Artist and historian Gengoroh Tagame has described bara as 'a very negative word that comes with bad connotations', though he later clarified that the term is 'convenient for talking about art that is linked by characters that are muscle-y, huge, and hairy', and that his objection was the term's use to describe gay manga creators. Artist Kumada Poohsuke has stated that while he does not find the term offensive, he does not describe his work as bara because he associates the term with Barazoku, which featured bishōnen-style artwork rather than artwork of masculine men. History Context: Homosexuality in Japanese visual art Ī musha-e print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi ( c. Representations of homosexuality in Japanese visual art have a history and context dating to the Muromachi period, as seen in Chigo no sōshi ( 稚児之草子, a collection of illustrations and stories on relationships between Buddhist monks and their adolescent male acolytes) and shunga (erotic woodblock prints originating in the Edo period).
