fancy fart art
February 19, 2012 3:40 PM   Subscribe

He-Gassen - aka The Japanese Fart Scrolls. More at the Waseda University Library. (Alert: some ribald artsy nudity within)
posted by madamjujujive (39 comments total) 48 users marked this as a favorite
 
Evidently, sequential art reached it's pinnacle an eon ago. Why do we continue to bother?
posted by dazed_one at 3:49 PM on February 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Perfect! A girlfriend just had her phone hijacked and this was posted on her facebook status:

"Awkward moment when you fart loudly in a restaurant! Sooo embarrassed right now!"

It was fabulous to post this for her.
posted by taff at 3:51 PM on February 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


The illustration with them gathering their farts in bags, and then releasing it as a collective weapon--that's where I just completely lost it.

*sigh*

Fart jokes.
posted by hanoixan at 3:51 PM on February 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Anyone else find it odd that they black-barred the naughty bits on centuries-old works of art?

Is that a thing people actually do?
posted by Sys Rq at 3:53 PM on February 19, 2012 [4 favorites]


Well, that's one way to blow a house down.
posted by Nomyte at 3:53 PM on February 19, 2012


Things I learned from The Japanese Fart Scrolls:

Farts take the form of cones, expanding from the point of release.
Farts can be weaponized.
Farts can penetrate a defensive wooden barricade.
Farts can be captured, concentrated, and released as one mega-fart.
Farts can be deflected with fans.
Farts can levitate objects.
Farts are most effective when released from a bare ass.
posted by troll at 3:54 PM on February 19, 2012 [3 favorites]


troll: "Farts can be weaponized."

You were not already aware of this? Do you lack an older brother?
posted by subbes at 3:56 PM on February 19, 2012 [18 favorites]


I was all like "okay, I have to check this out because my husband will probably love this" (I swear the man is a perpetual ten-year-old when it comes to farts) but as I read down the post and looked at the pictures, I found myself giggling helplessly. This is hilarious. <3
posted by flex at 3:56 PM on February 19, 2012


Awesome. And there's even an accidental false-cognate pun (gassen actually translates to "battle") that makes it funnier in English.
posted by Strange Interlude at 3:56 PM on February 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


He-gassen, she-gassen, we-all-gassen ...
posted by carter at 4:00 PM on February 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


屁合戦, hegassen, is just 屁, he, "fart," plus 合戦, kassen, "battle." The incidental pun is really remarkable.
posted by Nomyte at 4:02 PM on February 19, 2012 [4 favorites]


My favorite is the one where the cat is fartlifted up in the air by the cheeky and carefree pipe smoker. If that's not happiness I don't know what is.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 4:03 PM on February 19, 2012 [7 favorites]


Oh my, I haven't laughed so hard in a while. Tears streaming down my face.

I lost it at the hovering cat, but I think it was a combination of expecting something more serious from venerable Japanese scrolls. Well, serious in a silly way. But it's a bunch of people farting! And breaking things with their farts! In an old Japanese scroll!
posted by pyrex at 4:09 PM on February 19, 2012


The Japanese have such tiny censor boxes.
posted by cjorgensen at 4:11 PM on February 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


That is incredibly racist, cjorgensen.
posted by GoingToShopping at 4:14 PM on February 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


And now we learn that the Renaissance failed the Western World.
posted by Atreides at 4:28 PM on February 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


In cjorgensen's defense, that's actually true. Japanese censor bars are indeed hilariously tiny, no matter how gigantic the genitals being 'censored.' The remarkable thing in this case is that they aren't entirely ineffectual.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:34 PM on February 19, 2012


Anyone else find it odd that they black-barred the naughty bits on centuries-old works of art?

Is that a thing people actually do?


The Japanese have pretty strict censorship laws relating to any depiction of genitals, so I assumed the black boxes where added by the source. But if you click through to the Waseda University PDF linked to at the bottom of the page, you'll find the uncensored scroll. So I guess the website added them. Which is pretty lame, but they know their traffic sources, so hey.

Tee hee, I said "bottom"! This is a genius post, thank you Madam.
posted by Chichibio at 4:39 PM on February 19, 2012




Japanese censor bars are indeed hilariously tiny, no matter how gigantic the genitals being 'censored.'

The past decade has seen a remarkable assault on Japanese censorship. When I first arrived in Japan, the "mosaic" in some pornos would blot out almost the entire screen. However, thanks to the efforts of small independent producers over the past 10 years or so, more and more boundaries are being pushed, so much so that there may as well not be any censorship. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is trying to put a stop to that, unfortunately.
posted by KokuRyu at 5:30 PM on February 19, 2012


Is there a translation of Hiraga Gennai's "Treatise on the Art of Farting" on the web?

