nature boy

from Shiohi no tsuto “Gifts of the ebb tide”//”The shell book”. (1789)

Tsuneo Shiroda fl.ca. 1940’s Nude I

Eiho Hirezaki (1881-1968) - Book Illustration kuchi-e print.

Hanko Kajita ‘Violin Player & Dancing Animals’ 1900-1910’s woodblock print

Shoso Mishima ‘Couple in Distress’ 1896 kuchi-e print

Shoso Mishima ‘Hiding Knife’ 1900-1910’s kuchi-e print

Meiji period shunga, erotic art sub-genre of ukiyo-e, Japanese woodblock prints and paintings.You can tell it’s later Meiji-era because of the guy’s western-style  haircut.

Apologies to the squeamish but this is rather tame for the genre and somewhat “artistically” censored, cut off there before you see too too much, and there are much more explicit ones out there I could have chosen to feature ( Hokusai’s unnamed but well known piece often called Tako to ama “Octopus and Pearl Diver” otherwise known in English as The Dream of The Fisherman’s Wife anyone? Note: Do not search this piece if unaware of it and are afraid of seafood).

The genre as far as quality is often just the same as regular ukiyo-e and as such often show great care in the creation of beautiful depictions of fabrics, florals, interiors and also landscape. They just so happen to delve into erotic content. Sometimes it isn’t even all that explicit, which blurs the line between ukiyo-e and shunga work.  Despite intentional exaggeration in certain things (guess which) and unrealistic positions for the sake of composition in more explicit pieces, a great deal actually capture a strange grasp of mundanity and realism about sexuality.