Tentacle rape or shokushu goukan (触手強姦) is a concept found in some horror hentai titles, where various tentacled creatures (usually fictional monsters) rape or otherwise penetrate women, anthropomorphous creatures, Futanari and less commonly men. The genre is quite popular in Japanese erotica, and is even the subject of much parody.

History

Tentacled creatures appeared in Japanese erotica long before animated pornography. Among the most famous of the early instances—and perhaps the first—is an illustration from the novel ‘Kinoe no komatsu’ of 1814 by Katsushika Hokusai. It is a celebrated example of shunga (Japanese erotic art) and has been reworked by a number of artists. Australian artist David Laity reworked the design into a painting of the same name, and Masami Teraoka brought the image up to date with his 2001 work “Sarah and Octopus/Seventh Heaven,” part of his Waves and Plagues collection.

A scholarly paper by Danielle Talerico[1] showed that although western audiences have often interpreted Hokusai’s famous design as rape, Japanese audiences of the Edo period would have associated it with the legend of the female abalone diver Tamatori. In the story, Tamatori steals a jewel from the Dragon King. However, during her egress, the Dragon King and his sea-life minions (including octopuses) pursue her. Furthermore, within the dialogue in the illustration itself, the diver and two octopuses express mutual enjoyment.

The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, a design by Hokusai of 1814
depicting a woman engaging in sex with a pair of octopuses.

Culture

Toshio Maeda’s manga Urotsukidoji created what might be called the modern paradigm of tentacle porn, in which the elements of sexual assault are emphasized. Maeda explained that he invented the practice to get around strict Japanese censorship regulations, which prohibit the depiction of the penis but apparently do not prohibit showing sexual penetration by a tentacle or similar (often robotic) appendage.