PILLOW PRINTS
SHI-ANNE SHAKES 2015 KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI 1760 - 1849
PREFACE TO SODE NO MAKI 袖の巻 (HANDSCROLL FOR THE SLEEVE), TORII KIYONAGA C.1785
Now as for the male and female principles, these were
cry may differ but the impulse to call for a mate is just
formed from out of the Great Void. The deities of heaven
the same. Was Kenko then not correct in his justification
of the seventh generation, the God Izanagi and Goddess
that, “Keenly a man… [who] has no taste for lovemaking…
Izanami came together in a divine conjugation atop the Floating Bridge of Heaven: “Ah! What a bliss to chance upon so fair a madien,” he pronounced and this was the origin of sexual desire.
must feel like a valuabe wine cup without a bottom.” They say it was Wu Di, King of the Han who had the lovely form of Lady Li painted on the wall, and who would console his heart by pressing his body to her image.
From that time on, from mankind to the humblest bird, beast, bug or fish–there is not one who does not thus conjoin. So too the lordly ones above the clouds, stealing a few hours together after some courtly banquet will exchange eternal vows. And, experiencing the emotion of desire, even the heart of a fierce warrior will melt. Young and old alike feel their pulses race at the sight of glorious
And then was it not at the foot of Mt. Guji that in ancient times the King of the Yue exchanged sweet nothings with Xi Shi. Revealing the poses of lovers in colored prints, like the brocade of a fluttering sleeve–how quickly such pictures unburdened a heavy heart and uplift the senses. The charms of a beautiful woman, like fragant plum
tresses and a lily-white complexion. Mutual attraction–
blossoms at the window, captured in the handscroll for
this is the essence of the way of love. The pheasant in
the sleeve: this, truly, is something to console the heart
the spring fields, the deer in the autumn: their form and
of the pleasure-seeker.
Timothy Clark, Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art (London, 2013), 182. 3
S U M M A R Y F R O M P I L L O W P A P E R SHI-ANNE SHAKES, 2014
In the early 17th century, Japan’s military
artists, authors, and actors. Their content
government initiated a period of peace and
collectively referred to the quarter–a fantastical
prosperity that continued for two centuries. For
dream grounded in reality. Narratives
Japan’s middle class, the evolution of urban
constructed during this period shaped a
culture in the capital city, Edo, coincided with
popular ideology, upholding the illusion of
widespread literacy and mass consumption.
Ukiyo, the Floating World.
During this time popular media propagated
It is necessary to explore the purpose of
a theme that visually defined the period. Its
popular media, like woodblock prints, outside
theme was the Yoshiwara, a gated district
its role in commercializing pleasure and outside
designated for licensed prostitution. Since its
its significance as sumptuous art objects.
establishment in 1618, the red-light district
The prints also served as signifiers of Edo
acted as the focal point of art, literature, and
philosophy; these can be understood through
theater, serving as a sensational source for
visual motifs.
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Various factors were at work as Edo society
and narrative text. Bodies become meshes of
flourished. Japan’s unity and harmony, the
indistinguishable cloth, flesh, and negative
institutions of prostitution and theater, and
space; desire spills over the margin, from print
middle class consumerism that formed social
to viewer.
consciousness, to name a few. As a philosophy, Ukiyo connoted a transient, worldly pleasure. Yet Edo culture existed in spite of constant socio-political conflict. The bliss shown in Ukiyo art (ukiyo-e) surely compensated for what reality lacked. Erotic images catered to the needs of all those who could not enjoy the intimacy and luxury of Yoshiwara. A recognizable genre of ukiyo-e prints is
Shunga presents couples engrossed in passionate union. Eyes are often shut, closed to the world, all the while embracing it. Prints of the Edo period were produced amid social and political upheaval, but couples in shunga seem to shut out reality. They squeeze one another tightly to immerse themselves in the moment. Pleasure transcends the couple into the great void of the Floating World.
shunga (“spring pictures”), or erotic pictures. Shunga of the 17th century and early 18th century portray a less expressive and delicate romance, while late 18th century shunga show a vigorous embrace of pleasure. Prints by prolific artists like Utamaru and Hoksai, are monumental and highly intimate. Bodies are cropped, lending to the drama and intimacy of each moment. Flat expanses of flesh fill the space; tight rooms are decorated with intricate patterns, pillows, 5
E X C E R P T S F R O M T I M O N S C R E E C H
The work is a monochrome woodblock print
What appears to be happening is that, as the
and the naked bodies look exceedingly whole.
two bodies join in sex, they exert a mutually
Our bodies are full of disjunctions, with places
deconstructive power. Coupling brings about
where bones protrude, or sudden changes of
a shared loss of integrity. The bodies were
angle affect the surface. But shunga prefer
whole, but now have broken up in a way that
bodies without such segmentations. The lumps
is non-anatomical and entirely the result of
and nodes [. . .] where limbs are attached to the
the embrace, unrelated to the body’s natural
trunk, or where tissue protrudes, are simply
creases and curves. The viewer must infer
absent in shunga and obscured by all-covering
from this that sex is something that takes the
bulges of fat.
body over and quite literally restructures it.
[Print artists] took advantage of the known features of their print medium to encode bodies in a certain way, one that would be disencoded by the viewer. The viewer of a work [. . .] first sees two wholes,
The natural breaks are submerged in new lines, traced reciprocally by the one person on the other, via the act of sex. The couple are literally ‘giving themselves’ to each other. We see less two people than [. . .] shared composite segments.
with only minor bodily cuts and folds. Timon Screech, Sex and the Floating World: Erotic Images in Japan 1700-1820 (Honolulu, 1999), 124. Screech compares Shimokobe Shusui’s print, Lovers (c. 1771), to illustrations by Marcantonio Raimondi for Pietro Aretino’s book, which set the norm in Europe and Western pornography for generations.
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Screech, Sex and the Floating World, 125.
Hokusai Katsushika, monochrome woodblock print, active 1760 - 1849.
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Now as for the male and female principles, these were formed from out of the G R E A T
VO I D
Mutual attraction–this is the essence of the way of love.
Revealing the poses of lovers in colored prints, like the brocade of a fluttering sleeve– how quickly such pictures unburden a heavy heart and uplift the senses. The charms of a beautiful woman, like fragrant plum blossoms at the window, captured in a handscroll for the sleeve: this, truly, is something to console the heart of the pleasure-seeker.