Debuted in the British Museum’s Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art, shunga 春画 is traditional Japanese erotic art that has been around since the Heian Period in the 12th century. Bizarrely captivating, it would not be unfitting of the title “The Unsung Karma Sutra of the Far East”. Even though it illustrates extremely visual acts of sexual intercourse, does this qualify it as olden day porn? Shunga is an art form of symbolisms that intermixes subtle sensuality with garishly grotesque elements. However, though in tasteful contrast with the highly objectified and sexualized porn industry of today, its purpose may have leaned toward pornography when shunga prints became mass-produced.

The Japanese Cultural Mindset

The Japanese are known for emphasizing grace and sophistication, especially in appearance and deportment. In doing so they create a certain aloofness about them, their thoughts and emotions hidden behind a clean-cut, prim and proper façade. These repressed feelings may have manifested in modern times in forms such as hentai anime, used underwear and dildo vending machines, and the “Pervert Alert ちかんに注意” signs on the streets of Japan. Shunga has been a taboo subject for a long time. A peek behind these seemingly impenetrable silkscreen doors reveals an underworld of erotic sin that has actually been around since ancient times.

Shunga Collections: From Foreplay to Climax

Three main forms of shunga may be seen at the Eisei Bunko Museum:

  • hand-drawn
  • okiyo-e 浮世絵 woodblock print
  • “bean” mameban 豆版 or pocket-sized miniatures

The collection starts off depicting subtle foreplay of a peek of skin, furtive glances and strategically positioned roving hands. Background details such as intricate kimono patterns and the surrounding flora and fauna are indicative of possibly playful or intense moods. One’s emotions and thoughts are teased and drawn in to the lavishly elaborate world of shunga.

Thereafter, the intensity builds up and unbridled (hetero)sexual desires overwhelm. Dating as far back as the Heian period, hand-drawn artworks were the first shunga and usually presented as gifts to figures of authority. Delicate, free brush strokes and soft, fine details in bold colours were characteristic of the hand-drawn style. Special art schools such as the Kano and Tosa schools drew shunga for feudal lords with well wishes for plentiful descendants and victorious battles. The artist’s attention to literal and figurative detail, and society’s recognition and appreciation of art at that time largely transcends the shallow, vacuous acts in modern day porn.

“In the west, we have created a state of affairs where there has to be a firewall between art and pornography, but Shunga is both sexually explicit and demonstrably art.” – Tim Clark, curator of Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art at The British Museum

Deviancy Amplification Spiral

The halcyon days of shunga climaxed in the Edo period, when the woodblock printing technique simplified production. The range in material became aberrantly diversified. Orgies, Kabuki opera, and demons with monstrous phalli rampaged and caroused in a surreal celebration of hedonism. The infamous The Dream of a Fisherman’s Wife or Tako to Ama 蛸と海女 by Hokusai also makes its appearance, illustrating an octopus pleasuring a woman into the throes of passion.

Peasants and nobility alike relished the satire and ludicrousness of shunga. The freakish nature of shunga resulted in a ban on subsequent publications of erotica. This spawned a black market, and the trade flourished even more. Meanwhile across the world, erotic lithography was born in France.

The Parallelism of Shunga and Porn

After the censorship, shunga retained major popularity and pocket versions emerged. They were sold in cheap packs of 8 or 12 and produced in large quantities. It became di rigueur for people to carry a little pillow book with them. This practice even continued on to the early modern era for front line soldiers when Japan engaged in war with other countries. Because of the sheer proliferation of bean-sized shunga, few studies or statistics are available on them. This refutation of the intent and dignity of the artist is a testament to how commercialization is the bane of art.

Shunga tell a story, of the way of life and thought in olden day Japan and goes beyond mere orchestration of the flesh in pornography. The fantasy underworld of animalistic desire and impassioned urges are channeled through intricate detail and positioning, and raw imagination.

The SHUNGA exhibit runs from 9th September to 23rd December 2015 at the Eisei Bunko Museum in Tokyo. Aged 18 and above for admission. For a contemporary remix, the photographer Nobuyoshi Araki presents his take on shunga in real-life.