1
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Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE
www.osdb.link/lm

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Shunga: the Lost Japanese Erotica

3
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<i>Kyoto</i>

4
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<i>International Research Center</i>
for Japanese Studies

5
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<i>The "Handscroll for the Sleeve"</i>
reproduction project has begun.

6
00:02:06,376 --> 00:02:09,630
This bit needs more tone.

7
00:02:10,047 --> 00:02:13,300
Overall, it seems kind of dark.

8
00:02:13,383 --> 00:02:16,345
- It should be quite a bit lighter.
- Yes.

9
00:02:18,639 --> 00:02:23,519
Let's make the hair thinner, shall we?
That'll create a softer effect.

10
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The pubic hair's a bit thick, isn't it?

11
00:02:28,106 --> 00:02:31,527
Yes, it looks like a scrubbing brush.

12
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Make the ends thinner.

13
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<i>Almost nobody produces</i>
shunga nowadays.

14
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<i>There's nobody who can</i>
pass on the techniques.

15
00:02:45,749 --> 00:02:47,668
In our trade, the old craftsmen
have all retired.

16
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<i>Publisher Yukiko Takahashi</i>
6th generation head of Takahashi Kobo

17
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So I want the present generation
to master the skills.

18
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If they don't, the art
will be lost forever.

19
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That's how this project came about.

20
00:03:03,642 --> 00:03:06,979
It's quite a difficult gradation.

21
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The darkest color is--

22
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- Which page?
- Ten. 0, 5.

23
00:03:12,943 --> 00:03:16,113
It feels like the printing is too clean.

24
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The original is coarser, vaguer.

25
00:03:19,491 --> 00:03:24,705
That's how Edo craftsmen did it!

26
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I was in my mid-thirties...

27
00:03:30,836 --> 00:03:35,841
when my dad began preparing me
for when I took over.

28
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And later, when I decided
to tackle shunga,

29
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he told me to choose
a piece which had good taste.

30
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<i>He respected shunga like</i>
any other genre of ukiyo-e.

31
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<i>Printer Harumasa Takahashi</i>
4th generation head of Takahashi Kobo

32
00:03:48,061 --> 00:03:51,899
<i>That's how I think he felt about it.</i>

33
00:03:52,691 --> 00:03:58,697
Then the British Museum exhibited
some shunga masterpieces, including...

34
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<i>Handscroll for the Sleeve </i>by Kiyonaga.

35
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When I saw it, I knew
that this was the one.

36
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If any work should be
reproduced, it was this.

37
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<i>"Handscroll for the Sleeve" (c. 1785)</i>
set of 12 prints by Torii Kiyonaga

38
00:04:26,683 --> 00:04:31,855
<i>The bold wide framing of the figures</i>
and the quality of the artwork...

39
00:04:31,939 --> 00:04:36,235
<i>make these prints</i>
a masterpiece of the shunga genre.

40
00:04:55,170 --> 00:04:57,923
<i>Handscroll for the Sleeve is special...</i>

41
00:04:58,215 --> 00:05:00,676
<i>because of its long, narrow frame,</i>

42
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<i>which is very rare in shunga.</i>

43
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Up until then, shunga had
always showed the whole scene.

44
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<i>Ukiyo-e researcher</i>
Aki Ishigami

45
00:05:09,935 --> 00:05:12,563
The central figures would always
be shown in their entirety,

46
00:05:12,604 --> 00:05:13,730
and in the background
would be some kind of text.

47
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<i>Accompanying text</i>

48
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That was the orthodox composition.

49
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<i>But this work zooms in</i>
on the couple lying down.

50
00:05:26,451 --> 00:05:33,208
<i>Having some parts outside the frame</i>
gives the picture its presence.

51
00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:38,505
<i>And there's no accompanying text.</i>

52
00:05:39,214 --> 00:05:44,178
<i>So it's only because the pictures</i>
themselves are so powerful...

53
00:05:44,386 --> 00:05:47,097
<i>that the work was even attempted.</i>

54
00:05:47,848 --> 00:05:53,979
The result is a masterpiece.
It's an outstanding work of the genre.

55
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<i>Looking at it, you can imagine</i>
their words, feel how they breathe.

56
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I'm fascinated by their relationship.

57
00:06:08,076 --> 00:06:12,456
<i>I feel how interesting</i>
a man-woman relationship can be.

58
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<i>Tokyo</i>

59
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<i>Carver</i>
Kayoko Suga

60
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<i>Ke-wari</i>
(carving hair)

61
00:08:12,743 --> 00:08:16,371
<i>In ukiyo-e, women's hairlines</i>
are really intricate,

62
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<i>carved with countless fine lines.</i>

63
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<i>Carving so many lines per millimeter</i>
is a real test of a craftsman's skill.

64
00:08:25,797 --> 00:08:30,427
And when it comes to shunga,

65
00:08:30,511 --> 00:08:34,598
frankly speaking,
the pubic hair is the real test.

66
00:08:35,390 --> 00:08:39,269
<i>For a start, it's curly, not straight,</i>

67
00:08:39,853 --> 00:08:42,314
<i>and it narrows toward the ends.</i>

68
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<i>And having so many hairs</i>
in such close proximity...

69
00:08:47,694 --> 00:08:50,447
<i>makes it very difficult to carve.</i>

70
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That's precisely the kind of technique
which the old craftsmen mastered.

71
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In the carving stage.

72
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<i>There's a flow, the lines have a flow.</i>
They weave and wind into each other.

73
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<i>It's quite a difficult challenge.</i>

74
00:10:13,947 --> 00:10:16,658
<i>Do you often carve shunga?</i>

75
00:10:17,367 --> 00:10:18,660
<i>No, almost never.</i>

76
00:10:21,580 --> 00:10:23,415
<i>There's no demand for it.</i>

77
00:10:26,752 --> 00:10:29,630
<i>The type of wood is different.</i>

78
00:10:30,714 --> 00:10:34,092
<i>We tend to use softer wood these days.</i>

79
00:10:35,052 --> 00:10:38,430
<i>And I'm sure they used</i>
different techniques.

80
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There are so few craftsmen nowadays.

81
00:10:43,101 --> 00:10:47,105
The true masters of the craft
back then had amazing skills.

82
00:10:49,900 --> 00:10:52,569
I'd love to see an original block.

83
00:11:15,217 --> 00:11:19,721
All these at once is too much.

84
00:11:26,144 --> 00:11:27,479
You know?

85
00:11:31,733 --> 00:11:32,609
The cover and contents
are completely different.

86
00:11:32,651 --> 00:11:36,071
<i>Art dealer</i>
Mitsuru Uragami

87
00:11:36,154 --> 00:11:37,781
The outside is--

88
00:11:39,741 --> 00:11:43,662
Works like this by Eisen
are popular nowadays.

89
00:11:43,745 --> 00:11:47,583
It's so cute.
The way the pink is used.

90
00:12:02,139 --> 00:12:08,562
Over 20 years ago,
in a bar in Ginza,

91
00:12:08,645 --> 00:12:10,856
I held a "Shunga Night" event.

92
00:12:10,939 --> 00:12:16,069
A very unusual gathering
to view some original prints.

93
00:12:16,153 --> 00:12:19,573
Shunga has become more visible,

94
00:12:19,656 --> 00:12:22,034
but it's still a rare sight.

95
00:12:22,367 --> 00:12:23,619
Shunga is a comedic genre.

96
00:12:23,702 --> 00:12:24,786
<i>Comedy</i>

97
00:12:24,870 --> 00:12:30,751
In the Edo era, people would gather
like this to enjoy them together.

98
00:12:30,959 --> 00:12:35,088
Doing this, we can see how
easygoing our ancestors were.

99
00:12:35,631 --> 00:12:37,799
Oh, they're out already!

100
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They're amazing.

101
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An original? Wow!

102
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<i>Writer</i>
Mariko Asabuki

103
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The colors are so beautiful.

104
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<i>Shunga lover</i>
Shungirl

105
00:12:50,229 --> 00:12:53,023
The silhouette is wonderful.

106
00:12:53,899 --> 00:12:57,903
<i>Drag queen/Artist</i>
Vivienne Sato

107
00:12:57,986 --> 00:13:00,989
The Edo era, very precocious.
There are 16 prints, right?

108
00:13:01,073 --> 00:13:03,075
<i>Writer-editor</i>
Mari Hashimoto

109
00:13:03,742 --> 00:13:06,828
I think there are eight by Harunobu.

110
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This stage is still just risqué.
They haven't done the deed yet.

111
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<i>Risqué</i>

112
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They're on the edge of doing it.

113
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It's merely the prologue.

114
00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:24,847
<i>Suzuki Harunobu (1725?-1770)</i>
Ukiyo-e artist of the mid-Edo era

115
00:13:24,930 --> 00:13:29,268
<i>His portrayals of androgynous, doll-like</i>
figures took the world by storm,

116
00:13:29,351 --> 00:13:33,522
<i>and led to the birth of nishiki-e</i>
(multi-colored printing).

117
00:13:34,731 --> 00:13:37,150
They're very tasteful.

118
00:13:39,236 --> 00:13:42,322
In Harunobu's work you can't
tell men and women apart.

119
00:13:42,406 --> 00:13:45,117
They're all very androgynous.

120
00:13:46,451 --> 00:13:50,998
Harunobu is famous for his
multi-colored prints, but actually,

121
00:13:51,081 --> 00:13:54,001
this style took the world by storm.

122
00:13:54,501 --> 00:13:57,337
Everyone began imitating his style.

123
00:14:00,841 --> 00:14:04,720
I love manga by Ryoko Yamagishi.

124
00:14:04,803 --> 00:14:07,681
They're very similar to these pieces.

125
00:14:07,764 --> 00:14:10,309
Their androgynous bodies.

126
00:14:11,393 --> 00:14:17,357
That's why Harunobu's work seemed
so familiar when I first saw it.

127
00:14:21,278 --> 00:14:28,535
The way this cotton looks like
a snow-capped mountain is so beautiful.

128
00:14:29,870 --> 00:14:33,081
It's certainly intended
to look like snow on a mountain.

129
00:14:34,166 --> 00:14:37,878
- And it also looks like semen.
- Yes, it does.

130
00:14:37,961 --> 00:14:42,007
- Oh, yes, you're right, now I see it!
- It's all I can see it as!

131
00:14:44,343 --> 00:14:47,095
I think this is really sexy.

132
00:14:47,179 --> 00:14:52,476
The ways she's stroking his leg
with her toes is so sensual.

133
00:14:53,519 --> 00:15:01,026
The fact that they're one step away
from intercourse makes it even more so.

134
00:15:03,028 --> 00:15:04,321
Yes.

135
00:15:04,655 --> 00:15:10,827
The most titillating scenes
are when the action is hidden.

136
00:15:10,911 --> 00:15:15,457
Much more than seeing the act itself.

137
00:15:19,211 --> 00:15:21,088
This is Mane'emon.

138
00:15:22,214 --> 00:15:23,090
The Mane'emon series.

139
00:15:23,173 --> 00:15:26,385
<i>"Elegant Erotic Mane'emon"</i>
by Suzuki Harunobu

140
00:15:26,468 --> 00:15:30,430
Mane'emon drinks a potion
which makes him shrink,

141
00:15:30,514 --> 00:15:33,308
and he goes on a journey
of erotic training.

142
00:15:33,392 --> 00:15:36,937
He travels around the land
observing various things.

143
00:15:37,020 --> 00:15:40,315
Watching couples having sex.

144
00:15:40,399 --> 00:15:43,986
A bit like the story of Tom Thumb.

145
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<i>Once upon a time, Mane'emon</i>
wished to master the secret arts of sex.

146
00:15:58,250 --> 00:16:00,169
<i>Mane'emon</i>

147
00:16:00,252 --> 00:16:04,965
<i>He drank a potion which made him</i>
as small as a bean, and went on a journey.

148
00:16:09,469 --> 00:16:15,642
<i>Traveling far and wide, he spied on</i>
all kinds of people having sex.

149
00:16:16,351 --> 00:16:20,230
You cheating bastard!
You do it any chance you get!

150
00:16:20,439 --> 00:16:23,066
I beg you, please forgive me!

151
00:16:26,737 --> 00:16:31,617
<i>At a male brothel, seeing two men</i>
going at it made him horny.

152
00:16:33,744 --> 00:16:39,166
How exciting!
That looks quite tricky!

153
00:16:41,084 --> 00:16:44,838
This is making my arm ache!

154
00:16:48,842 --> 00:16:52,888
<i>In the countryside, a young couple</i>
got an old man excited.

155
00:16:54,681 --> 00:17:01,396
Darling, give me your lips.
Listen to that noise from next door.

156
00:17:03,815 --> 00:17:06,485
Oooh, you're turning me on!

157
00:17:10,447 --> 00:17:15,577
But look at how big his balls are.
The size of pumpkins!

