The ero-puro sense: declassifying censored literature from interwar Japan

This paper considers censorship as a major link between and impetus for two popular alternative literary categories in prewar Japan: erotic and proletarian literature. Through the figure of Umehara Hokumei (1901-46) who was banned under both of the censor's categories, this tracking of an ero-puro sense reveals how suppression of these two avenues for resistance led to the castration of a third - realistic portrayals of state violence.