosted the Magazine Cover Original Illustration Exhibition, which showcased some of his magazine cover illustrations.

1) A blue portrait of a man's face is seen on a light blue canvas. He is surrounded by rocks, pebbles, a feather, a lizard, and a seashell. 2) An Asian man with short spiky hair is seen against a white background. His skin is a half orange and half blue gradient. He looks peaceful with his eyes closed. 3) A large face of a man is surrounded by different colored rulers and tape measures. His face is made of several different colors, like blue, green, white, orange, and pink. He has blue eyes and is staring straight ahead. 4) A large muscular Asian man with traditional Japanese tattooed arms and pecs is standing against a brown speckled background. He is wearing a necklace with a gold pendant, and he has a white rope bandana on his head. There is red and white, and blue and white tape in the top, and he is surrounded by yellow rope, some of which is in his mouth. — 1) "ADON" magazine cover March 1980. Acrylic, feather on canvas 2) "SAMSON" magazine cover July 1985. Pencil, ink on paper 3) "SAMSON" magazine cover April 1985. Pencil, ink, collage on paper 4) "SAMSON" magazine cover April 1985. Pencil, ink on paper © Sadao Hasegawa

By continuously exhibiting rare and early pieces—and supporting publications like SADAO HASEGAWA 1945–1999—Gallery Naruyama has both preserved and amplified Hasegawa’s legacy. Their efforts have transformed a once marginal queer-ritual aesthetic into a lasting voice within Japanese and international art dialogues.

1) A purple background has a nude man in the center. His legs are half blue and purple polka-dotted, and he is holding an orange orb in his left hand behind his back. In his right hand, he is holding an orange tree, and his right hand is handcuffed, with chains going down his left leg. He has on gold bands around each bicep, and green spiky hair sticking out behind his head. 2) An Asian man with his eyes closed, has a tear streaming down his face. He is wearing a polka-dot headband, and he has short spiky hair. There is a galaxy behind him, and a zig-zag line with ink splotches going down his neck. 3) Sadao's name is up in the top center. It shows a black and white sketch of an Asian man wearing a polka-dot headband. He has a serene face and there is a patterned butterfly in his hair. 4) A black ripped man is standing on the right. His right arm isn't fully drawn, but he is holding a colorful stick. He has on a white thong, and is wearing blue eyeshadow. There are cutouts of other illustrations of men wearing makeup, and color swatches next to them. 5) The cover of a book is seen, with one of Sadao's artworks on the front. It's a muscular nude man, covered in colorful shapes, colors, and lines. He has pubic hair around his penis, and a mustache on his face. He is also wearing a hat, and there are multiple eyeballs throughout the image. — 1) Untitled (1979) 2) Untitled (early 1980s) 3) Untitled (early 1980s) 4) Make Up (1980) 5) Cover of Sadao Hasegawa 1945-1999. Pages: 176. Images courtesy of Gallery Naruyama.

Online and Print Recognition - Various Sources (2000 - 2025)

More than two decades after his death, Sadao Hasegawa’s work is undergoing a powerful resurgence. In recent years, international publications such as Frieze, i-D, e-flux, and Emergent Magazine have revisited his bold, ecstatic visions with new urgency—framing him not just as a forgotten master of erotic art, but as a spiritual provocateur ahead of his time. These features explore how his fusion of homoeroticism, Eastern mysticism, and ecstatic figuration makes his work uniquely resonant in a contemporary landscape that continues to wrestle with the intersection of queerness, cultural identity, and spirituality.

1) There is an Asian man in the center of the image, who is being double penetrated, by two other men-like beings. There is a dick coming from the top right that is spraying into his mouth. There is a green man with horns and pink hair who is fucking the main character from the front. The man behind him is white, with short blue hair, and horns. The man being fucked is bound in rope, and there are candles and other spiritual motifs surrounding them. 2) There is a muscular Asian man in the center who is being penetrated by another man with a lion head. There is another partially-drawn lion-man on his right side as well, and an arm coming through the left side with a sword. There are ropes and other spiritual symbols throughout the piece. — 1) Gon Gu Edo II / Joyfully Seeking the Impure Land II, 1990. Offset lithograph, 22 x 16.25 in (55.9 x 41.3 cm). 2) Shishi Odorii II-Lion Dance II, 1990. Offset lithograph. 22 x 16.25 in (55.9 x 41.3 cm). Images courtesy of Artnet.com.

Writers and critics have particularly emphasized how radical Sadao was for centering Asian queer men in spiritual and mythological grandeur—at a time when most global representations of queer erotic art were white, Western, and secular. His recent international exhibitions and digital features have introduced his art to younger generations of LGBTQIA2S+ people who see in his work a mirror for their own fluid, spiritual, and proudly non-Western identities. In a 2024 Frieze review of English Companion Inc., his art was described not only as "aesthetic resistance" but also as "a pathway into queer transcendence," affirming that Hasegawa’s mythology remains deeply relevant today.

Two Asian men have their heads close together. They both look at ease, and happy. They sit against a black background, that has gold and silver rectangles at the top and to the right of them. In the top right corner, there is a pair of feet with eyes on each foot. There is also some Japanese text next to the men, and Sadao's signature in red in the bottom right corner. — *Untitled* July, 1998 Pencil, acrylic, gold leaf, silver leaf on paper 230 x 270 mm. ©Sadao Hasegawa. Image courtesy of Gallery Naruyama.

For many in the Asian queer community, especially those who are reclaiming ancestral belief systems and artistic heritage, Hasegawa’s work offers a vital form of representation. His art doesn't just eroticize—it deifies. It imagines queer desire as sacred, not shameful; as disciplined, not disorderly. This reclamation of queerness through cultural specificity and spiritual richness has found renewed life in contemporary conversations around intersectionality and decolonization. 26 years after his death, Sadao is no longer a quiet figure at the margins of art history—he’s becoming a mythic ancestor of queer Asian futurity.

Reflecting on Sadao’s Journey

Hasegawa’s path from self-taught erotic illustrator to spiritual fetish visionary is remarkable—and it highlights a commitment to queer-sacred integration. Even without academic training, he found mentorship in Mishima, Tom of Finland, travel, and prayerful crafting.

An Asian man is sitting down, and there are large shells on the table near him. He is holding a crystal, which is shining a rainbow light diagonally across the image. There is a green plant behind him, and a framed artwork on the white wall behind him. — *Crystal I* (1985). Image courtesy of ka-os.blogspot.com.

His refusal to commercialize maintained purity of intent—his art was never for mass consumption, but for soulful self-expression and cultural conversation.
His death echoes Mishima’s tragic symbolism, but his final act—donation of his archive—ensured future generations could witness a deeply personal aesthetic worldview.

Today, rediscovery elevates him beyond niche erotica: he sits at the crossroads of queer liberation, ritual studies, and Asian art discourse. His visionary legacy refuses to be contained, continuing to evoke devotion.