158
00:17:19,122 --> 00:17:21,917
<i>And then, while relaxing</i>
at Ikaho hot spring,

159
00:17:24,294 --> 00:17:30,384
<i>and on his way back home,</i>
Mane'emon saw all kinds of lovemaking.

160
00:17:32,636 --> 00:17:36,390
This guy has a huge tool!

161
00:17:36,849 --> 00:17:39,810
It's a pity he's so ugly.

162
00:17:46,608 --> 00:17:50,279
<i>Then, after returning to Edo,</i>
Mane'emon...

163
00:17:50,362 --> 00:17:53,991
<i>enjoyed himself looking around</i>
the brothels of Yoshiwara.

164
00:17:55,450 --> 00:17:57,786
Oooh, I love you!

165
00:18:01,707 --> 00:18:05,544
Take your time!
I'm more interested in your food.

166
00:18:09,548 --> 00:18:11,508
The Mane'emon character appears
in the pictures as a peeping tom...

167
00:18:11,592 --> 00:18:12,676
<i>Peeping tom</i>

168
00:18:13,927 --> 00:18:16,638
who spies on couples having sex.

169
00:18:17,264 --> 00:18:20,809
<i>And we're peeping at him</i>
peeping at them.

170
00:18:21,435 --> 00:18:28,817
<i>Because of his presence,</i>
we become third-party observers.

171
00:18:29,443 --> 00:18:35,574
<i>In other words, we become the</i>
peeping toms, catching glimpses.

172
00:18:35,908 --> 00:18:43,290
Shunga itself is all about peeping,
stealing glimpses of the scenes.

173
00:18:43,373 --> 00:18:46,335
That's an integral element of it.

174
00:18:47,044 --> 00:18:53,509
Mane'emon makes that element clear
in a very comical way.

175
00:18:53,926 --> 00:18:57,054
That's his role in the scenes,
in my opinion.

176
00:19:01,517 --> 00:19:04,353
We've looked at works by Harunobu.

177
00:19:04,770 --> 00:19:08,273
Of the following generation,
the artist who drew...

178
00:19:08,357 --> 00:19:09,441
the most inspiration from him
was Isoda Koryusai.

179
00:19:09,525 --> 00:19:12,653
<i>Isoda Koryusai</i>

180
00:19:12,736 --> 00:19:14,696
Long sleeves. A child's kimono.

181
00:19:15,864 --> 00:19:16,740
She's probably a virgin.

182
00:19:16,782 --> 00:19:18,784
<i>Virgin</i>

183
00:19:18,867 --> 00:19:23,455
It hurts at first, then she enjoys it.
A common shunga motif.

184
00:19:24,081 --> 00:19:28,961
The depiction of genitalia is
a clear indication of age.

185
00:19:29,044 --> 00:19:34,675
She has no pubic hair,
so she's probably in her mid-teens,

186
00:19:34,758 --> 00:19:37,594
and this is her first experience.

187
00:19:39,555 --> 00:19:43,100
This is by Koryusai too.

188
00:19:44,059 --> 00:19:49,147
It's obviously inspired by<i>Lovers Sharing an Umbrella </i>by Harunobu.

189
00:19:49,565 --> 00:19:51,483
<i>Maybe depicting the couple</i>
a few days later?

190
00:19:51,567 --> 00:19:53,986
<i>"Lovers Sharing an Umbrella"</i>
by Suzuki Harunobu

191
00:19:54,069 --> 00:19:56,905
<i>Or even just a few minutes later!</i>

192
00:20:02,619 --> 00:20:07,499
His penis is almost the
same size as his ankle.

193
00:20:07,583 --> 00:20:11,044
But that's nothing.
It will grow even bigger.

194
00:20:11,628 --> 00:20:14,756
It's usually the same size
as the man's face.

195
00:20:16,049 --> 00:20:17,634
Pure fantasy!

196
00:20:31,732 --> 00:20:37,112
<i>Yanagawa City, Fukuoka Prefecture</i>

197
00:20:41,158 --> 00:20:50,250
<i>Tachibana-tei, former residence of</i>
the lords of the Yanagawa Domain

198
00:20:52,002 --> 00:20:57,799
<i>Director of Tachibana Museum</i>
Kaori Ueno

199
00:21:27,120 --> 00:21:31,875
This hand-painted scroll
is a treasure of the Tachibana clan.

200
00:21:32,084 --> 00:21:33,710
<i>"Shunga Handscroll" (1775-1801)</i>
by Katsuyama Takugan, painting

201
00:21:33,752 --> 00:21:39,049
It's painted in great detail,
using high-quality pigment on silk.

202
00:21:39,132 --> 00:21:43,887
A first-class work befitting
the treasure house of a great lord.

203
00:21:46,431 --> 00:21:53,313
The 12th and last lord Tachibana Akitomo
married a woman called Sumi.

204
00:21:53,939 --> 00:21:55,440
<i>She was from the Tayasu Tokugawa clan,</i>
and they married in 1862.

205
00:21:55,524 --> 00:21:59,695
<i>Personal effects of Sumi,</i>
wife of the 12th lord of Yanagawa

206
00:21:59,778 --> 00:22:05,868
<i>She brought various personal effects</i>
with her into the Yanagawa Domain.

207
00:22:07,911 --> 00:22:13,125
It's thought that this scroll was
one of the items she brought here.

208
00:22:19,464 --> 00:22:23,677
It depicts 12 couples
from various social classes...

209
00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:27,931
in several different situations.

210
00:22:36,398 --> 00:22:42,196
This is one of my most
favorite shunga scenes.

211
00:22:43,363 --> 00:22:46,241
I can't be sure, but this woman
is probably a<i> furisode-shinzo</i>,

212
00:22:46,325 --> 00:22:48,035
<i>Trainee prostitute</i>

213
00:22:48,118 --> 00:22:54,499
which means a prostitute in training,
and she's still very young.

214
00:22:55,584 --> 00:23:02,633
To me, her expression is very striking.
She looks like she's in ecstasy.

215
00:23:02,966 --> 00:23:08,931
Her face is overflowing with joy.
A real sense of euphoria.

216
00:23:13,936 --> 00:23:19,107
In Edo era shunga, men and women
take the initiative on an equal basis.

217
00:23:23,654 --> 00:23:30,244
They enjoy taking both the
dominant and submissive roles.

218
00:23:36,166 --> 00:23:43,257
The final couple is probably
a depiction of a lord and his wife.

219
00:23:44,299 --> 00:23:48,095
It was a gift to a lord's clan, so...

220
00:23:48,178 --> 00:23:53,684
it would be natural to portray a lord
and his wife as the last couple.

221
00:23:57,229 --> 00:24:02,150
Back then, pornography
was produced...

222
00:24:02,234 --> 00:24:07,281
to a much higher standard
then ordinary pictures.

223
00:24:07,447 --> 00:24:12,494
As a result, the highest-quality
prints we have today...

224
00:24:12,578 --> 00:24:19,084
are all either shunga,
or depictions of battle scenes.

225
00:25:20,145 --> 00:25:23,607
As the wife of a great lord,

226
00:25:23,690 --> 00:25:28,779
one of her major roles would be
to produce an heir for him.

227
00:25:29,196 --> 00:25:34,076
And so, sex was portrayed
as a very joyous event,

228
00:25:34,159 --> 00:25:40,916
and one that leads to the perpetuation
of the line, the family's prosperity.

229
00:25:41,708 --> 00:25:48,298
That's why they were drawn in a way
that women could enjoy.

230
00:25:51,593 --> 00:25:57,432
To make them anticipate the bliss.
In other words, to turn them on.

231
00:26:16,410 --> 00:26:22,541
<i>The shunga genre first emerged</i>
during the Heian era.

232
00:26:23,292 --> 00:26:24,334
What is said to be the oldest
hand-painted scroll in existence...

233
00:26:24,418 --> 00:26:27,880
<i>Historian of Japanese art</i>
Monta Hayakawa

234
00:26:27,963 --> 00:26:29,631
was painted at the end of the Heian era.

235
00:26:29,715 --> 00:26:31,633
<i>Tale of the Brushwood Fence.</i>

236
00:26:31,717 --> 00:26:33,719
<i>"Tale of the Brushwood Fence" </i>mid-Edo
era copy of Heian era original painting

237
00:26:33,802 --> 00:26:39,766
<i>It's said to have been commissioned</i>
by retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa...

238
00:26:39,850 --> 00:26:41,852
<i>for his daughter-in-law.</i>

239
00:26:42,853 --> 00:26:50,485
<i>A depiction of sex was one of the</i>
key items a bride would bring with her.

240
00:26:51,695 --> 00:26:53,697
<i>By the Edo era,</i>

241
00:26:53,780 --> 00:26:58,035
book lenders would ply
their trade going from house to house,

242
00:26:59,328 --> 00:27:04,917
<i>and they always had</i>
the latest shunga albums.

243
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:12,382
<i>The customer might be the wife,</i>
the daughter, or the maid.

244
00:27:12,466 --> 00:27:17,846
<i>There are shunga depicting people</i>
choosing which shunga to buy.

245
00:27:17,930 --> 00:27:24,478
<i>Shunga of women snuggling around</i>
a kotatsu enjoying shunga.

246
00:27:25,395 --> 00:27:32,402
<i>Shunga of couples enjoying shunga,</i>
and ending up having sex themselves.

247
00:27:34,780 --> 00:27:39,535
It's clear that right from the start,
shunga had a broad appeal.

248
00:27:39,618 --> 00:27:45,082
The audience wasn't just confined
to a small section of men...

249
00:27:45,165 --> 00:27:48,418
back then when shunga first emerged.

250
00:27:50,003 --> 00:27:55,843
<i>London, UK</i>

251
00:28:01,557 --> 00:28:06,436
<i>The British Museum</i>

252
00:28:07,604 --> 00:28:14,152
<i>The British Museum held the first ever</i>
large-scale shunga exhibition in 2013.

253
00:28:20,450 --> 00:28:30,586
<i>Prof. Andrew Gerstle, </i>inspirer of
the British Museum's shunga exhibition

254
00:29:25,098 --> 00:29:34,233
<i>"Bagful of Wedding Secrets" (c. 1771)</i>
by Tsukioka Settei

255
00:30:30,372 --> 00:30:35,335
<i>Jimbocho, Tokyo</i>

256
00:30:43,552 --> 00:30:46,013
- Oh, a moving picture!
- Yes.

257
00:30:46,054 --> 00:30:47,014
Looks like a Koikawa
from the Bakumatsu era.

258
00:30:47,055 --> 00:30:49,808
<i>Shunga lover</i>
Shungirl

259
00:30:49,892 --> 00:30:52,269
Probably by Koikawa.

260
00:30:52,352 --> 00:30:56,106
- Pull on that tab.
- Oh, I see!

261
00:30:56,481 --> 00:31:03,530
This is so comical.
It's really amusing.

262
00:31:04,239 --> 00:31:07,284
- It's quite ingenious.
- Yes, very.

263
00:31:07,367 --> 00:31:10,120
So silly and fun.

264
00:31:22,549 --> 00:31:24,468
This is really beautiful.

265
00:31:24,551 --> 00:31:26,929
- Very well-drawn.
- Yes.

266
00:31:27,012 --> 00:31:28,305
All this part.

267
00:31:28,889 --> 00:31:33,519
This face is quite Eisen-esque.

268
00:31:33,602 --> 00:31:36,271
Yes, very much his style.

269
00:31:36,355 --> 00:31:37,606
Very similar.

270
00:31:40,609 --> 00:31:46,573
OK, I'll buy these for friends.

271
00:31:46,657 --> 00:31:51,161
And these ones,
I'll buy them for myself!

272
00:31:53,664 --> 00:31:59,586
I buy all kinds of stuff,
even complete trash sometimes.

273
00:32:00,128 --> 00:32:05,843
Things that don't turn me on,
but that I just find amusing.

274
00:32:05,926 --> 00:32:11,640
This New Year's parade of firefighters
portrayed as male and female genitalia.

275
00:32:12,558 --> 00:32:17,604
The text is really corny,
"Big cock Mt. Fuji" and so on.

276
00:32:17,688 --> 00:32:20,440
I mean, like, so what?

277
00:32:22,734 --> 00:32:27,114
Some of them have the foreskin up,
which is really funny.

278
00:32:28,657 --> 00:32:35,205
It suggests, in a jokey way,
that everything has a sexual aspect.

279
00:32:35,455 --> 00:32:41,295
It's very typical of the
Edo-era sense of humor.

280
00:32:43,213 --> 00:32:50,095
I'm always looking for shunga which
show me things I've never seen before.

281
00:32:50,345 --> 00:32:55,142
My curiosity leads me
in that direction,

282
00:32:55,225 --> 00:32:59,313
so I often buy stuff without
caring who the artist was.

283
00:33:01,356 --> 00:33:05,569
<i>This is Rumors of an Affair in Tatsumi</i>
by Keisai Eisen.

