Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art

by Timothy Clark (Editor), C. Andrew Gerstle (Editor), Aki Ishimgami (Editor)

You can discover Japanese art like no other. Originally created by the artists of the ukiyo-e school of the floating world to advertise brothels in 17th-century Yoshiwara, these popular spring pictures (shunga) transcended class and gender in Japan for almost 300 years. These tender, humorous and brightly coloured pieces celebrate sexual pleasure in all its forms, culminating in the beautiful, yet graphic, work of iconic artists Utamaro, Hokusai and Kunisada. This catalogue of a major international exhibition aims to answer some key questions about what shunga is and why was it produced. Erotic Japanese art was heavily suppressed in Japan from the 1870s onwards as part of a process of cultural modernisation that imported many contemporary western moral values. Only in the last twenty years or so has it been possible to publish unexpurgated examples in Japan and this ground-breaking publication presents this fascinating art in its historical and cultural context for the first time. Within Japan, shunga has continued to influence modern forms of art, including manga, anime and Japanese tattoo art. Drawing on the latest scholarship and featuring over 400 images of works from major public and private collections, this landmark book sheds new light on this unique art form within Japanese social and cultural history. Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese art is published to accompany an exhibition at the British Museum from October 2013 to January 2014.

Genres: Art, Japan, Erotica

566 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2013

About the author

Timothy Clark is Head of the Japanese Section in the Department of Asia at the British Museum.

Reviews

[Nicolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really torn on this one. In general it was a really interesting experience since this book thoroughly introduces the art-form of shunga and goes quite deep into the details under which different periodes came about and the different styles and motives. But it truly suffers from an information overload and a lack of structure.
If one would already be a specialist on Shunga or at least Japanese Art/History it might not prove to be as big an issue as it was to me, but the neverending lists of artist names and time events I haven't heard about made it very difficult to keep reading - I admit to having switched to skimming some of the texts after the first half of the book.
That said, it still has to be acknowledged, that such a comprehensive overview and introduction to the world of shunga - and one written in plain english - does not really have a large competitive field of literature to compare it to, so I feel like anything less than 4 stars would be undervaluing.

[Trinh · Rating 3 out of 5]

good