Collection: Toshio Saeki

Toshio Saeki (佐伯俊男), 1945–2019

Toshio Saeki was a Japanese illustrator and painter born in Miyazaki Prefecture in 1945, who spent his formative years in Osaka before settling in Tokyo in 1969. He worked in deliberate remove from public life, a distance he regarded as essential to the freedom and provocation of his imagery. He died on November 21, 2019; his death was not made public until January 2020.

Saeki's work draws on the formal traditions of Shunga and Yōkai while absorbing influences from Western art — most notably the work of Tomi Ungerer — to produce imagery that is sexually explicit, violent, and rigorously composed. He is a central figure of the modern Ero Guro movement. His debut publication, Saeki Toshio Gashū (佐伯俊男画集), appeared in 1970, the same year sketches were published in the men's magazine Heibon Punch (平凡パンチ). His reach extended into music and film: a drawing by Saeki appears on the cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1972 album Some Time in New York City, and Michel Boschet's 1979 animated short Demain la petite fille sera en retard à l'école — based on Saeki's drawings — won the César Award for Best Animated Short Film. More recently, a Saeki image was used for the cover of Geordie Greep's 2024 album The New Sound.

This collection gathers books and artist publications related to Saeki's work, selected in keeping with Lokator100's focus on carefully documented Artbooks & Artist Publications. Each item is described with bibliographic precision. Collectors interested in the French publishing tradition adjacent to underground and erotic illustration may also find relevant titles in the Éditions Cornélius collection.