284
00:33:06,612 --> 00:33:07,738
<i>"Rumors of an Affair in Tatsumi"</i>
(1825) by Keisai Eisen

285
00:33:07,821 --> 00:33:13,076
Two pillows have been laid out,
and she's putting out the lamp.

286
00:33:13,452 --> 00:33:17,664
A single moment of an evening.

287
00:33:20,125 --> 00:33:25,005
This feeling of sharing a precious,
tender moment with a lover...

288
00:33:25,088 --> 00:33:29,259
is the same today as it was
back then in the Edo era.

289
00:33:29,343 --> 00:33:33,764
That's what I get from
looking at these pictures.

290
00:33:34,515 --> 00:33:39,603
It's as if someone is showing me
a memory from their life,

291
00:33:39,686 --> 00:33:43,649
a precious moment they spent
with someone dear to them.

292
00:33:43,732 --> 00:33:47,694
That's how they make me feel.

293
00:33:51,365 --> 00:33:54,368
They remind me of the warmth...

294
00:33:54,451 --> 00:34:00,832
of a person's skin as it brushes
gently against my own skin.

295
00:34:00,916 --> 00:34:07,214
I think that's one of the really
great things about shunga.

296
00:34:17,891 --> 00:34:22,729
<i>Takahashi Kobo</i>

297
00:34:33,991 --> 00:34:37,995
<i>Printer</i>
Noriyasu Soda

298
00:34:50,674 --> 00:34:55,304
<i>It seemed quite a complicated</i>
picture when I first saw it.

299
00:34:55,971 --> 00:35:02,311
<i>I don't think I've ever printed</i>
such an elaborate one before.

300
00:35:04,521 --> 00:35:07,858
<i>There's a contrast between</i>
the darker and lighter lines.

301
00:35:08,734 --> 00:35:11,361
<i>Unless I can reproduce that faithfully,</i>

302
00:35:12,613 --> 00:35:15,908
<i>the print will be unworthy</i>
of the picture.

303
00:35:26,710 --> 00:35:34,384
<i>Omo-han (key block)</i>

304
00:35:49,942 --> 00:35:53,695
<i>The printer turns the</i>
carver's carving into a picture.

305
00:35:54,071 --> 00:35:59,076
<i>Printing the kimono's pattern,</i>
the colors, the hairstyle requires...

306
00:35:59,535 --> 00:36:02,120
<i>knowledge about how pigment changes.</i>

307
00:36:38,699 --> 00:36:41,451
If you can do it,

308
00:36:41,535 --> 00:36:42,578
I'd like this color to be closer
to crimson rather than orange.

309
00:36:42,661 --> 00:36:47,875
<i>Print sample</i>

310
00:36:47,958 --> 00:36:49,251
To make it less bold.

311
00:36:50,043 --> 00:36:55,174
If you could give it more of an
antiqued appearance, that'd be great.

312
00:36:56,133 --> 00:36:58,218
It looks a bit too bright.

313
00:36:58,635 --> 00:37:00,304
Try to calm it down.

314
00:37:01,722 --> 00:37:03,932
Like this color here?

315
00:37:04,016 --> 00:37:04,892
Yes, yes.

316
00:37:04,975 --> 00:37:07,686
- The foundation color--
- This one.

317
00:38:14,336 --> 00:38:16,797
<i>Looking at the sample,</i>

318
00:38:17,673 --> 00:38:20,717
<i>I can see that it's very fine work.</i>

319
00:38:21,093 --> 00:38:27,724
If it was possible, I'd love to ask
how they managed to do it.

320
00:38:37,818 --> 00:38:48,120
<i>The picture is printed in 18 stages.</i>

321
00:39:05,470 --> 00:39:16,064
<i>"Handscroll for the Sleeve" No. 10,</i>
reproduced print

322
00:39:56,897 --> 00:40:00,359
This is<i> Embracing Komachi</i>.

323
00:40:00,442 --> 00:40:03,362
One of Utamaro's three
greatest shunga works.

324
00:40:03,612 --> 00:40:06,156
It's from Utamaro's mature period.

325
00:40:06,573 --> 00:40:12,204
The time when he was
acknowledged as a huge star.

326
00:40:12,287 --> 00:40:13,914
It's really amazing.

327
00:40:14,540 --> 00:40:17,543
<i>Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)</i>

328
00:40:17,626 --> 00:40:23,549
<i>Pioneered the bijin okubi-e genre</i>
showing only the head and upper torso.

329
00:40:23,632 --> 00:40:28,887
<i>His "Poem of the Pillow" is seen</i>
as the pinnacle of shunga.

330
00:40:28,971 --> 00:40:31,473
The flow of the lines is beautiful.

331
00:40:31,557 --> 00:40:32,432
<i>"Embracing Komachi" (1802)</i>
by Kitagawa Utamaro

332
00:40:32,599 --> 00:40:35,310
Yes, even just looking at the kimono.

333
00:40:35,394 --> 00:40:36,687
Really beautiful.

334
00:40:37,187 --> 00:40:39,064
Her face is ecstatic.

335
00:40:39,648 --> 00:40:42,401
Yes, she's really enjoying it.

336
00:40:45,654 --> 00:40:48,699
I love how his face is mostly hidden.

337
00:40:48,782 --> 00:40:55,539
We can only see a small part of it.
He often uses this kind of composition.

338
00:40:59,126 --> 00:41:04,089
Look at how stimulated and
engorged with blood her vulva is.

339
00:41:04,173 --> 00:41:05,048
It's bulging out.

340
00:41:05,090 --> 00:41:07,718
So beautiful and sexy.

341
00:41:11,346 --> 00:41:14,474
This one of her getting
dressed is wonderful.

342
00:41:14,558 --> 00:41:15,434
Yes.

343
00:41:16,768 --> 00:41:21,106
Utamaro often puts a mirror in,
even in his bijinga.

344
00:41:21,523 --> 00:41:24,693
Putting on makeup in a mirror,

345
00:41:24,776 --> 00:41:32,075
her expression is very candid, and it
isn't that of someone being watched.

346
00:41:32,159 --> 00:41:34,494
The mirror's important.

347
00:41:45,297 --> 00:41:50,594
<i>Mejirodai, Tokyo</i>

348
00:41:51,428 --> 00:41:57,893
<i>The Eisei Bunko Museum held Japan's</i>
first shunga exhibition in 2015.

349
00:41:58,393 --> 00:41:59,520
What did drawing shunga mean for
the draftsmen? How did they feel?

350
00:41:59,603 --> 00:42:05,317
<i>Writer-editor</i>
Mari Hashimoto

351
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:09,696
Well, they had to use pseudonyms,
and get around restrictions,

352
00:42:09,780 --> 00:42:14,451
so in that sense, it was work
that they had to do secretly.

353
00:42:14,535 --> 00:42:20,165
But it wasn't due to any
sense of shame about doing it.

354
00:42:20,249 --> 00:42:22,626
They were breaking laws
forbidding luxury and extravagance.

355
00:42:22,709 --> 00:42:24,711
<i>Laws forbidding luxury and elegance</i>
even applied to woodblock prints.

356
00:42:24,795 --> 00:42:30,092
They could use many more colors
than in their usual works,

357
00:42:30,175 --> 00:42:33,971
and use a wider range
of printing techniques.

358
00:42:34,638 --> 00:42:40,227
So it was a chance for ukiyo-e artists
to utilize their entire range of skills.

359
00:42:50,028 --> 00:42:52,197
This is<i> Poem of the Pillow</i>.

360
00:42:52,281 --> 00:42:53,907
<i>"Poem of the Pillow" (1788)</i>
by Kitagawa Utamaro

361
00:42:53,991 --> 00:42:57,286
It was actually Utamaro's first shunga,

362
00:42:57,369 --> 00:42:59,538
produced when he was 35.

363
00:42:59,621 --> 00:43:03,542
Today, it's seen as the
finest masterpiece of shunga.

364
00:43:08,755 --> 00:43:13,260
A shell diver with<i> kappa</i>.

365
00:43:14,761 --> 00:43:20,184
Is it her fantasy, or is it another
diver down there with them?

366
00:43:20,267 --> 00:43:22,227
Or a projection of herself.

367
00:43:22,311 --> 00:43:25,314
- She looks a bit envious.
- Yes, envious.

368
00:43:25,898 --> 00:43:27,858
Amazing.

369
00:43:29,067 --> 00:43:30,652
A beautiful couple.

370
00:43:30,736 --> 00:43:32,654
- She's angry.
- Yes!

371
00:43:32,738 --> 00:43:36,491
Her boyfriend's received
a love letter from someone.

372
00:43:36,575 --> 00:43:41,580
Like "What the hell?"
"No, no, it's not like that!"

373
00:43:41,663 --> 00:43:45,792
And it's shunga because
this part is slightly exposed.

374
00:43:46,335 --> 00:43:48,420
The way he's trying to calm her.

375
00:43:48,504 --> 00:43:49,379
Like "Wait a minute!"

376
00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:53,675
Wow.

377
00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:58,555
A harem maid and her lover?

378
00:43:58,847 --> 00:44:04,478
His pubic hair is really wild.

379
00:44:04,770 --> 00:44:07,606
- Covering his entire scrotum.
- Yes.

380
00:44:07,689 --> 00:44:08,941
All over.

381
00:44:11,693 --> 00:44:13,779
This is amazing!

382
00:44:14,655 --> 00:44:16,657
The way she's hiding her face.

383
00:44:16,740 --> 00:44:22,162
The guilty pleasure of a widow.
Shame and pleasure both at once.

384
00:44:22,663 --> 00:44:24,039
Certainly is.

385
00:44:30,921 --> 00:44:32,965
- Here it is.
- Wow.

386
00:44:33,048 --> 00:44:34,508
What can we say?

387
00:44:35,175 --> 00:44:36,718
Wonderful.

388
00:44:36,802 --> 00:44:38,554
Beautiful.

389
00:44:39,805 --> 00:44:42,057
It's a kissing scene, isn't it?

390
00:44:42,140 --> 00:44:44,726
He's kissing her,
but his eye looks cold.

391
00:44:45,185 --> 00:44:47,104
That eye's spine-chilling.

392
00:44:51,191 --> 00:44:57,656
<i>Her eyes are probably closed with bliss,</i>
enjoying her date with him.

393
00:44:57,948 --> 00:45:04,872
Whereas he doesn't seem to be
so wrapped up in love with her.

394
00:45:05,205 --> 00:45:10,836
He comes across as quite
a cold-hearted fellow,

395
00:45:12,212 --> 00:45:17,134
but he also doesn't seem to be
looking with detachment at her.

396
00:45:17,676 --> 00:45:20,929
<i>On the fan he's holding...</i>

397
00:45:21,013 --> 00:45:26,560
<i>is a comical poem about a bird</i>
whose beak is trapped in a clamshell.

398
00:45:26,852 --> 00:45:30,189
<i>Maybe he feels trapped by this pleasure,</i>

399
00:45:30,272 --> 00:45:33,650
<i>and he can't help being seduced by her.</i>

400
00:45:33,942 --> 00:45:38,238
<i>In any case, he can't escape from it,</i>

401
00:45:38,322 --> 00:45:41,700
<i>and all he can do is give a wry grin.</i>

402
00:45:47,915 --> 00:45:50,042
It's almost like a French movie.

403
00:45:52,377 --> 00:45:54,338
Or a modern novel.

404
00:45:54,796 --> 00:46:01,094
A modern romance novel, something
which digs deep into the human soul.

405
00:46:01,345 --> 00:46:04,348
It's a picture full of irony.

406
00:46:04,765 --> 00:46:08,143
Very close to our modern
sense of self-consciousness.

407
00:46:09,978 --> 00:46:16,360
<i>How can I put it? Utamaro</i>
really does it to you, you know?

408
00:46:26,245 --> 00:46:29,581
The seven pictures over there
are by Katsukawa Shuncho.

409
00:46:29,665 --> 00:46:30,832
<i>Shuncho was a student senior</i>
to Hokusai in the Katsukawa School.

410
00:46:30,874 --> 00:46:34,002
He was a student of Katsukawa
Shunsho, senior to Hokusai.

411
00:46:36,171 --> 00:46:37,256
Beautiful.

412
00:46:37,339 --> 00:46:39,675
Not even a trace of shadow.

413
00:46:41,009 --> 00:46:43,387
Bright and joyful.

414
00:46:44,429 --> 00:46:46,223
Really beautiful.

415
00:46:46,306 --> 00:46:48,767
The text is really--

416
00:46:50,894 --> 00:46:53,355
"I'll never tire of it!"

417
00:46:53,438 --> 00:46:56,191
"I love having sex!" and so on.

418
00:46:57,317 --> 00:46:59,736
"I have a year-round erection!"

419
00:47:01,321 --> 00:47:04,241
"Your plump softness drives me crazy."

420
00:47:04,324 --> 00:47:07,995
- "Your plump, soft--"
- Soft?

421
00:47:08,078 --> 00:47:10,998
"Oooh, I'm coming! That's it!"

