Shunga: Erotic Art in Japan

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You could also help us a lot by letting us know what you think of the eBook by placing a reaction below. If you’d prefer to remain anonymous you can also add only your initials to the comment..!! Annika Aitken is Curator, Art Museums, at the University of Melbourne, where she is also undertaking a PhD in Art History. From 2018 to 2021 she was Assistant Curator, Asian Art, at the National Gallery of Victoria Shunga were produced by the same artists who also worked in other fields of ukiyo-e. Some of the most famous shunga were drawn for example by Hokusai when he took a break from studying Mount Fuji from all its angles. Timothy Clark et al. (eds). Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese art (London: British Museum Press, 2013). ISBN 978-0-714-12476-6.

The wood print artists were fascinated by the romantic and sexual aspects of life just as the writers were. Both bent and exaggerated the topics they depicted in their own way. In the same year Utamaro also produced the most famous shunga album in the history of Japanese art the ‘ Poem of the Pillow (Utamakura)‘. It is outstanding for its technical brilliance of the engraving and the extraordinary quality of the colours. It exposes his greatness as an artist, portraying a mixture of subjects (such as the Dutch couple) and settings, all of them taking an unprecedented level and degree of intensity, the capacity to express passionate feelings and the conception of the human figure, particularly that of the female body. Tenderness a b c Hayakawa, Monta; C. Andrew Gerstle (2013). "Who Were the Audiences for "Shunga" ". Japan Review (26): 26. JSTOR 41959815. The generous vocabulary of terms relating to male-male sex in early modern Japanese reflects a society at ease with the phenomenon. Anyone perusing the abundant primary and secondary sources will encounter numerous allusions to the “male eros” (nanshoku); “the way of youths” (wakashūdō, often abbreviated as jakudō or shudō); the “way of men” ( nandō); “the beautiful way” ( bidō); and the “secret way” ( hidō). All these are euphemisms for male-male sex, conforming to certain specific conventions’. Well aware of the fact that men and women could see each other unclothed at public baths and hot springs without restrictions at any given time, they had to add graphic erotic excitement.

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The art of shunga provided an inspiration for the Shōwa (1926–1989) and Heisei (1989–2019) art in Japanese video games, anime and manga known in the Western world as hentai and known formally in Japan as jū hachi kin (adult-only, literally "18-restricted"). Like shunga, hentai is sexually explicit in its imagery. Shakespeare, Sebastian (25 October 2013). "Japanese erotica is unveiled 40 years on". London Evening Standard. p.17. Edo period shunga sought to express a varied world of contemporary sexual possibilities. Some writers on the subject refer to this as the creation of a world parallel to contemporary urban life, but idealised, eroticised and fantastical. [1] [4] Characters [ edit ] Kitagawa Utamaro, "Client Lubricating a Prostitute" (while another peers through), late-eighteenth-century print, F. M. Bertholet Collection

But shunga were a popular mainstay and an important part of itinerant book lenders’ business. They would go to a house, show the books available, lend out the ones desired and recollect them after an agreed period of time. At the time, that was most likely the most common way to enjoy shunga. Men and women were both eager customers. Only very recently can shunga be shown openly and uncensored in Japan again. At the time of this writing, for example, a large shunga exhibition can be seen at the Eisei Bunko Museum in Tokyo. Harunobu Suzuki: Enjoying the Evening Cool (1769) Shunga Exhibition at Eisei Bunko MuseumBy far the majority of shunga depict the sexual relations of the ordinary people, the chōnin, the townsmen, women, merchant class, artisans and farmers. Occasionally there also appear Dutch or Portuguese foreigners. [1] Works depicting courtesans have since been criticised for painting an idealised picture of life in the pleasure quarters. It has been argued that they masked the situation of virtual slavery under which sex workers lived. [9] However, Utamaro is just one example of an artist who was sensitive to the inner life of the courtesan, for example showing them wistfully dreaming of escape from Yoshiwara through marriage. [8] a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Kielletyt kuvat: Vanhaa eroottista taidetta Japanista / Förbjudna bilder: Gammal erotisk konst från Japan / Forbidden Images: Erotic art from Japan's Edo period (in Finnish, Swedish, and English). Helsinki, Finland: Helsinki City Art Museum. 2002. pp.23–28. ISBN 951-8965-53-6.