Provenance — where it came from
In 1999, the TV anime Turn A Gundam used the term 黒歴史 (kuro-rekishi), “the Black History,” for a sealed record of ancient space wars — a past so terrible that civilization buried it and started over.
Fans of the series borrowed the term for their own buried pasts. Everyone has one: the notebook of poems, the homemade novel, the photos from a regrettable fashion phase. These are your personal kuro-rekishi — history you have sealed, and pray no one excavates.
Then the word did what few anime terms manage: it left the fandom completely. By the 2010s, politicians’ old statements, companies’ failed products, and celebrities’ early careers were all being called kuro-rekishi in mainstream media. The word now works for people who have never seen a Gundam. A term invented for fictional space wars, applied daily to real embarrassment. It is a promotion very few words ever receive.
Field notes — how it’s used
中学時代のブログは俺の黒歴史だ
chūgaku jidai no burogu wa ore no kuro-rekishi da
“My middle-school blog is my dark history.” — sealed, but sadly, the internet remembers.