422
00:47:12,958 --> 00:47:17,045
They make a great couple.
Great chemistry.

423
00:47:20,257 --> 00:47:22,050
I love this one.

424
00:47:22,134 --> 00:47:23,177
It's just so peaceful.

425
00:47:23,218 --> 00:47:25,053
<i>"Erotic Illustrations </i>for the Twelve
Months" (c.1788) by Katsukawa Shuncho

426
00:47:25,137 --> 00:47:26,972
A cheerful spring day.

427
00:47:27,055 --> 00:47:30,017
Like "We'll sleep and do it again!"

428
00:47:38,901 --> 00:47:41,528
We'll sleep and do it again!

429
00:47:42,321 --> 00:47:46,116
You're driving me crazy!

430
00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:53,498
Yeah, up there, deep inside me.
Aaah, I'm coming again!

431
00:47:59,004 --> 00:48:02,549
Maybe it's the moon,
but tonight, it's delicious.

432
00:48:05,093 --> 00:48:10,307
I'm loving it tonight too.
I've come five times already!

433
00:48:13,060 --> 00:48:15,562
Give me a sip.
Let me catch my breath.

434
00:48:16,563 --> 00:48:21,109
Don't drink too much.
It's bad for you!

435
00:48:21,944 --> 00:48:23,612
Not as bad as you are!

436
00:48:51,306 --> 00:48:57,312
<i>Teshima Island, Kagawa Prefecture</i>

437
00:48:58,981 --> 00:49:03,694
<i>Teshima Yokoo House</i>

438
00:49:18,500 --> 00:49:25,507
<i>"Universal Frantic Love"</i>
(1991) by Tadanori Yokoo

439
00:49:28,594 --> 00:49:31,597
<i>This happened several years ago.</i>

440
00:49:32,598 --> 00:49:33,515
My mother got sick,

441
00:49:33,599 --> 00:49:38,312
<i>Artist</i>
Tadanori Yokoo

442
00:49:38,395 --> 00:49:43,400
and she passed away in hospital.

443
00:49:44,109 --> 00:49:49,531
After she died, I changed her clothes.

444
00:49:50,115 --> 00:49:55,662
Inside her belly-warmer,

445
00:49:56,121 --> 00:50:02,669
I found four shunga,
all dripping with sweat.

446
00:50:03,295 --> 00:50:08,425
It was such a shock for me.
On her deathbed.

447
00:50:09,218 --> 00:50:12,846
An old lady of 74.

448
00:50:13,722 --> 00:50:20,562
On her deathbed, why did she
treasure those shunga so much?

449
00:50:21,188 --> 00:50:23,690
Who knows how long she'd had them?

450
00:50:23,774 --> 00:50:30,531
She'd probably brought them with her...

451
00:50:30,614 --> 00:50:32,741
when she married my father.

452
00:50:33,492 --> 00:50:38,413
They weren't by a famous
artist like Utamaro or whoever.

453
00:50:38,497 --> 00:50:41,625
They were just--

454
00:50:43,252 --> 00:50:45,254
You know, like...

455
00:50:46,255 --> 00:50:52,803
very commonplace pictures,
and quite small ones at that.

456
00:50:53,512 --> 00:50:59,184
The thing is, I wasn't her real son.

457
00:50:59,268 --> 00:51:08,694
The Yokoo family had adopted me.

458
00:51:08,777 --> 00:51:12,906
We weren't related by blood.

459
00:51:13,448 --> 00:51:19,830
Those shunga made me feel that we'd
gone beyond the mother-son relationship,

460
00:51:19,913 --> 00:51:23,917
and we were now simply
a man and a woman.

461
00:51:25,294 --> 00:51:34,595
<i>Those shunga left a very intense</i>
impression on my consciousness.

462
00:51:34,803 --> 00:51:41,351
<i>That's probably why</i>
I painted that picture...

463
00:51:41,727 --> 00:51:44,730
<i>in the Teshima Yokoo House.</i>

464
00:51:53,947 --> 00:51:58,952
<i>"Threads Leading to Desire"</i>
(1799) by Kitagawa Utamaro

465
00:52:01,788 --> 00:52:06,752
The composition is very simple.

466
00:52:07,628 --> 00:52:12,424
The solid colors and the lines,

467
00:52:12,508 --> 00:52:15,761
the way they blend together,
and this space.

468
00:52:16,637 --> 00:52:22,935
I think that's where I found
the eroticism in this piece.

469
00:52:24,436 --> 00:52:26,897
This arrangement of colors is amazing.

470
00:52:26,980 --> 00:52:31,777
The red fundoshi and blue kimono,
and this black.

471
00:52:31,860 --> 00:52:35,822
Very few colors.
Just three colors have been used.

472
00:52:36,823 --> 00:52:40,077
It's extremely elegant.

473
00:52:40,827 --> 00:52:44,122
It's a piece of modernism, in a way.

474
00:52:45,916 --> 00:52:50,462
Her foot reflected in the mirror.

475
00:52:50,629 --> 00:52:57,010
Even her toes are depicted
as part of the sex.

476
00:52:58,762 --> 00:53:00,681
And the movement of the hair.

477
00:53:00,973 --> 00:53:04,101
Straight down, following
the edge of the frame.

478
00:53:04,643 --> 00:53:08,939
It has a great plasticity to it.

479
00:53:09,815 --> 00:53:13,110
The way it flows is genius.

480
00:53:15,946 --> 00:53:21,702
I wanted to produce my answer
to Utamaro's shunga.

481
00:53:22,494 --> 00:53:26,582
Painting a picture is a sexual act.

482
00:53:26,665 --> 00:53:30,252
While you're painting,
a visceral part of you...

483
00:53:30,627 --> 00:53:36,592
comes flowing up and out of yourself.

484
00:53:37,968 --> 00:53:45,601
How can I put it?
You get worked up into a frenzy.

485
00:53:46,143 --> 00:53:50,022
<i>And right then, as a result,</i>

486
00:53:50,731 --> 00:53:56,111
<i>I mixed my semen into the paint</i>
and brushed it onto the canvas.

487
00:53:58,906 --> 00:54:03,785
<i>To me, I had sex with that painting.</i>

488
00:54:17,216 --> 00:54:24,056
It's the passion and
sensation you perceive...

489
00:54:24,348 --> 00:54:31,730
when you reach your limits.

490
00:54:31,813 --> 00:54:36,985
And that connects to being alive.

491
00:54:37,402 --> 00:54:44,952
<i>The power of living,</i>
and the imagination of death...

492
00:54:45,035 --> 00:54:50,666
<i>become unified, and shunga</i>
comes into being, or...

493
00:54:50,749 --> 00:54:53,126
<i>that's when you want to paint shunga.</i>

494
00:54:53,377 --> 00:55:00,092
A painter's desire is a wish,
or maybe a worldly passion.

495
00:55:00,175 --> 00:55:04,388
That's what I think it is.

496
00:55:40,841 --> 00:55:45,137
<i>Sexual organs are drawn</i>
large in shunga.

497
00:55:45,220 --> 00:55:49,308
They've always been so,
from the beginning of ukiyo-e.

498
00:55:49,391 --> 00:55:52,519
<i>And it's not just male organs.</i>

499
00:55:52,978 --> 00:55:55,981
<i>Female organs are also drawn large.</i>

500
00:55:57,900 --> 00:56:04,865
<i>It's natural to draw them big and bold</i>
to show the joyful energy they contain.

501
00:56:07,492 --> 00:56:13,165
When I first noticed it,
I'd use a compass to measure them.

502
00:56:13,248 --> 00:56:15,250
Male and female organs.

503
00:56:17,085 --> 00:56:24,301
I found that the men and women's
faces were almost the same size...

504
00:56:24,384 --> 00:56:26,261
as their sexual organs.

505
00:56:28,388 --> 00:56:34,937
<i>From ancient times, large shrines</i>
contained male and female sexual organs,

506
00:56:35,020 --> 00:56:37,481
<i>either as sculptures, or just stones.</i>

507
00:56:37,564 --> 00:56:43,487
<i>They're enshrined as if it were</i>
the most natural thing in the world.

508
00:56:44,071 --> 00:56:47,991
<i>That tradition, I think,</i>
is still alive in the present.

509
00:56:55,415 --> 00:57:00,128
<i>Both male and female organs</i>
are symbols of celebration.

510
00:57:01,713 --> 00:57:07,594
<i>Male organs are joyful,</i>
and female organs are blessed.

511
00:57:17,020 --> 00:57:21,567
<i>And without sex, children can't be born.</i>

512
00:57:21,942 --> 00:57:25,237
Birth must've been seen
as something really wondrous.

513
00:57:26,238 --> 00:57:31,326
Something mysterious and also natural,
no matter what your social class,

514
00:57:32,661 --> 00:57:37,332
without distinction of
wealth, power, or position.

515
00:57:37,416 --> 00:57:44,464
It's a gift, a power which
we all have in equal measure.

516
00:57:49,094 --> 00:57:53,348
<i>"Gods of Myriad </i>Conjugal Delights" (1821)
by Katsushika Hokusai

517
00:57:53,599 --> 00:58:02,107
<i>I think one of the roles of shunga</i>
was as a talisman or amulet.

518
00:58:02,608 --> 00:58:09,323
In the Edo era, putting shunga inside
your armor was said to bring luck.

519
00:58:09,531 --> 00:58:15,120
Keeping shunga there would
ensure that you wouldn't lose,

520
00:58:16,205 --> 00:58:20,125
and would return home alive
from the battlefield.

521
00:58:20,751 --> 00:58:24,338
<i>Think about what shunga depicts.</i>

522
00:58:24,421 --> 00:58:29,051
<i>Men and women having sex,</i>
and producing children as a result.

523
00:58:29,343 --> 00:58:33,764
<i>In other words, they depict</i>
the direct opposite of death,

524
00:58:33,847 --> 00:58:38,644
so by wearing shunga,
you can avoid death.

525
00:58:38,727 --> 00:58:43,065
That was probably
the thinking behind it.

526
00:58:51,573 --> 00:58:57,663
<i>Copenhagen, Denmark</i>

527
00:59:06,171 --> 00:59:10,759
<i>Shunga painting collector</i>
Michael Fornitz

528
00:59:50,716 --> 00:59:55,971
<i>"Dew on the Mugwort" </i>hand-colored by
Hokusai using print of "Adonis Flower"

529
01:00:47,147 --> 01:00:52,402
<i>"Handscroll for the Four Seasons"</i>
(1767-78) by Tsukioka Settei, painting

530
01:00:52,486 --> 01:00:58,909
<i>In this work, a woman's advancing age</i>
is symbolized by seasonal flowers.

531
01:00:59,868 --> 01:01:03,747
<i>Spring</i>

532
01:01:38,156 --> 01:01:42,870
<i>Summer</i>

533
01:02:07,311 --> 01:02:11,023
<i>Fall</i>

534
01:02:35,297 --> 01:02:42,221
<i>Winter</i>

535
01:04:40,964 --> 01:04:48,013
<i>Kyoto</i>

536
01:04:59,441 --> 01:05:03,946
<i>International Research Center</i>
for Japanese Studies

537
01:05:18,043 --> 01:05:25,050
<i>"Pussy Sample Book" (c. 1812)</i>
by Katsushika Hokusai

538
01:05:51,076 --> 01:05:55,247
<i>Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)</i>
Ukiyo-e artist of the late Edo era

539
01:05:55,330 --> 01:06:01,420
<i>Published his masterpiece "Thirty-six</i>
Views of Mount Fuji" in his seventies.

540
01:06:01,503 --> 01:06:06,466
<i>Specialized in shunga</i>
for 10 years from his fifties.

541
01:06:07,759 --> 01:06:12,389
<i>Tokyo University of the Arts</i>
Nihonga Conservation/Restoration Lab

542
01:06:18,770 --> 01:06:22,399
I researched the hand-painted ukiyo-e...

543
01:06:22,482 --> 01:06:24,151
of Katsukawa Shunsho,
Hokusai's master.

544
01:06:24,234 --> 01:06:26,361
<i>Nihonga artist Daisuke Mukai</i>
Conservation/restoration researcher

545
01:06:26,445 --> 01:06:29,531
I became interested in Hokusai too,

546
01:06:29,615 --> 01:06:32,201
and I researched him more afterwards.

547
01:06:35,579 --> 01:06:40,375
I know it's what everyone chooses,
but I really like this.

548
01:06:43,128 --> 01:06:47,466
It has weight to it,
and it's very expressionist.

549
01:06:47,549 --> 01:06:51,553
Leaving aside the bodily forms
and their consistency,

550
01:06:51,762 --> 01:06:58,185
within the square frame,
the picture spreads out freely.

551
01:06:58,560 --> 01:07:02,731
It seems to have expanded
to its greatest extent.

552
01:07:03,899 --> 01:07:09,321
To people like myself who draw pictures,
the gaps are very important.

