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The Clampdowns On Shunga During the Edo
Period.
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There were three major clampdowns on shunga during the
Edo period. The first had been the Law on Illustrated
Publications promulgated in 1722 (Kyoho 7). Whereas shunga
had been sold openly until that time, with the author’s,
artist’s, and publisher’s names appearing in the shunga
volumes, the 1722 Law strictly prohibited all printing and
sales of shunga. It was only by issuing their works under
new titles – for instance the republication of famous
novelist Ihara Saikaku’s Koshoku Gonin Onna under
the new title Tosei Onna Katagi, and the similar
change of Koshoku Nidai Otoko to Shoen Okagami – that the
publishers were able to escape the disastrous banning their
works. Shunga publishing at the time had been centered in
the Osaka region, but the fact that works by the artist
Nishikawa Sukenobu, for instance, had to have their titles
changed, and the printed volumes were scattered or lost to
the outlying regions, appears to have been a result of the
official clampdown at this time.
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| The second
clampdown took place under the driection of Minister
Matsudaira Sadanobu as part of the Kansei Reforms.
On that occasion a number of popular shunga artists
were punished by being handcuffed for fifty days.
Among them was Santo Kyoden, who in consultation
with publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo had issued such new
works as Shikake Bunko and Nishiki No Ura under the
series title Kyokun Yomihon. This was in the spring
of 1791 (Kansei 3).
The third clampdown against shunga and romance
stories took place in conjunction with the Tempo
Reforms under Minister Mizuno Echizen no Kami, the
circumstances of which we will now discuss. The
particularly harsh clampdown started in the fifth
month of 1841 (Tempo 12), and continued through the
ninth, lunar leap-month two years later. The Tempo
Reforms were more far-reaching than a clampdown on
shunga alone. The dual objectives of the reforms
were to root out corruption in the political sphere
and to break up such social trends as the
ostentatious display of wealth and affluence. |
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As such,
the reform ordinances from the fifth month of Tempo 12
included a wide range of strict provisions. Among the long
list of such injunctions were a prohibition on elaborate
official inauguration ceremonies and Buddhist rites; the
banning of the sale and use of fireworks; an end to sales of
expensive toys such as the hina-ningyo doll sets; a
prohibition against the sale of the year’s first crop at
vastly inflated seasonal prices; bans on the hanging of
gilded shop signs, tattoos, lotteries, gambling, and
elaborate or ornamental women’s hair dressing; and a
strict limit placed on the number of playhouses and theaters
for entertainment – all of which were looked upon
disapprovingly, and were severely restricted through the
reform measures.
Not
even publications designed for mass entertainment could
escape these harsh measures, such that the use of
extravagant colors for the covers or pictures in illustrated
books was strictly prohibited as an ostentatious,
unnecessary expense.
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