Description

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This book includes work by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), who produced erotic imagery as a standard part of their work. The erotic encounters depicted in shunga reflect multiple perspectives--male, female, heterosexual, and same-sex. There is a particular emphasis on sexual situations in everyday life: a wife catches her husband seducing a maid, a couple is spied on by a curious servant, and mice start copulating in imitation of the humans. Japanese erotic art was characterized by exaggeration and fantasy and, as one verse-writer warns, "The foolish couple copy shunga and pull a muscle." Shunga examines this underexplored area of Japanese culture and is fully illustrated with fascinating images from the rich collections of the British Museum, many of which have never been published before.

About the Author

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Rosina Buckland is curator of the Japanese collections at the National Museum of Scotland. Her primary interests are the art and culture of the late Edo period and early Meiji era, with a focus on paintings and prints. She is a co-author of" A Japanese Menagerie: Animal Pictures by Kowanabe Kyosai" (2006).