Shunga Erotic
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Shunga Erotic
Vincent van Gogh, Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) , 1887, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Kitagawa Utamaro, Summer Breeze , 1799. Mottingers-Meinung .
Utagawa Kunisada, Exchanged love couple, 1830-1840. Mottingers-Meinung.
Suzuki Harunobu, Kyōdai no shūgetsu (Autumn Moon on the Mirror Stand) , 1766. Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
Roll with erotic scenes, 17th century. Mottingers-Meinung.
Isoda Koryūsai, Love Couple with Young Spectators , c.1775. Mottingers-Meinung.
Utagawa Kunimaro, At The Tea Drinking , c.1860-1870. Mottingers-Meinung.
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Zuzanna Stańska
12 July 2022 10 min Read
Katsushika Hokusai, Kinoe no Komatsu , 1814. Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Detail.
Ukiyo-e art, pictures of the “floating world” are famous among those interested in art history. Everyone knows Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa . Ukiyo-e also became very popular among artists from the second half of the 19th century. With their colors, clear lines, and composition, they influenced artists such as Édouard Manet , Henri Toulouse-Lautrec , Vincent van Gogh , and the Impressionists . However, there is one type of ukiyo-e that isn’t presented as often as 36 Views of Mount Fuji . It’s the type that surprised western visitors to Japan when they discovered it. The type that was characterized by a seemingly relaxed attitude to nakedness and sexuality. It’s Shun-ga , which in Japanese means “spring pictures.”
A few years ago in the MAK Vienna, there was an excellent exhibition; Shunga – Erotic Art from Japan , presenting erotic color woodblock prints loaned from the Leopold Museum, supplemented by prints from the MAK collection and further Viennese private collections.
Shunga was very popular in East Asia. Almost all great ukiyo-e artists produced erotic pictures. Although forbidden by the government, they were sold unsigned under the counter and estimated to form up to 50% of ukiyo-e production.
The Japanese approach to sexuality was very different from the European one, where sexuality had been cloaked in heroic and religious connotations. European art was mostly limited to the female naked body (although male nudes rarely happened too, and we were trying to spot them in this article) . In Japanese culture, a playful approach to sex is in central focus. Religion, philosophy, and medicine are often employed in them as a metaphor.
What always seems important is the consensus of the participants and the lack of violence, which is only rarely a subject of the genre. Also, a frequent touch of humor – supported by entertaining dialogue – is added to them. S hunga offered sexuality an unashamed visual platform, where sexual pleasure, female sexuality, and homosexuality were not only acknowledged but encouraged.
The primary use of shunga would have involved viewing and sharing the paintings or books with close friends or sexual partners. The images were also used to provide sexual education for young couples, or to encourage a warrior going into battle. It seems that they were also highly valued by women, as it has been found among the material goods presented to a Japanese bride.
As the scenes may not be easy to understand in some cases, note the titles.
The majority of shunga depict the sexual relations of ordinary people. Occasionally Dutch or Portuguese foreigners also appear. Courtesans also form the subject of many shunga.
While most shunga were heterosexual, many depicted male-on-male trysts. Woman-on-woman images were less common but there are extant works depicting this. Masturbation was also depicted.
In almost all shunga, the characters are fully clothed. Nudity was not inherently erotic in Japan as people were used to seeing the opposite sex naked in communal baths. The clothing also helped the reader identify courtesans and foreigners, the prints often contained symbolic meaning, and it drew attention to the parts of the body that were revealed, that is the genitalia.
Regarding the genitalia – shunga couples are often shown in unrealistic positions with exaggerated genitalia. There is an interesting explanation for this; it increased visibility of the sexually explicit content. Moreover, the genitalia is interpreted as a “second face”, expressing the primal passions behind the everyday face, passions that women are obligated to conceal, and is, therefore, the same size as the head and placed unnaturally closely to it, in an awkward position.
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Home Culture (NSFW) Shunga: Japanese Erotic Art
Adam Pasion is a cartoonist and illustrator living in Nagoya, Japan. His work has appeared in The Japan Times, Japanzine, Nag Mag and RAN Magazine.
Every time there is some sort of tragedy, natural or otherwise, politicians and social commentators are quick to point the blame at some sort of moral failure of our society. In the immediate aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, then Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara described the destruction as “divine punishment” for Japanese moral failures. In 1989, the media was quick to blame the influence of pornography, horror films and anime for the grisly murders of 4 young girls by Tsutomo Miyazaki, dubbed the “ Otaku murderer. ” Each successive generation seems to believe we are backsliding into ever deeper moral depravity, but to quote the Talking Heads, things now are “same as it ever was.” Want proof?