553
01:07:09,530 --> 01:07:16,203
We think about where we can place
all these little gaps within the frame.

554
01:07:16,286 --> 01:07:19,873
But this picture boldly
fills in the whole space.

555
01:07:20,707 --> 01:07:24,795
I'm sure shunga have
many different uses,

556
01:07:24,878 --> 01:07:29,800
but it's the sheer awesomeness of
the picture which catches my eye.

557
01:07:34,429 --> 01:07:38,809
Utamaro, Kiyonaga,<i>Handscroll for the Sleeve</i>,

558
01:07:38,892 --> 01:07:43,397
those kind of pieces represent
one of the peaks of shunga.

559
01:07:44,231 --> 01:07:49,361
But Hokusai begins with that trend
of shunga and takes it a step further.

560
01:07:49,444 --> 01:07:51,822
The sheer physicality of it,

561
01:07:51,905 --> 01:07:57,661
the way the energy flows in every
direction across the whole composition.

562
01:07:57,744 --> 01:08:03,417
To me, that's what makes him one step
ahead of those middle-period artists.

563
01:08:16,847 --> 01:08:20,309
This is by Hokusai, from
the<i> Adonis Flower </i>album.

564
01:08:21,685 --> 01:08:22,603
It's very Hokusai.

565
01:08:22,686 --> 01:08:24,479
<i>"Adonis Flower" (c. 1821-22)</i>
by Katsushika Hokusai

566
01:08:24,563 --> 01:08:28,901
The fisherman's saying
"I hear you're having an affair."

567
01:08:28,984 --> 01:08:32,404
And the shell diver replies
"Shut up and fuck me."

568
01:08:33,572 --> 01:08:34,740
A fisherman and a diver?

569
01:08:34,823 --> 01:08:36,283
Yes, he's a fisherman.

570
01:08:37,034 --> 01:08:41,413
Her leg's wrapped tight around him.

571
01:08:41,496 --> 01:08:44,291
Yes, like a wrestling hold.

572
01:08:44,374 --> 01:08:45,959
Locking him down.

573
01:08:46,043 --> 01:08:51,340
And her vulva is gripping him fast too.

574
01:08:51,673 --> 01:08:53,342
Twisting her body.

575
01:08:53,800 --> 01:08:55,886
I mean, is that even possible?

576
01:08:56,762 --> 01:09:00,641
<i>Old True Sophisticates of the Club of</i>
Delightful Skills, volumes 1, 2, and 3.

577
01:09:00,724 --> 01:09:05,979
<i>"Old True Sophisticates of </i>the Club of
Delightful Skills" by Katsushika Hokusai

578
01:09:07,105 --> 01:09:09,399
This is quite explicit.

579
01:09:09,483 --> 01:09:12,402
The semen is really erotic.

580
01:09:12,486 --> 01:09:14,696
"White sake" is gushing out.

581
01:09:15,364 --> 01:09:17,032
"Slup-slop, squish-squelch"!

582
01:09:17,115 --> 01:09:18,909
He was always writing things like that.

583
01:09:18,992 --> 01:09:21,995
Hokusai was the master of onomatopoeia.

584
01:09:22,746 --> 01:09:24,831
If you read it all, it's crazy.

585
01:09:24,915 --> 01:09:26,458
Oh, really?

586
01:09:28,627 --> 01:09:29,920
Two women together.

587
01:09:32,130 --> 01:09:33,131
In the harem, I guess.

588
01:09:35,759 --> 01:09:40,848
Harem maids weren't allowed
to have sex with men, so...

589
01:09:41,473 --> 01:09:42,391
they're using a<i> tagai-gata</i>.

590
01:09:42,474 --> 01:09:44,476
<i>Tagai-gata</i>
(double-headed dildo)

591
01:09:45,185 --> 01:09:48,897
It's what they called
a double-headed dildo.

592
01:09:50,065 --> 01:09:51,984
- Oh, right.
- I see.

593
01:09:52,693 --> 01:09:55,529
And now we come to...

594
01:09:55,737 --> 01:09:58,574
the most famous one of all.

595
01:09:58,657 --> 01:09:59,741
A tentacle piece.

596
01:09:59,825 --> 01:10:00,993
This is amazing.

597
01:10:03,871 --> 01:10:07,666
But to the Europeans at the time,
this grotesque scene was--

598
01:10:07,749 --> 01:10:11,545
- You know, octopi were--
- Called devilfish.

599
01:10:11,628 --> 01:10:13,255
They assumed it was raping her,

600
01:10:13,964 --> 01:10:18,427
but if you read the text,
she's actually enjoying it.

601
01:10:18,510 --> 01:10:22,598
The little one's saying
"When he's finished, it's my turn."

602
01:10:22,681 --> 01:10:26,852
"I'll suck your clitoris
and asshole for you."

603
01:10:30,981 --> 01:10:35,027
The women Utamaro drew
are all very slim,

604
01:10:35,110 --> 01:10:38,906
but Hokusai drew them
with thick thighs and wide hips.

605
01:10:38,989 --> 01:10:44,620
He appreciated more mature
women who had curves.

606
01:10:44,995 --> 01:10:49,041
And they're very proactive
when it comes to sex,

607
01:10:49,124 --> 01:10:53,629
They aren't just lying there
taking it. They make demands.

608
01:10:53,712 --> 01:10:55,964
- Yeah, I like that.
- Great, isn't it?

609
01:10:56,048 --> 01:11:01,345
They aren't just objects to be pursued.
The way they actively take part.

610
01:11:01,428 --> 01:11:04,014
That's what I really like.

611
01:11:05,224 --> 01:11:09,937
Lastly we have one by Shuncho,
who was a student senior to Hokusai.

612
01:11:10,812 --> 01:11:11,939
Here it is.

613
01:11:13,106 --> 01:11:15,025
The second octopus picture.
The second version.

614
01:11:15,108 --> 01:11:17,819
<i>"Lusts of Many Women on </i>One Thousand
Nights" (1786) by Katsukawa Shuncho

615
01:11:17,903 --> 01:11:20,906
- The little one's here too.
- Yes, there he is!

616
01:11:23,408 --> 01:11:30,457
So we have the first, second,
and finally Hokusai's version.

617
01:11:33,877 --> 01:11:38,215
There are earlier pictures
of sex with sea creatures,

618
01:11:38,298 --> 01:11:44,054
but they tend to have a distant
perspective and aim for amusement.

619
01:11:44,388 --> 01:11:51,019
It zooms in more with each version,
until the image fills the whole frame.

620
01:11:51,103 --> 01:11:55,357
That's what makes it different
to the shunga which came before.

621
01:11:59,194 --> 01:12:06,994
It's the desire of the artist to draw
more and better, to show his skill.

622
01:12:07,077 --> 01:12:09,872
I guess that's how it came about.

623
01:12:10,747 --> 01:12:17,171
It's like, how far can you take the
illusion of space in a 2-D picture?

624
01:12:17,880 --> 01:12:23,760
I mean, that's how much you can get
engrossed. The power of the picture.

625
01:12:28,015 --> 01:12:33,187
In the following years, he gradually
shifted his focus to landscapes,

626
01:12:33,437 --> 01:12:40,027
but at this stage, he drew bijinga while
experimenting with shunga as well.

627
01:12:40,110 --> 01:12:45,991
I think he was satisfied with what he'd
done, so he switched to landscapes.

628
01:12:46,617 --> 01:12:50,370
You know, he achieved
what he'd set out to do.

629
01:12:50,454 --> 01:12:55,417
He'd taken shunga as far as
he could, so he moved on.

630
01:13:04,968 --> 01:13:13,018
I've dreamed of this day for so long.
Finally, you're in my grasp!

631
01:13:15,020 --> 01:13:20,984
Your swollen cunt tastes
even better than sweet potatoes!

632
01:13:21,443 --> 01:13:29,910
I'll suck and suck and suck my fill,
then take you to the Dragon Palace...

633
01:13:29,993 --> 01:13:31,453
and keep you forever!

634
01:13:32,538 --> 01:13:39,127
Slurp, slurp, slurp,
shlup-shlup-shlup, slurp, slurp!

635
01:13:42,673 --> 01:13:47,010
Oh, you beastly octopus! Unnnh!

636
01:13:49,304 --> 01:13:57,104
Yes, yes, deep inside me!
Suck at the mouth of my womb!

637
01:13:57,187 --> 01:14:00,065
It makes me short of breath!

638
01:14:03,068 --> 01:14:06,738
Yeah, right there with your sucker!

639
01:14:07,114 --> 01:14:10,409
More, more! Aaah!

640
01:14:11,660 --> 01:14:15,414
You like it, huh?
Encircled by my eight legs.

641
01:14:15,998 --> 01:14:18,625
Your pussy's all swollen.

642
01:14:23,088 --> 01:14:28,719
Your hot love juice,
gushing out in a sticky stream!

643
01:14:30,387 --> 01:14:33,557
This feels so good!!

644
01:14:34,766 --> 01:14:39,563
You're driving me crazy!

645
01:14:41,523 --> 01:14:44,735
I'm coming, I'm coming!

646
01:14:47,529 --> 01:14:50,115
I'm coming so hard!

647
01:14:50,199 --> 01:14:53,076
Yeah, right there!

648
01:14:54,411 --> 01:15:00,626
When he's done, my little suckers will
suck you from your clit to your anus.

649
01:15:00,709 --> 01:15:04,796
And when you're gaga with delight,
I'll suck you to new heights!

650
01:15:16,600 --> 01:15:21,813
<i>Contemporary artist</i>
Makoto Aida

651
01:15:22,356 --> 01:15:29,655
Among all the erotic art of the past
4000 years, shunga is definitely...

652
01:15:31,156 --> 01:15:33,825
the cream of the crop.

653
01:15:34,409 --> 01:15:42,459
The common folk of the Edo era
had very particular kinks.

654
01:15:43,168 --> 01:15:47,589
You know, a special kind of perversion.

655
01:15:53,178 --> 01:15:59,434
<i>His modern art debut was</i>
a work based on Hokusai.

656
01:16:00,602 --> 01:16:06,775
<i>Its grotesque eroticism</i>
drew wide attention.

657
01:16:07,901 --> 01:16:11,780
I painted it mainly in 1992.

658
01:16:11,864 --> 01:16:16,368
<i>The Giant Member Fuji vs King Gidora</i>.

659
01:16:16,451 --> 01:16:23,750
It's a huge piece,
painted on acetate film.

660
01:16:23,834 --> 01:16:28,505
At the time, the term<i> otaku</i>...

661
01:16:28,589 --> 01:16:33,677
had become a buzzword in the media,

662
01:16:33,760 --> 01:16:39,224
and they talked about<i> otaku</i>
in very negative terms.

663
01:16:39,308 --> 01:16:47,900
I was looking for a way to combine
shunga,<i> otaku</i>, and anime,

664
01:16:47,983 --> 01:16:54,448
and the famous octopus piece
by Hokusai sprang to mind.

665
01:16:54,531 --> 01:16:57,284
<i>I turned the legs into King Gidora,</i>

666
01:16:57,367 --> 01:17:01,705
<i>made the woman into an Ultraman</i>
team member who became a giant,

667
01:17:01,788 --> 01:17:03,624
<i>and painted it anime-style.</i>

668
01:17:04,041 --> 01:17:08,754
<i>Tokusatsu </i>monsters, anime,
and Hokusai's ukiyo-e.

669
01:17:08,837 --> 01:17:13,258
By sticking them together
you know, forcibly,

670
01:17:13,342 --> 01:17:17,554
I felt I could express
a range of things.

671
01:17:17,888 --> 01:17:21,600
The design just sprang into my head.

672
01:17:21,683 --> 01:17:25,437
That's how I painted it.

673
01:17:27,105 --> 01:17:30,400
At the time, you know--

674
01:17:30,484 --> 01:17:32,903
Well, it was the same with sex, but...

675
01:17:32,986 --> 01:17:40,786
bringing manga<i> otaku </i>esthetics...

676
01:17:41,078 --> 01:17:47,626
into a serious work of art was
much more of a taboo than it is now.

677
01:17:47,709 --> 01:17:53,549
So it was rejected out of hand.

678
01:17:55,634 --> 01:17:59,930
In my opinion, Japanese people--

679
01:18:00,514 --> 01:18:05,060
And this goes for painting
as well as any other artistic genre.

680
01:18:05,143 --> 01:18:11,358
Whenever they attempt to
produce something really artistic,

681
01:18:11,441 --> 01:18:16,071
throughout the ages up until now,

682
01:18:16,947 --> 01:18:25,706
they feel real art comes from overseas,
and have to copy it rigorously.

683
01:18:25,998 --> 01:18:28,959
So a lot of really talented artists...

684
01:18:29,877 --> 01:18:33,839
burn out trying to match up to it.

685
01:18:33,922 --> 01:18:42,264
In the Edo era, especially the latter
half when ukiyo-e was at its peak,

686
01:18:42,973 --> 01:18:49,271
artists weren't under pressure
to imitate and produce high art.

