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10 Erotic Shunga
Designs Featuring 'Barbaric' Westerners.
Few Japanese of the 18th
and 19th Century travelled abroad and fewer returned, so that
a rendez-vous with strangers was only possible in their own
homeland. Nagasaki had a rather international atmosphere, with
its section of Chinese and a limited group of Europeans and
their enslaved Indonesian servants. >
Shunga
fans were interested in these residents, and all are portrayed
(though in unequal frequency) in images and stories. The
following ten are colourful and striking examples (in no
particular order):
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10) Chõkyõsai
Eiri ( act. 1789~1801 )
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This Eiri design from his Models of
Calligraphy (c.1801) was inspired by >
Utamaro's
masterpiece (see No.2) Utamakura (Poem of the Pillow)
and features a Dutchman (most probably a Dutch Captain)
having intercourse with a Japanese courtesan. These
prostitutes were known as Oranda-yuki ('those going
to the Dutch'), as opposed to the Kara-yuki ('those
going to the Chinese') and the Nihon-yuki ('those
going to the Japanese').
Incense burns on a table next to them.
Some Japanese believed that this was necessary because of
the funny smell these red-haired barbarians produced but in
reality these incense burners were cleverly sold by the
Yotsumeya, a shop specializing in sex paraphernalia, as an
enhancer of the sexual appetite. Striking in this desgin are
the Western influences emulating the tone effect of Western
copperplate engraving.
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9)
Yanagawa Shigenobu ( 1787~1832 )
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In this distinguishing surimono print
(c.1830) Shigenobu depicts his protagonists, a Western
couple, as god-like figures (the woman is stunningly
beautiful) set in a heavenly setting. Underneath the
genitals of the woman vaginal fluids are collected on a
plate. The inevitable incense burner on a small table in the
background.
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8) Keisai Eisen ( 1790~1848 )
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design from
> Keisai
Eisen's series' Midare Gami (Hair in
Disarray / Tangled Hair)', c. 1817,
depicts a Dutchman coupling with his wife and is one
of the early applications of the tone effects of Western
copperplate engraving in shunga. Also striking is the
rich color gradation of the female's clothing.
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7) Kitagawa Utamaro (
1753~1806 )
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very early rendering by Utamaro (c.1790s) of a Westerner
making love to a Japanese courtesan. A comic detail is the
motif on the Dutchman's green suit which also appears on his
phallus while the pubic hair resembles the hair on his head.
Just like in Eiri's design (see No.1 !) the hands of this
European stranger have long cat-like fingernails.
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6)
Katsushika Hokusai ( 1760~1849 )
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From >
Hokusai's
famous Young Pine Saplings -series (c.1814) the
depiction of a Chinese couple collecting vaginal liquids
with a ladle. The man is wearing a ring around his penis
called namako no wa. The belief that the Western
strangers, Chinese as well as Europeans, were very
enthusiastic on gathering vaginal liquids for medicinal or
other uses, was very popular in Edo (nowadays Tokyo) Japan.
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5) Yanagawa Shigenobu (
1787~1832 )
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composition of a Western couple from the ' Willow Storm ' -series,
late 1820s is unique within shunga, not only for the
subject-matter but also for the attempts at shading, most
likely in imitation of Western copperplate etching. It is
interesting to speculate about which Western examples
circulating in Japan at the time would have provided the
inspiration for this print. Perhaps they were prints based on
the drawings in or later eighteenth century imitations of Il
Modo by Giulio Romano (1499-1546).
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4) Yanagawa Shigenobu (
1787~1832 )
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truly astonishing shunga is archetypal of the print
designs in Shigenobu's album Willow Storm. It
represents an event already known in the work of Katsushika
Hokusai (see No.6 !) - the acquiring of vaginal liquids. The
tiny feet of the woman and the curled plait on top of the
man's head emphasize their Chinese origin.
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3) Utagawa Kuniyoshi (
1797~1861 )
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small koban print from the Utagawa school (possibly Utagawa
Kuniyoshi) published c.1861. The square cartouche in the
upper right displays the English flag of Saint George,
gehind whoch is a puff of steam, presumably from a steam
engine. The three fully clad foreign girls accost a Japanese
man, and the text, printed in negative (white on grey), in
the bottom left corner reads, 'Isn't it too much, can't I
have a break?' (Lane and hayashi 1995-98/2000:
supplemental vol.1,132). Although this print concerns a shunga
design it's not explicit in its portrayal; only a subtle
insinuation of one of the women's pubic hair.
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2)
Kitagawa Utamaro ( 1753~1806 )
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In this rather unflattering
image of an intimate Dutch couple >
Utamaro
depicts the man as a rude barbarian (the hat suggests he
could be a captain) with almost cannibalistic tendencies. Or
as described by Timon Screech in his 'Sex and the
Floating World ' : "...a wind-blown seadog with a
woman seemingly of his own ethnic group although dressed in
the costume of a different epoch". This oban print is
from Utamaro's 'Poem of the Pillow' - series (c.1799)
which is considered to be one of the great highlights in shunga
and Ukiyo-e.
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1) Keisai Eisen ( 1790~1848 )
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Westerner penetrates a sleeping courtesan who's laying with
her head on a salon table. In front of the couple on the
floor lays a sachet containing an aphrodisiac for women
called nyoetsugan. This egoyomi (calendar
print) design is meticulously printed with various gauffrage
and pigment details, published in c.1810s and attributed to
the artist Keisai Eisen (1790-1848).
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Yokohama-e
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