Shunga is a type of erotic art that was popular in Japan in the Edo (1603-1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods. Typically these were created using the popular woodblock printing method known as ukiyo-e. Although erotic ukiyo-e is not nearly as well known as some of the more iconic images such as Hokusai’s waves or Hiroshige’s sweeping landscapes, they were immensely popular at the time, by both men and women of all social classes, including samurai, merchants and peasants, and shunga prints were created by nearly all ukiyo-e artists.
It is not all that surprising that people in Japan enjoyed eroticism and pornography hundreds of years ago, but what might come as a surprise is the enormous variety of themes. Lesbian orgies, masturbation, sex toys, oral and anal sex, interracial trysts, bondage, rape fantasies and even pedophilia and bestiality. Tentacle porn? Sure – there is a historical precedent. But don’t just take my word for it. Here are some images that might be shocking even to modern sensibilities.
Orgies (Harem)
Multiple partners is a common theme in shunga prints. In fact, really the only rare thing about this piece is the lack of clothing. Due to the fact that men and women often shared public bathing spaces, the naked body in and of itself was not seen as particularly erotic. In fact most shunga depicts the characters with their clothes on as the clothing conveys subtle clues about the character’s social rank or occupation, which help build a narrative. Also, clothing helps to draw the eye to the focal point of the drawing, which is another way of saying the genitals.
A tryst with a young lover
This one does not seem all that shocking, until you realize that the lover is a child – it was not uncommon for samurai and even priests to take young boys as lovers in ancient times. Such stories can even be found in the Tales of the Genji – one of the oldest known literary works in Japan.
MILFs
Nursing a baby while having sex – talk about multi-tasking!
Mature MILFs and Cosplay
I am not sure who he thinks he is fooling. Even wearing a shishi dragon mask, that boy is clearly old enough to know what is going on. Or he is not, which would make the scene all the more terrifying by wearing a dragon costume.
Sex Toys (Strap-on)
I have to admit, I am curious. Before the advent of plastic and commercial rubber production, just what were these made of? I guess Japan was world renowned for their lacquer ware…
It bears mentioning that before interaction with modern Western societies, many aspects of Japanese sexuality, such as sexual preferences or the age of consent were much more fluid (pardon the pun) than they are now. Sexuality become gradually more codified and rigid (pardon this pun as well) with increased interaction with the West.
Voyeur (Peeping Tom)
What is more exciting than watching a girl pee? Watching a guy watch a girl pee. Obviously. Maybe she is changing, or doing kegel exercises, or preparing for childbirth – no matter what she is doing, the man surreptitiously watching with his johnson exposed makes this is voyeur porn.
BL?
BL, or “boy’s love” is a genre of pornographic comic books aimed at predominately female readers. It is distinct from gay pornography both because the intended audience is usually women, and because the characters themselves are often heterosexual. The excitement is derived from the taboo of two heterosexual males falling into homoerotic situations. It isn’t clear if this is a precursor or not, but the crying woman in the corner is a good sign that somebody in this scene is not entirely out of the closet.
Maturbation
Really the difference between “erotic art” and pornography comes down to intention on both the part of the creator and the consumer. This piece settles the matter in one fell swoop – the woman in the piece is masturbating…TO A BOOK OF SHUNGA! This shows not only that customers bought the art with that purpose in mind, but that the creators themselves were fully aware of that fact as well. Case closed.
Gay and interracial!
This image depicts a Japanese soldier sodomizing a Russian soldier. This image was created at the time of the Russo-Japanese war, so there may be a bit of symbolism here as well. Give it to ’em Japan!
Bestiality (Zoophilia)
While not common, bestiality was an occasional theme in some shunga pieces. It is hard to determine what the reaction might have been at that time in Japanese society, but family pets did play less of a role in Japanese families than they do today.
And now for your daily dose of WTF – these are some images that defy simple classification.
The precursor to tentacle porn. You wondered why all those anime videos feature women being attacked by tentacled monsters – perhaps they were informed by images like this.
This image is probably not intended to be erotic so much as informative. Shunga were often used by mothers to explain sexuality to their daughters, or even daughters-in-law before their wedding night. There was no stigma about women buying and owning such art in Edo era Japan. This could be an early attempt at sex education.
Rule number 34 of the internet – “if you can think of it, there is a porno version of it somewhere on the internet. No exceptions.” I mention this rule because, although I have no idea what one might call a flatulence fetish, there surely must be a name and whole websites dedicated to it. You do the footwork yourself if you are curious.
and for your number one WTF of the day…
I don’t even know where to begin with this one, other than to say that often in shunga, the genitals were referred to as “the second face” – which is why they were often enlarged and somewhat grotesque. Perhaps this was meant to show that they should be considered the first face, since that is where everyone is looking anyway.
Believe it or not there were actually many images that were too distasteful to republish here. Some involving animals, very small children, or just a few more veiny erections than I care to stare at. Should you decided to go exploring deeper into the world of shunga, know that you have been warned.