687
01:18:50,063 --> 01:18:54,860
It's at times like that when
Japanese artists are most free...

688
01:18:54,943 --> 01:18:58,113
to produce original forms of expression.

689
01:18:59,281 --> 01:19:03,577
That was how the ukiyo-e
of the Edo era came into being,

690
01:19:03,660 --> 01:19:08,790
and post-WWII manga and anime
had the same kind of creativity.

691
01:19:12,753 --> 01:19:15,839
After the British Museum's
shunga exhibition,

692
01:19:15,923 --> 01:19:20,010
shunga became seen
as a genuine art form.

693
01:19:20,093 --> 01:19:26,850
Why? Because the British Museum
had exhibited it, of course!

694
01:19:27,059 --> 01:19:31,772
But actually, the very fact
that it isn't art...

695
01:19:32,981 --> 01:19:35,150
is what makes it so interesting.

696
01:19:35,234 --> 01:19:40,864
We're supposed to accept that
what the West calls art is real art,

697
01:19:41,698 --> 01:19:47,162
and accept it unquestioningly,
without a shadow of a doubt.

698
01:19:47,246 --> 01:19:53,293
But ukiyo-e and shunga have the power
to bring that idea into question.

699
01:19:53,377 --> 01:19:58,841
The view that the oh-so-refined
European art world...

700
01:20:01,385 --> 01:20:04,179
had admitted shunga into its ranks...

701
01:20:04,263 --> 01:20:10,769
so we Japanese could feel proud of it
is a mistaken way of thinking.

702
01:20:12,437 --> 01:20:19,152
To be frank, that kind of attitude
has always bugged me, you know?

703
01:20:31,957 --> 01:20:38,463
<i>Obihiro, Hokkaido Prefecture</i>

704
01:20:58,233 --> 01:21:05,157
<i>Soil microbiologist Ryoichi Yamakawa</i>
Collector of Japanese art

705
01:21:16,877 --> 01:21:19,880
This is the original paulownia box.

706
01:21:21,590 --> 01:21:23,091
It has a hole here.

707
01:21:23,592 --> 01:21:25,260
You put your finger in.

708
01:21:26,512 --> 01:21:28,222
That's how to open it.

709
01:21:29,556 --> 01:21:31,600
It's like "Aha!"

710
01:21:35,854 --> 01:21:36,813
And this is...

711
01:21:37,523 --> 01:21:39,900
the genuine<i> Devoted Genji</i>.

712
01:21:42,319 --> 01:21:47,074
Just as they were
when they were produced.

713
01:21:52,329 --> 01:21:56,250
<i>"A True-life Devoted Genji" (c. 1851)</i>
by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1864)

714
01:21:56,333 --> 01:22:01,380
<i>One of Kunisada's three shunga</i>
parodies of the Tale of Genji.

715
01:22:01,463 --> 01:22:07,427
<i>He was the most popular and prolific</i>
ukiyo-e artist of the late Edo era.

716
01:22:13,684 --> 01:22:15,978
This is where it begins.

717
01:22:29,199 --> 01:22:36,456
The printing is just so elaborate.
A multitude of colors have been used.

718
01:22:37,207 --> 01:22:42,421
I think around 40 to 50
different colors altogether.

719
01:22:44,673 --> 01:22:48,677
It's the legendary top-class
first edition of<i> Devoted Genji</i>.

720
01:22:48,760 --> 01:22:54,266
<i>Top-class first edition</i>

721
01:22:54,349 --> 01:22:56,727
An extremely unspoiled first edition.

722
01:22:57,394 --> 01:22:59,146
Hold it up and look.

723
01:23:00,480 --> 01:23:03,150
See the pattern on the kimono?

724
01:23:03,483 --> 01:23:07,362
Look at it from various angles.
This bit too.

725
01:23:07,738 --> 01:23:15,245
They used<i> kara-zuri </i>to make the kimono
pattern stand out in three dimensions.

726
01:23:16,455 --> 01:23:18,040
And the dog as well.<i>Kara-zuri</i>, so the hair--

727
01:23:18,123 --> 01:23:22,419
<i>Kara-zuri</i>
(an embossing technique)

728
01:23:22,503 --> 01:23:29,801
You can only see it pop out when
light shines across the pattern.

729
01:23:37,100 --> 01:23:38,852
And look at the lamp.

730
01:23:40,562 --> 01:23:42,231
That's<i> kira-zuri</i>.

731
01:23:42,606 --> 01:23:47,694
It's been sprinkled with mica so that
it sparkles as it reflects light.

732
01:23:50,280 --> 01:23:52,741
<i>Kira-zuri</i>
(using mica to add sparkle)

733
01:23:52,824 --> 01:23:56,453
The dim light shining through paper doors,

734
01:23:56,537 --> 01:23:57,913
or that of an oil lamp.

735
01:23:58,497 --> 01:24:02,543
It was designed to be effective
in those lighting conditions.

736
01:24:06,922 --> 01:24:09,424
Hold it in your hands.

737
01:24:10,592 --> 01:24:12,427
Now tilt it over.

738
01:24:13,846 --> 01:24:15,889
- Then you'll--
- Oh, I see!

739
01:24:16,765 --> 01:24:20,894
Silver has been used to depict rain.

740
01:24:22,563 --> 01:24:30,279
<i>Gin-zuri (printing with silver)</i>

741
01:24:30,696 --> 01:24:34,741
Look at the kimono pattern
from different angles.

742
01:24:35,784 --> 01:24:37,536
You see the lower part?

743
01:24:38,829 --> 01:24:40,372
How it shines?

744
01:24:41,665 --> 01:24:42,583
That's<i> tsuya-zuri </i>or<i> shomen-zuri</i>.

745
01:24:42,666 --> 01:24:49,339
<i>Tsuya-zuri/Shomen-zuri</i>
(burnishing)

746
01:24:49,423 --> 01:24:54,303
And here they sprinkled gold leaf,

747
01:24:54,386 --> 01:24:58,891
and silver leaf on the other half here.

748
01:25:00,934 --> 01:25:05,647
<i>Gold leaf</i>

749
01:25:06,732 --> 01:25:10,027
<i>Silver leaf</i>

750
01:25:10,110 --> 01:25:13,280
It's wonderful, isn't it?

751
01:25:14,740 --> 01:25:15,741
It certainly is.

752
01:25:16,408 --> 01:25:18,994
That's why I love it.

753
01:25:19,077 --> 01:25:23,957
You know, it has a sense of humor.

754
01:25:25,792 --> 01:25:32,424
The moon is like this,
but it shines when light falls on it.

755
01:25:34,968 --> 01:25:36,011
The way it shines.

756
01:25:36,053 --> 01:25:40,766
<i>Gin-zuri</i>
(printing with silver)

757
01:25:41,725 --> 01:25:43,727
So captivating, isn't it?

758
01:27:07,644 --> 01:27:13,233
<i>A True-life Devoted Genji </i>was probably
made for the Matsudaira clan from Fukui.

759
01:27:13,775 --> 01:27:17,988
Matsudaira Shungaku, an influential
figure in Bakumatsu politics,

760
01:27:18,071 --> 01:27:18,989
<i>Matsudaira Shungaku, 16th lord of</i>
Fukui Domain, Echizen Province

761
01:27:19,072 --> 01:27:24,745
is said to be the person
who commissioned the piece.

762
01:27:25,829 --> 01:27:29,541
In other words, he was
the producer behind it.

763
01:27:29,791 --> 01:27:34,755
<i>The print which exists was produced</i>
using highly refined techniques...

764
01:27:35,214 --> 01:27:40,010
<i>and a great number of colors,</i>
along with precious materials...

765
01:27:40,093 --> 01:27:42,012
<i>such as gold, silver,</i>
and mother-of-pearl.

766
01:27:42,095 --> 01:27:44,681
<i>Mother-of-pearl</i>

767
01:27:44,765 --> 01:27:50,729
<i>The piece is overflowing with color,</i>
which makes it really striking.

768
01:27:51,146 --> 01:27:54,775
<i>It's a very elaborate</i>
and luxurious work,

769
01:27:55,400 --> 01:28:01,198
<i>using techniques like kara-zuri</i>
to create three-dimensional effects,

770
01:28:01,281 --> 01:28:05,744
<i>and shomen-zuri to burnish</i>
the print from the reverse side.

771
01:28:05,953 --> 01:28:08,872
<i>A huge amount of work</i>
has gone into it.

772
01:28:09,957 --> 01:28:15,003
People tend to think of ukiyo-e
prints as two-dimensional pictures,

773
01:28:15,087 --> 01:28:16,672
but they're actually three-dimensional.

774
01:28:17,631 --> 01:28:22,761
<i>You can't tell if you just</i>
look at them straight on,

775
01:28:23,220 --> 01:28:26,932
<i>but if you hold them at various angles,</i>

776
01:28:27,140 --> 01:28:33,730
<i>the play of light and shadow reveals</i>
the three-dimensional aspects.

777
01:28:36,817 --> 01:28:41,864
However much color was used,
no matter how luxurious and costly,

778
01:28:42,197 --> 01:28:46,952
they wouldn't be punished,
because the authorities never saw it.

779
01:28:47,160 --> 01:28:52,749
And that's why the piece
contains all the techniques...

780
01:28:52,833 --> 01:28:56,837
of early 19th century ukiyo-e,
i.e. woodblock printing,

781
01:28:56,920 --> 01:29:01,133
employed at the highest level
by master craftsmen.

782
01:29:09,808 --> 01:29:16,857
<i>Mr. Yamakawa's print of "A True-life</i>
Devoted Genji" is being digitized.

783
01:29:17,941 --> 01:29:21,236
<i>Printing techniques are being analyzed</i>
at a resolution of 2 billion pixels.

784
01:29:21,320 --> 01:29:25,699
<i>I've digitized a lot of</i>
ukiyo-e artworks, but...

785
01:29:25,782 --> 01:29:28,327
<i>this is the finest one</i>
I've ever seen!

786
01:29:29,244 --> 01:29:30,787
<i>First, I wanted to see it</i>
with my own eyes.

787
01:29:30,871 --> 01:29:34,041
<i>Iwao Kubota</i>
President and CEO of Ars Techne

788
01:29:34,124 --> 01:29:38,879
<i>I was captivated, and decided</i>
immediately to digitize it.

789
01:29:40,797 --> 01:29:43,383
Let's take a really close look.

790
01:29:44,468 --> 01:29:48,388
The whole pattern has been
embossed three-dimensionally.

791
01:29:48,472 --> 01:29:52,518
This<i> kara-zuri </i>is just
so detailed, isn't it?

792
01:29:54,019 --> 01:29:57,439
The sleeve has not only been embossed,

793
01:29:57,523 --> 01:30:01,944
but gold paint has been used
to create this straw-like pattern.

794
01:30:02,611 --> 01:30:06,907
So it shines when light strikes it.

795
01:30:07,658 --> 01:30:11,119
The eyes have a touch of vermilion,

796
01:30:12,162 --> 01:30:16,917
and there are all these lines
on the eyeballs.

797
01:30:19,419 --> 01:30:23,632
The bridge of the nose has been
embossed to bulge outward.

798
01:30:23,715 --> 01:30:25,217
Looks like they used
the<i> kime-dashi </i>technique.

799
01:30:25,300 --> 01:30:30,556
<i>Kime-dashi</i>
(an embossing technique)

800
01:30:31,181 --> 01:30:37,688
You can see it clearly
from the sake bottle on the tray...

801
01:30:38,438 --> 01:30:42,526
to the surface of the soup in the bowl,
three-dimensional wave patterns.

802
01:30:42,609 --> 01:30:45,362
This is<i> kara-zuri </i>embossing.

803
01:30:45,654 --> 01:30:48,198
The level of detail is astounding!

804
01:30:50,701 --> 01:30:52,536
It's really amazing.

805
01:30:53,245 --> 01:30:55,664
Even the veins have been embossed!

806
01:30:58,125 --> 01:30:59,459
It's so funny.

807
01:31:02,671 --> 01:31:07,301
Just in this tiny 20-cm space,

808
01:31:07,384 --> 01:31:13,599
so many different techniques
have been utilized, it's incredible.

809
01:31:14,474 --> 01:31:18,729
Trying to reproduce this level of work
now would be absolutely impossible.

810
01:31:33,410 --> 01:31:35,078
Here's<i> Genji of the East</i>.

811
01:31:35,495 --> 01:31:40,292
<i>"Deep Feelings of Birds and </i>Flowers, Genji
of the East" (c. 1837) by Utagawa Kunisada

812
01:32:06,443 --> 01:32:10,572
<i>Another masterpiece created at the</i>
zenith of the woodblock printing era.

813
01:32:10,656 --> 01:32:13,742
<i>The beginning and ending</i>
are very elaborate.

814
01:32:17,829 --> 01:32:21,750
This girl, a girl who's
never experienced sex.