With more than a little difficulty, I managed to find a high resolution scan of the original book 放屁論, courtesy of the Japan National Diet Library. But alas, I could not find a translation. Since the text is in cursive and written in Edo era language, it would take me considerable effort to translate it.
posted by charlie don't surf at 6:09 PM on February 19, 2012


YESSS DESKTOP WALLPAPER SIZED!
posted by cmoj at 6:46 PM on February 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


more artsy-fartsy nonsense.
posted by scruss at 7:01 PM on February 19, 2012 [3 favorites]


It's been a long time since anything has made me laugh as much as this link. Thank you, madamjujive. You made my day.
posted by oozy rat in a sanitary zoo at 7:04 PM on February 19, 2012


Farts can be weaponized.

PEW! PEW! PEW!
posted by louche mustachio at 7:14 PM on February 19, 2012 [4 favorites]


And then many years later....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:27 PM on February 19, 2012


That is incredibly racist, cjorgensen.

Oh it is not, but you're entitled to believe whatever you like.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:04 PM on February 19, 2012


Loved that! Somehow charming, anthropologically fascinating while also raucous, mildly erotically kinky and ridiculously funny, all at the same time.

A modern day Japanese version.
posted by nickyskye at 8:13 PM on February 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


The last time I laughed this much at silly pictures on the internet, Allie Brosh's dog was involved. Thanks!

... hegassen. HAH!
posted by cmyk at 8:29 PM on February 19, 2012


As if the pictures weren't funny enough the little censor boxes push it over the top because, gosh, we wouldn't want to offend anyone.
posted by BoscosMom at 9:50 PM on February 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Is there a translation of Hiraga Gennai's "Treatise on the Art of Farting" on the web?

There is not. In fact, as far as I know, there isn't a translation of it at all. I began working on one, but to be honest most of it is Edo cultural references that don't even make sense without critical apparatus. Even the title isn't as funny as people like to think. A more accurate translation would be "Treatise on Farting". You would need to approach it the same way Robin D. Gill approaches senryu to make it remotely worth reading to the non-specialist, and I just don't got the time.

By way of apology for being the bearer of bad news, here is a related self-link.
posted by No-sword at 9:56 PM on February 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Oh hi Matt! I located a catalog entry for what appears to be a modernized text of 放屁論 via the National Diet Library online index. IIRC it is an anthology from 1971 or something and I presume you've worked from something like that. I'm sure even a modernized transcription is of little use in explaining the references, but I would sure like to read it.
While searching for a translation, I did find a reference to a thesis in English by someone who appears to have translated the text (or parts of it) but I have lost the link.
posted by charlie don't surf at 10:19 PM on February 19, 2012


Yeah, I read it in a modern printed version, a prewar (IIRC) "Hiraga Gennai Collected Works." It even included the sequel, 続放屁論. Hiraga Gennai was the Ben Franklin of Japan in so many ways.

(And a thesis is definitely another context where a translated 放屁論 could be rendered interesting. If you find the link again, please make sure to come back and post it!)
posted by No-sword at 10:43 PM on February 19, 2012


Farts take the form of cones, expanding from the point of release.

Only some. Others just form a slowly expanding miasmic cloud that eventually chokes its own releaser whilst they marvel at their own awesomeness.
posted by srboisvert at 1:07 AM on February 20, 2012 [2 favorites]


I fear this is a scroll of prophecy. This is what will happen to the Japanese, when they finally snap from working too hard. It's all going up in a bunch of farts jokes.
posted by Goofyy at 3:54 AM on February 20, 2012


flex: This is hilarious. <3

Don't you mean... <3<<<<<<<<<<<<< ?

Could not resist. Sorry.
posted by hanoixan at 8:53 AM on February 20, 2012 [2 favorites]


Have you ever noticed that when someone's laughing at fart humour, there's a particular lopsided grin that kinda says "I shouldn't be laughing at this but fartzlol!!"? Well, dude with the hat in the upper right of the seventh picture (holding the fartbag) is totally rocking that grin. I believe it to be an expression universal across time and nations. Farts are funny, dammit, and no culture can mask that basic truth.
posted by scruss at 9:14 AM on February 20, 2012


This desperately needs to be adapted into either a video game or a Studio Ghibli anime, I can't decide which.
posted by oulipian at 10:45 AM on February 20, 2012


This desperately needs to be adapted into either a video game

I would be surprised if there were no video games involving weaponized farts.
Thankfully, there are.
posted by Durhey at 12:21 PM on February 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


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