However if you like what you see and are in the Tokyo area sometime during the next 3 months, you are in luck:
[qem event-‘1976’]
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by Johannes Schonherr , October 2015
Ukiyo-e (Pictures from the Floating World) are woodblock images depicting life in all its aspects during the Edo Period (1603-1868).
Travel and landscapes, studies of the daily work and pleasures of the Edo (present-day Tokyo) population as well as the farmers, fishermen, merchants, soldiers, samurai, and daimyo in the provinces were realistically and often humorously captured by skilled artists such as Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Utamaro Kitagawa (1753-1806), Harunobu Suzuki (1725-1770) and Eishi Chobunsai (1756-1829).
Realistic paintings of life in Japan were actually made long before the Edo era, but it was in the Edo Period that the technique of wood printing came to full fore.
Woodcarvers and printers experimented with new printing inks, and materials like gold, silver, and exclusive pigments were also put to use to create the finest private editions of the images.
But printing also meant that the images could be replicated in large numbers, they could be mass-produced.
While a painting would be an original that could be sold only once at a time, identical wood prints could be made available for a relatively low price to a wide range of the population.
Among the most famous ukiyo-e today is Katsushika Hokusai’s series 36 Views of Mt. Fuji , including The Great Wave off Kanagawa , known to virtually everyone with even the slightest interest in Japan.
Lesser known is that the ukiyo-e concept of covering almost all aspects of contemporary life included both the real and the artistically imagined sex life of Edo Japan. Those pictures are known under the name shunga (which translates to “Spring Pictures”).
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.
On the other hand, no artists are known today who produced only shunga . Shunga were not the work of specialized pornographers. Sex was considered a natural part of life in Edo Japan and the production of erotic images reflected this point of view.
Edo Japan was not a paradise of sexual liberty. The feudal class hierarchies were very strict and the penalties for breaking the rules were draconian. A farm boy falling in love with the daughter of a samurai? Unthinkable. If such a liaison would have been discovered, the farm boy would have to count himself lucky if the samurai wouldn’t do anything worse to him than cutting him to pieces with his katana .
But within the given social structure, a lot of things were relatively easy-going. Prostitution districts existed in every town, Tokyo’s Yoshiwara being the most famous but not the only one by far. In fact, prostitution took place at many bath houses / hot springs as well as at the tea houses (which were in fact often run as part of the bath houses). For the hard-working day laborer, paid sex was certainly within reach.
Men with the means to afford it often had concubines aside from their wives, and young folks fell in love and ran away with the maid they met in the hostel where they stayed – Japanese literature is awash with such stories.
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.
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.
The wood print artists went for extremely oversized genitals. “Had I depicted it [the genitals] in its actual size, there would be nothing of interest. Don’t we say art is fantasy?” quotes the book Kokon chomonju ( Famous Sayings Old and New , 1254) a monk already painting shunga in the Kamakura Period (1185-1333).
That nudity as such was nothing that would arouse much interest in Edo Japan also led the woodcarvers to dress the protagonists in their pictures in dramatically arranged kimonos during their sex acts. Elaborate dressing revealing nothing but the center of the action was their way of presentation.
But if you look closer, a lot of the emotions depicted are not only shown via the sex acts themselves and the way dresses get rearranged through them but also in the faces, the fingers, and the hair of the people in the images.
A lot of historical detail can be spotted as well, like the blackened teeth of fresh brides (a fashion of the times). The male members were of course left uncircumcised. Circumcision was an unknown concept in Japan at the time.
The people depicted ranged from noblemen to samurai to kabuki actors to just regular people such as merchants and farmers. Very common was the portrayal of prostitutes at their work with their customers. Virtually no stratum of society was excluded.
As diverse as the variety of people depicted, as various was the variety of the sex acts themselves. Heterosexual encounters in all imaginable forms formed the bulk of the pictures. Gay and lesbian encounters were however also present as well as rather fantastic trysts.
The protagonists all appear to be enjoying themselves and there is little or no depiction of coercion.
One of the most famous shunga ever carved is Hokusai’s The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife . The Japanese title of the work is Ama to Tako ( The Pearl Diver and the Octopus ) (1814) and it shows a nude woman being fondled by both a large and a small octopus.
In fact, ama (female pearl divers) formed their own subculture at the time and they typically dived naked. Much later, in the 1960s, pink movies also put a focus on the always fascinating ama .
Shunga were both sold as rather expensive scrolls as well as in the form of books. The latter typically allowed for a greater variety of genres. Though long scrolls could certainly tell exciting stories, it was books that were able to reprint classic novels like, say, the Tale of Genji , but illustrate them with erotic images.
From time to time, the Tokugawa shogunate published books telling young women how to behave properly. Such books were quickly satirized in shunga , mocking the correct morals of the original works with lascivious content while staying very close to the format and style of the of
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