815
01:32:22,167 --> 01:32:24,503
Girls like these are depicted...

816
01:32:27,714 --> 01:32:28,924
like this.

817
01:32:30,425 --> 01:32:32,719
It's a sign of her experience.

818
01:32:33,303 --> 01:32:37,683
Like, her sexual organs
look like this. No pubic hair.

819
01:32:38,725 --> 01:32:43,313
Whereas more mature women
are depicted like this.

820
01:32:44,189 --> 01:32:48,193
And it shows how it looks inside
when a finger is inserted.

821
01:32:48,277 --> 01:32:51,780
Take a look at this.
I mean, how did they do it?

822
01:32:55,033 --> 01:32:56,994
How did they carve so finely?

823
01:32:58,036 --> 01:33:04,334
Every single hair is crinkled. You
wouldn't think it was humanly possible.

824
01:33:08,297 --> 01:33:10,632
Another mature woman.

825
01:33:10,757 --> 01:33:11,925
Middle-aged?

826
01:33:12,009 --> 01:33:16,305
Yes, and she has black teeth,
which means she's married.

827
01:33:17,931 --> 01:33:21,810
Her sexual organs look like this.

828
01:33:21,894 --> 01:33:24,438
You know, well-used.

829
01:33:24,813 --> 01:33:29,568
Just look at the detail here.
It's almost too much.

830
01:33:32,446 --> 01:33:34,907
It's how mature women were depicted.

831
01:33:37,743 --> 01:33:39,870
I mean, how did they do it?

832
01:33:44,458 --> 01:33:49,671
No disrespect to Kunisada,
but he didn't draw all that.

833
01:33:50,797 --> 01:33:52,424
The carver carved it.

834
01:33:53,008 --> 01:33:57,846
Kunisada drew this part,
but the carver carved this.

835
01:33:58,096 --> 01:34:00,933
And this is the printer,

836
01:34:01,016 --> 01:34:06,813
using printing techniques to bring out
details which weren't in the draft.

837
01:34:10,484 --> 01:34:12,736
A mind-blowing level of detail.

838
01:34:14,696 --> 01:34:18,033
Every aspect of it is amazing.

839
01:34:30,546 --> 01:34:36,885
In the first half of the 19th century,
woodblock printing techniques...

840
01:34:36,969 --> 01:34:40,013
<i>can be said to have reached their peak.</i>

841
01:34:40,097 --> 01:34:44,518
<i>It shows how skilled the carver</i>
and printer were.

842
01:34:44,601 --> 01:34:48,105
<i>They've put all their</i>
skills into the work.

843
01:34:50,107 --> 01:34:53,110
<i>It's a masterpiece</i>
in terms of the era too.

844
01:35:04,955 --> 01:35:10,169
<i>Copenhagen, Denmark</i>

845
01:35:11,253 --> 01:35:15,591
<i>Shunga painting collector</i>
Michael Fornitz

846
01:35:27,811 --> 01:35:33,942
<i>"Erotic Ghost Paintings" (early 1800s)</i>
by Katsukawa Shun'ei, painting

847
01:36:35,963 --> 01:36:43,220
<i>"Erotic Ghost Paintings"</i>
by Katsukawa Shun'ei

848
01:37:33,187 --> 01:37:38,025
<i>Seeing Erotic Ghost Paintings</i>
by Katsukawa Shun'ei...

849
01:37:38,442 --> 01:37:40,485
<i>had a huge impact on me.</i>

850
01:37:40,569 --> 01:37:41,778
Most shunga are composed with the woman
on the bottom, and the man on top.

851
01:37:41,862 --> 01:37:47,743
<i>Painter Ryoko Kimura</i>

852
01:37:47,826 --> 01:37:51,246
In other words,
they're usually depicted...

853
01:37:51,330 --> 01:37:53,999
in the missionary position.

854
01:37:54,082 --> 01:37:59,880
<i>But in that piece,</i>
the ghost woman is on top,

855
01:37:59,963 --> 01:38:06,470
and she's also middle-aged,
just as I was at that time,

856
01:38:06,929 --> 01:38:09,264
so I really identified with her.

857
01:38:09,348 --> 01:38:14,978
<i>Her strong desire even after death</i>
is depicted really humorously,

858
01:38:15,062 --> 01:38:19,775
<i>and she's also dominating him,</i>
which was very striking to me.

859
01:38:19,858 --> 01:38:22,611
I liked it so much...

860
01:38:23,445 --> 01:38:26,156
<i>I ended up being inspired to paint</i>
a picture with a similar composition.

861
01:38:26,240 --> 01:38:34,289
<i>"Napping Tarzan - Close call!"</i>
(2010) by Ryoko Kimura

862
01:38:35,082 --> 01:38:39,586
<i>A female chimpanzee has</i>
found Tarzan sleeping...

863
01:38:39,670 --> 01:38:44,466
<i>and has grabbed his prick</i>
as if it's a banana.

864
01:38:44,550 --> 01:38:47,094
<i>That's the basic image.</i>

865
01:39:00,023 --> 01:39:04,194
<i>In my early works,</i>
I used to depict female figures,

866
01:39:04,444 --> 01:39:10,242
<i>and most people assumed that</i>
they were all self-portraits.

867
01:39:11,159 --> 01:39:16,707
<i>At the time, the audience for</i>
erotic art was mostly male,

868
01:39:17,165 --> 01:39:23,547
<i>and they often said I should make them</i>
sexier, and expose myself more.

869
01:39:23,630 --> 01:39:24,923
There was a very famous nihonga
painter called Shoen Uemura,

870
01:39:25,007 --> 01:39:29,052
<i>Shoen Uemura, Japanese artist active</i>
from the late 19th to mid-20th century

871
01:39:29,136 --> 01:39:32,181
and she depicted her
own sexual organs.

872
01:39:32,264 --> 01:39:37,477
About five people told me I should
go at least as far as she did,

873
01:39:37,561 --> 01:39:41,148
which really annoyed me!

874
01:39:42,482 --> 01:39:47,738
<i>It led me to question who</i>
I was depicting the human form for.

875
01:39:48,488 --> 01:39:55,412
<i>I wanted to see men in erotic postures,</i>
and shifting to painting nudes of men...

876
01:39:55,495 --> 01:40:01,460
<i>was very liberating for me, in that</i>
I could distance myself from the work.

877
01:40:02,085 --> 01:40:04,630
<i>I felt that I'd found my motif,</i>

878
01:40:04,713 --> 01:40:09,384
<i>and nowadays, I mostly depict men.</i>

879
01:40:12,304 --> 01:40:18,101
Of course, sex can sometimes be violent,

880
01:40:18,185 --> 01:40:21,355
and it's sometimes linked to death.

881
01:40:21,438 --> 01:40:27,444
But to me, sex, and
depicting sexual motifs...

882
01:40:27,528 --> 01:40:30,197
is all about the joy of living.

883
01:40:30,280 --> 01:40:38,080
In shunga, both women and men are
usually depicted enjoying themselves.

884
01:40:38,163 --> 01:40:44,545
There are male couples, and female
couples having fun in the harem.

885
01:40:44,628 --> 01:40:50,133
It's a really diverse world,
in which people are free to enjoy sex.

886
01:40:50,217 --> 01:40:56,473
<i>That's why I love shunga so much,</i>
and draw great inspiration from it.

887
01:41:10,279 --> 01:41:14,283
I bought this recently...

888
01:41:14,741 --> 01:41:17,661
at a gallery in Jimbocho.

889
01:41:18,495 --> 01:41:23,417
<i>The Lustful Doors of Carnal Women</i>
by Utagawa Kunisada.

890
01:41:23,500 --> 01:41:30,507
When I saw it, I felt
I simply had to have it.

891
01:41:30,716 --> 01:41:38,849
It's about a widow who finds pleasure
with a man after years of celibacy,

892
01:41:38,932 --> 01:41:43,437
which reawakens her sexual desire
and she becomes wanton.

893
01:41:43,520 --> 01:41:48,025
This depiction of an older woman
with heavy breasts,

894
01:41:48,108 --> 01:41:52,696
I actually found it very beautiful.

895
01:41:54,573 --> 01:42:02,623
And this is possibly the only depiction
of female ejaculation in shunga.

896
01:42:03,498 --> 01:42:07,669
It's so pleasurable
that she's actually squirting.

897
01:42:07,961 --> 01:42:12,841
She's in the throes of ecstasy.

898
01:42:16,929 --> 01:42:20,057
I really love this scene.

899
01:42:20,724 --> 01:42:28,815
Her tousled hair, the way her vulva
grips his penis like an anemone,

900
01:42:28,899 --> 01:42:35,656
and how forcefully she's ejaculating
made a really deep impression on me.

901
01:42:36,698 --> 01:42:39,159
Her ass seems to be dancing.

902
01:42:39,952 --> 01:42:42,955
Crazy with ecstasy.

903
01:42:47,125 --> 01:42:54,591
Most of Utagawa Kunisada's work is so
beautiful it takes my breath away,

904
01:42:54,675 --> 01:43:01,932
But this physicality, how he portrays
her plump and ripe body...

905
01:43:02,015 --> 01:43:05,185
is a very rare sight in shunga.

906
01:43:05,769 --> 01:43:08,856
I really love it.

907
01:43:15,028 --> 01:43:19,783
The desire to enjoy sex,
to be sex-positive...

908
01:43:19,867 --> 01:43:22,828
is the same now as it was
in the Edo era,

909
01:43:23,871 --> 01:43:28,250
which is seen as a permissive
and liberated time.

910
01:43:28,876 --> 01:43:32,713
But not using contraception
leads to abortions...

911
01:43:32,796 --> 01:43:35,048
or unwanted, abandoned children.

912
01:43:35,132 --> 01:43:39,052
That's the other side
of a permissive society.

913
01:43:39,136 --> 01:43:43,307
The dark side, which people
tend to brush under the rug.

914
01:43:44,516 --> 01:43:50,147
In shunga, women are depicted
enjoying sex, but...

915
01:43:50,647 --> 01:43:55,319
I wonder how they
managed to overcome...

916
01:43:55,861 --> 01:44:02,034
all the things which make life hard
for me as a woman in modern society.

917
01:44:02,117 --> 01:44:08,665
How they dealt with romance, having
sex as a duty rather than for pleasure,

918
01:44:08,749 --> 01:44:11,335
having to produce children, and so on.

919
01:44:13,045 --> 01:44:18,300
Saying that Edo era society was very
permissive is a broad-brush statement,

920
01:44:18,717 --> 01:44:22,846
and I question whether
that was really the case.

921
01:44:22,930 --> 01:44:27,684
Looking at it from that perspective
is what really interests me.

922
01:44:27,768 --> 01:44:32,022
Among moments of joy
are moments of pain and sadness.

923
01:44:32,105 --> 01:44:35,651
That's why, on the one hand,
I really love shunga,

924
01:44:35,734 --> 01:44:37,903
but I hate it at the same time.

925
01:45:00,425 --> 01:45:06,265
<i>"Night Parade of a Hundred Demons"</i>
by Utagawa Kunisada

926
01:45:14,690 --> 01:45:19,111
<i>Within shunga, death</i>
is sometimes depicted.

927
01:45:19,319 --> 01:45:22,781
<i>Ghosts, yokai,</i>
strange and grotesque things.

928
01:45:22,865 --> 01:45:24,783
<i>in other words, non-human</i>
figures appear in shunga.

929
01:45:24,867 --> 01:45:28,161
<i>Distorted forms</i>

930
01:45:28,245 --> 01:45:35,878
<i>That was what first piqued my curiosity.</i>

931
01:45:37,796 --> 01:45:44,803
Death, violence, people who have
transformed and come back from the dead.

932
01:45:44,887 --> 01:45:49,016
Those are the things
which sparked my interest.

933
01:45:50,309 --> 01:45:52,227
<i>In Utagawa Kunisada's shunga book</i>
Tales of Pussy in the Palace at Night...

934
01:45:52,311 --> 01:45:56,732
<i>"Picture Book: Tales of Pussy </i>in the
Palace at Night" by Utagawa Kunisada

935
01:45:56,815 --> 01:46:01,195
<i>is a picture of a couple who</i>
jumped to their deaths together.

936
01:46:01,278 --> 01:46:08,744
<i>But he survived, and the picture</i>
shows him praying over her body.

937
01:46:08,827 --> 01:46:13,874
<i>But it's a moving picture,</i>
and when you open it up,

938
01:46:15,167 --> 01:46:17,961
<i>the young woman who drowned...</i>

939
01:46:18,378 --> 01:46:23,091
<i>has become a ghost of</i>
huge proportions.

940
01:46:23,383 --> 01:46:27,513
<i>And she's bitten off his penis...</i>

941
01:46:27,596 --> 01:46:31,808
<i>which drips blood as she</i>
holds it in her mouth.

942
01:46:32,809 --> 01:46:34,478
<i>I was shocked.</i>

943
01:46:35,479 --> 01:46:39,942
I'd assumed that shunga were
just Edo-era pornography.

944
01:46:40,025 --> 01:46:43,946
But that picture I saw...

945
01:46:44,029 --> 01:46:48,992
wasn't something I could dismiss
as just mere pornography.

946
01:46:49,535 --> 01:46:55,374
<i>It made me wonder why there was a market</i>
for such a picture, why it was produced.

947
01:46:57,501 --> 01:47:01,296
It took a lot of time and effort
to make those moving flaps.

948
01:47:01,505 --> 01:47:04,967
Gluing each one in turn.

949
01:47:05,050 --> 01:47:09,888
And they produced hundreds of copies,
all handmade, of course.

950
01:47:09,972 --> 01:47:15,602
It makes you wonder
what the hell they were thinking!

951
01:47:17,354 --> 01:47:24,653
<i>Up until the Utamaro-Hokusai era, people</i>
were satisfied with depictions of sex,

952
01:47:25,404 --> 01:47:26,613
<i>but as time went on, they didn't get</i>
a kick out of seeing couples at play.

953
01:47:26,697 --> 01:47:31,577
<i>"Love of Yatsufuji" by Utagawa Kunisada</i>
(shunga version of "Tale of Eight Dogs")

954
01:47:31,994 --> 01:47:37,416
<i>And so they began to demand</i>
much kinkier material.

955
01:47:39,418 --> 01:47:43,630
<i>And among those various types</i>
of kinks, one of them was...

956
01:47:44,006 --> 01:47:45,174
what is known as<i> kiso</i>.

957
01:47:45,257 --> 01:47:47,634
<i>Kiso</i>

958
01:47:47,718 --> 01:47:51,263
Violence, death,<i> yokai</i>,
ghosts, and so on.

959
01:47:51,346 --> 01:47:55,434
It became a genre of its own.

960
01:48:03,650 --> 01:48:09,239
<i>Taisoji Temple, Shinjuku, Tokyo</i>

961
01:48:21,084 --> 01:48:25,380
This is hell, and here is Yama.

962
01:48:25,464 --> 01:48:31,053
And an<i> oni-baba </i>called Datsueba
is by the Sanzu River.

963
01:48:31,929 --> 01:48:33,013
Ever since the Edo era,
Shinjuku has been...

964
01:48:33,096 --> 01:48:37,809
<i>Drag queen/Artist</i>
Vivienne Sato

965
01:48:38,227 --> 01:48:46,610
<i>like a melting pot teeming</i>
with all kinds of human desire.

966
01:48:51,740 --> 01:48:55,702
I mean, just look at it.
You can see her intestines!

967
01:48:56,828 --> 01:48:58,747
Right? I've never seen
anything like it.

968
01:48:58,830 --> 01:49:01,750
<i>"Heard and Recorded in the Bedroom:</i>
Pillow Library" (1822) by Keisai Eisen

969
01:49:01,834 --> 01:49:02,876
I love it.

970
01:49:04,711 --> 01:49:05,587
For real.

971
01:49:07,840 --> 01:49:12,177
These fingers are barely poking though,

972
01:49:12,261 --> 01:49:15,305
and they're surrounded
by her pussy lips.

973
01:49:15,389 --> 01:49:19,643
But around the lips are two
rows of what look like teeth.

974
01:49:20,185 --> 01:49:22,145
I mean, what's going on here?

975
01:49:24,857 --> 01:49:29,653
I don't see it as grotesque,
but rather highly amusing.

976
01:49:29,736 --> 01:49:36,869
I wanna print it on T-shirts, and
nowadays, on the masks people wear!

977
01:49:36,952 --> 01:49:41,415
It's so shocking,
and has so much originality.

978
01:49:41,915 --> 01:49:46,545
I don't know how many people
would get turned on by it,

979
01:49:46,628 --> 01:49:48,922
but it definitely turns me on!

980
01:49:50,549 --> 01:49:52,718
The artist was obviously a freak.

981
01:49:52,926 --> 01:49:55,721
That's what really intrigues me.

982
01:50:02,603 --> 01:50:08,275
<i>Commonplace eroticism,</i>
things that make people giggle.

983
01:50:08,358 --> 01:50:14,823
<i>I'm not into that. I like stuff</i>
which puts people on edge.

984
01:50:14,907 --> 01:50:21,955
<i>Or even stuff that's a reflection</i>
of the anxiety of society as a whole.

985
01:50:22,039 --> 01:50:25,042
<i>That's what I'm really into.</i>

986
01:50:28,337 --> 01:50:33,342
Within the ukiyo-e genre, as the
Bakumatsu era approaches,

987
01:50:33,425 --> 01:50:35,344
<i>the content gets more and more</i>
brutal, like, acts of such-and-such.

988
01:50:35,427 --> 01:50:38,597
<i>"Picture Book: </i>Pocket Mirror" (1823)
by Utagawa Toyokuni

989
01:50:38,680 --> 01:50:43,852
<i>Blood, guts, that kind of</i>
eroticism comes to the fore.

990
01:50:43,936 --> 01:50:50,984
<i>Eroticism itself is where life and death</i>
butt up against each other.

991
01:50:51,068 --> 01:50:53,070
<i>It's a double-edged sword.</i>

992
01:50:53,654 --> 01:50:59,910
<i>It not about sexual organs.</i>
It's something beyond that.

993
01:50:59,993 --> 01:51:06,500
<i>It goes beyond sex,</i>
beyond the depiction of the nude.

994
01:51:06,583 --> 01:51:12,089
<i>That's what we can see</i>
in the work of Toyokuni.

995
01:51:21,890 --> 01:51:25,477
<i>Of course, social conditions</i>
are always a factor.

996
01:51:25,769 --> 01:51:31,900
After experiencing a long era of peace,
the country has erupted into civil war.

997
01:51:31,984 --> 01:51:38,657
Until then, Japan has enjoyed peace,
but now, people around you are dying.

998
01:51:38,740 --> 01:51:43,495
Foreigners start pouring in,
the shogunate collapses.

999
01:51:43,579 --> 01:51:49,585
All this affects people psychologically,
and they seek out stronger stimulation,

1000
01:51:49,877 --> 01:51:53,964
more sensational forms of expression.

1001
01:51:54,047 --> 01:51:58,760
This trend occurs not only in shunga,
but in ukiyo-e as a whole.

1002
01:51:58,802 --> 01:51:59,761
The brutal and bloodthirsty works
of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi...

1003
01:51:59,845 --> 01:52:03,724
<i>"Twenty-Eight Famous Murders: Inadakyuzo</i>
Shinsuke" (1867) by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

1004
01:52:03,807 --> 01:52:06,810
<i>become wildly popular</i>
at this time.

1005
01:52:08,812 --> 01:52:14,151
<i>It's in the air people breathe,</i>
this desire to see...

1006
01:52:14,234 --> 01:52:17,863
<i>ever more grotesque pictures.</i>

1007
01:52:34,004 --> 01:52:39,092
<i>When the Edo era ended</i>
and the Meiji era began,

1008
01:52:39,176 --> 01:52:44,932
<i>shunga was classed as "obscene"</i>
and unbefitting to modern society.

1009
01:52:47,684 --> 01:52:55,317
<i>Shunga continued to be produced for</i>
a while, but eventually faded away.

1010
01:52:56,235 --> 01:53:01,782
Then ukiyo-e itself becomes overtaken
by the new photographic technology.

1011
01:53:01,865 --> 01:53:07,996
Technology which enables nudes
to be captured as they are,

1012
01:53:08,747 --> 01:53:13,377
<i>and western tastes and techniques</i>
in art begin to take over too.

1013
01:53:14,086 --> 01:53:19,049
"Out with the old, in with the new"
becomes the philosophy of the era,

1014
01:53:19,132 --> 01:53:24,388
and people reject shunga
along with all the rest.

1015
01:53:30,143 --> 01:53:39,278
<i>And shunga disappeared</i>
from the limelight.

1016
01:54:08,098 --> 01:54:11,185
<i>Shunga depicts sex,</i>

1017
01:54:11,852 --> 01:54:16,773
<i>which is a vital element</i>
of the human condition.

1018
01:54:17,441 --> 01:54:22,738
<i>Ever since Japan modernized,</i>
the depiction of sex has become...

1019
01:54:23,238 --> 01:54:26,491
<i>socially unacceptable,</i>
something which must be forbidden.

1020
01:54:26,992 --> 01:54:29,453
<i>Even though it's how we are,</i>

1021
01:54:29,953 --> 01:54:32,497
<i>it's been hidden from view</i>
for such a long time.

1022
01:54:33,332 --> 01:54:40,422
But when we consider the human
condition, and Japanese culture,

1023
01:54:40,506 --> 01:54:42,925
it's an essential part of us.

1024
01:54:43,258 --> 01:54:48,347
And when we think about
or look at shunga now,

1025
01:54:49,014 --> 01:54:54,144
inevitably, we think about how
it had been hidden for so long.

1026
01:55:01,985 --> 01:55:07,407
<i>Slurp, slurp, slurp,</i>
shlup-shlup-shlup, slurp, slurp!

1027
01:55:09,076 --> 01:55:12,287
<i>You beastly octopus!</i>

1028
01:55:15,415 --> 01:55:18,377
<i>Yes, deep inside me!</i>

1029
01:55:18,460 --> 01:55:23,966
<i>Your hot love juice,</i>
gushing out in a sticky stream!

1030
01:55:36,937 --> 01:55:43,151
<i>"Handscroll for the Sleeve"</i>
reproduction exhibition

1031
01:55:59,042 --> 01:56:01,461
<i>Carver</i>
Kayoko Suga

1032
01:56:01,545 --> 01:56:04,047
Maybe the lines should've been thinner.

1033
01:56:04,339 --> 01:56:06,717
You think so?

1034
01:56:07,134 --> 01:56:10,804
<i>Printer</i>
Noriyasu Soda

1035
01:56:11,638 --> 01:56:15,017
<i>Publisher Yukiko Takahashi </i>6th generation
head of Takahashi Kobo

1036
01:56:15,100 --> 01:56:20,063
<i>It's been 10 years since</i>
I first began planning this.

1037
01:56:20,647 --> 01:56:25,152
I don't know if it's completely perfect.

1038
01:56:25,569 --> 01:56:28,447
We aren't Edo era craftsmen.

1039
01:56:28,697 --> 01:56:33,327
It isn't made by craftsmen
who lived when Kiyonaga drew it.

1040
01:56:33,410 --> 01:56:39,458
If Kiyonaga could see this,
he might say "No, this is wrong!"

1041
01:56:39,541 --> 01:56:44,004
Maybe he's looking down
and saying that right now!

1042
01:56:44,087 --> 01:56:48,425
But as far as I'm concerned,
everyone's done a wonderful job.

1043
01:56:51,386 --> 01:56:55,599
An ordinary couple having sex.
Healthy, pleasurable sex.

1044
01:56:57,351 --> 01:57:01,605
I feel this picture has
the spirit and passion of Edo.

1045
01:57:12,950 --> 01:57:21,667
<i>Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, Kyoto</i>

1046
01:57:30,551 --> 01:57:32,761
Do you have any shunga?

1047
01:57:32,845 --> 01:57:33,762
Yes.

1048
01:57:35,264 --> 01:57:37,391
Here, look.

1049
01:57:40,227 --> 01:57:41,228
And this is?

1050
01:57:41,311 --> 01:57:43,397
An Edo era original.

1051
01:58:08,422 --> 01:58:11,758
It would've been sent via mail.

1052
01:58:11,842 --> 01:58:15,470
To console people during
the Russo‐Japanese War.

1053
01:58:16,680 --> 01:58:19,308
It was sealed up like this.

1054
01:58:20,642 --> 01:58:27,232
Usually there would be a battle scene,
but this one has a sexy lady.

1055
01:58:29,735 --> 01:58:35,616
It was aimed at commoners,
so the print quality is poor.

1056
01:58:36,658 --> 01:58:43,749
It's falling apart now, but it's
a miracle that it's survived at all.

1057
01:58:43,832 --> 01:58:49,630
You know, it's a porn magazine
from hundreds of years ago.

1058
01:58:57,763 --> 01:59:03,769
<i>People couldn't tell anyone they</i>
had them, so they were hidden away.

1059
01:59:04,394 --> 01:59:06,021
<i>Then they reappear some day.</i>

1060
01:59:06,980 --> 01:59:12,110
Brides would bring shunga
with them to their new homes.

1061
01:59:12,986 --> 01:59:17,574
<i>They've survived in places which</i>
weren't bombed in the war.

1062
01:59:17,658 --> 01:59:20,494
<i>There should be lots</i>
in places with long histories.

1063
01:59:20,869 --> 01:59:26,583
They aren't talked about openly,
so most people don't know about them.

1064
01:59:27,042 --> 01:59:29,670
But they're definitely out there.

1065
01:59:30,420 --> 01:59:31,755
That's the way it is.

1065
01:59:32,305 --> 02:00:32,257
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