EtymologyĪ depiction of a male homosexual couple from the January 1928 edition of Hentai shiryō. The history of the word hentai has its origins in science and psychology. A translation of German sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing's text Psychopathia Sexualis originated the concept of hentai seiyoku, as a 'perverse or abnormal sexual desire', though it was popularized outside psychology, as in the case of Mori Ōgai's 1909 novel Vita Sexualis.īy the middle of the Meiji era, the term appeared in publications to describe unusual or abnormal traits, including paranormal abilities and psychological disorders. Continued interest in hentai seiyoku resulted in numerous journals and publications on sexual advice which circulated in the public, served to establish the sexual connotation of hentai as perverse. Any perverse or abnormal act could be hentai, such as committing shinjū (love suicide).
It was Nakamura Kokyo's journal Abnormal Psychology which started the popular sexology boom in Japan which would see the rise of other popular journals like Sexuality and Human Nature, Sex Research and Sex.
