Harunoe Shunga

1 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:12,074 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm 2 00:01:17,703 --> 00:01:28,338 Shunga: the Lost Japanese Erotica 3 00:01:34,636 --> 00:01:39,892 <i>Kyoto</i> 4 00:01:49,902 --> 00:01:55,157 <i>International Research Center</i> for Japanese Studies 5 00:01:58,702 --> 00:02:05,626 <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 00:02:25,020 --> 00:02:28,023 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 00:02:32,402 --> 00:02:33,445 Make the ends thinner. 13 00:02:36,865 --> 00:02:39,660 <i>Almost nobody produces</i> shunga nowadays. 14 00:02:41,620 --> 00:02:44,456 <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 00:02:47,751 --> 00:02:50,587 <i>Publisher Yukiko Takahashi</i> 6th generation head of Takahashi Kobo 17 00:02:50,671 --> 00:02:54,216 So I want the present generation to master the skills. 18 00:02:54,758 --> 00:02:57,970 If they don't, the art will be lost forever. 19 00:02:58,053 --> 00:03:01,056 That's how this project came about. 20 00:03:03,642 --> 00:03:06,979 It's quite a difficult gradation. 21 00:03:07,062 --> 00:03:08,689 The darkest color is-- 22 00:03:08,856 --> 00:03:11,817 - Which page? - Ten. 0, 5. 23 00:03:12,943 --> 00:03:16,113 It feels like the printing is too clean. 24 00:03:16,196 --> 00:03:19,408 The original is coarser, vaguer. 25 00:03:19,491 --> 00:03:24,705 That's how Edo craftsmen did it! 26 00:03:26,832 --> 00:03:30,127 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 00:03:36,133 --> 00:03:39,845 And later, when I decided to tackle shunga, 29 00:03:41,096 --> 00:03:43,765 he told me to choose a piece which had good taste. 30 00:03:44,057 --> 00:03:45,976 <i>He respected shunga like</i> any other genre of ukiyo-e. 31 00:03:46,059 --> 00:03:47,978 <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 00:03:58,780 --> 00:04:01,074 <i>Handscroll for the Sleeve </i>by Kiyonaga. 35 00:04:01,783 --> 00:04:05,454 When I saw it, I knew that this was the one. 36 00:04:05,537 --> 00:04:08,248 If any work should be reproduced, it was this. 37 00:04:12,711 --> 00:04:24,806 <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 00:05:00,759 --> 00:05:04,096 <i>which is very rare in shunga.</i> 43 00:05:04,346 --> 00:05:05,222 Up until then, shunga had always showed the whole scene. 44 00:05:05,305 --> 00:05:09,852 <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 00:05:13,814 --> 00:05:18,151 <i>Accompanying text</i> 48 00:05:18,235 --> 00:05:20,863 That was the orthodox composition. 49 00:05:21,405 --> 00:05:26,368 <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 00:05:56,607 --> 00:06:02,487 <i>Looking at it, you can imagine</i> their words, feel how they breathe. 56 00:06:04,031 --> 00:06:07,034 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 00:06:47,658 --> 00:06:53,288 <i>Tokyo</i> 59 00:07:12,015 --> 00:07:15,978 <i>Carver</i> Kayoko Suga 60 00:07:42,045 --> 00:07:52,389 <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 00:08:16,455 --> 00:08:19,082 <i>carved with countless fine lines.</i> 63 00:08:19,166 --> 00:08:25,380 <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 00:08:42,773 --> 00:08:47,611 <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 00:08:50,697 --> 00:08:56,370 That's precisely the kind of technique which the old craftsmen mastered. 71 00:08:56,662 --> 00:08:59,540 In the carving stage. 72 00:10:01,894 --> 00:10:08,483 <i>There's a flow, the lines have a flow.</i> They weave and wind into each other. 73 00:10:09,526 --> 00:10:11,737 <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 00:10:40,140 --> 00:10:42,476 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 00:12:38,967 --> 00:12:40,093 They're amazing. 101 00:12:42,971 --> 00:12:44,389 An original? Wow! 102 00:12:44,890 --> 00:12:45,766 <i>Writer</i> Mariko Asabuki 103 00:12:45,807 --> 00:12:47,851 The colors are so beautiful. 104 00:12:48,769 --> 00:12:50,145 <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 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:09,915 This stage is still just risqué. They haven't done the deed yet. 111 00:13:09,998 --> 00:13:12,167 <i>Risqué</i> 112 00:13:12,251 --> 00:13:14,086 They're on the edge of doing it. 113 00:13:15,379 --> 00:13:17,714 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 00:15:52,703 --> 00:15:58,166 <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 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm