Shunga ten: Shunga

Abstract

"Japanese culture has long had an ambivalent relationship with erotic art, loving it secretly, but never exhibiting it openly. A current exhibition, titled Shunga (literally 'spring pictures,' a long-standing Japanese euphemism for erotic paintings), has overcome a number of restrictions to present a phenomenal display of hand-painted works and ukiyo-e woodblock prints from the Edo period (1603-1867). Because all the works are erotic, and many of them explicitly so, finding a venue for the exhibition was not easy. The Eisei Bunko Museum [...] finally agreed to host the show, but only after a roster of researchers, professors and art specialists went public with their views about the importance and value of these works. The 133 masterpieces in the exhibition were culled from the British Museum, various Japanese museums, and university and personal collections. An exhibition in 2013 at the British Museum, Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art, helped pave the way for showing these works in the country of their origin. About half of the pieces at the Eisei Bunko Museum were also in that 2013 show. Works by Kitagawa Utamaro, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Hokusai Katsushika, and other ukiyo-e masters demonstrate that far from being an unusual or unknown genre, shunga were printed, painted and distributed widely, if somewhat covertly. Although a few Japanese exhibitions included such erotic works in the past, this is the first time that a full-scale show consisting entirely of shunga has been held in Japan. The result is an eye-opening introduction to an engaging and unique genre of Japanese art. The exhibition includes roughly 100 erotic ukiyo-e woodblock prints, including 'bean-size' prints about the size of your palm, along with 38 brush paintings by ukiyo-e masters."-- Artscape.jp.