ten Erotic Woodblock Prints Depicting Japanese Hookers and Their Tattooed Clientele

Many Japanese artists designed erotic prints (shunga). Aside from explicit depictions of sexual activities, shunga might contain many layers of which means including all sorts of hidden messages which needs an experienced eye as well as a thorough understanding of Japanese literature, poetry and historical past.



The characters depicted in shunga represent the entire spectrum of Japan's society. Its cast exists from nobleman to farmers, from excited housewives to high-class courtesans, from foreigners to monks, from warriors to kabuki actors, but additionally the tattooed members in the working-class participated in this esoteric community. The following ten are some colourful examples:



Flying Geese - Utagawa Kunisada

This plate comes from an costly erotic image book, a three-volume perform known as Prospects for the 4 Seasons, which most likely was commissioned by a wealthy merchant. A couple is involved inside a vigorous love-making session. On his back the man sports a tattoo of on the list of Suikoden heroes. On the wall behind them two woodblock prints happen to be pasted, with one of them portraying the well-known kabuki actor Matsumoto Koshiro V. The couple seems to be distracted by the noise on the flying geese which could be observed via the window.



Within the Bedroom - Utagawa Kuniyoshi

A shunga scene created by the excellent Kuniyoshi in a similar composition as the preceding print by Kunisada. The lady is partly covered by her blue kimono with gourd plants decorations. The man is pretty much naked except for the red loincloth. On his back he includes a extremely detailed tattoo, displaying the poetess Ono no Komachi , who was one of Japan's six immortal poets. The depicted scene from the tattoo comes from an episode in Komachi's legendary life known as the Praying for Rain Komachi. The title of Kuniyoshi's shungabook is known as The Female Treasure Ship and was published in 1853. In this image the distraction of their passionate encounter is intentionally unclear.



Sashichi and Koito - Utagawa College

The sisters Ofusa and Koito, had been two well-known protagonists from Japanese classical literature and music. Within this tale they're involved in a love-triangle with the tattooed dandy Sashichi who was Ofusa's husband. A design and style (c1850s) inside the modest koban format with strongly visible embossing.



Crowded Pleasure-Quarter - Yanagawa Shigenobu

From Shigenobu's Floating Bridge of Heaven (1830) a scene taking the viewer to the crowded quarters of clandestine brothels. In these sort of occasions there was no privacy and virtually no area for prostitutes and their customers, at very best they had been divided by a sliding door or folding screen.



4 Seasons - Utagawa Kunisada

Another design and style (see initial print!) from Kunisada's Four Seasons series with a courtesan and her tattooed client. The man is penetrating the woman while making use of his thumb to stimulate the woman's clitoris. It's just like the mosquito-net above them has been pulled up for the beholder to obtain a better view. The series was published late 1820s.



Consuming - Utagawa Toyokuni I

An almost entirely tattooed man (except for his face) is obtaining intercourse with his woman and is consuming from a bowl in the same time. The lady is holding a cup of sake when keeping a hairpin in her mouth. Their sexual activities look to be of minor importance.



Mosquito Net - Utagawa Kunisada

An intimate couple is violently disturbed by a tattooed intruder. The invader is holding the husband underneath the mosquito-net though grapping the woman's kimono who's looking to flee. A popular image from Kunisada's The Eight Dog Heroes of your Satomi Clan (1837).



Suikoden Warrior - Kuniyoshi College

Within this parodic scene (c.1840s) on Kuniyoshi's celebrated Suikoden series the Suikoden hero Kyumonryo Shishin (Chinese name: Shi Jin) takes a woman from behind whilst using his inseparable pole as an accessory.



Praying - Takeda Hideo

A silkscreen print design and style by Takeda Hideo (1948-present) displaying a pointed-headed man, tattooed with an atrocious shishi (guardian lions in Ancient China) heads and peony flowers, devotedly praying with all the woman kneeling inside a tempting pose. She's tattooed from her back to her heels with spectacular depictions of a blueish green Fudo ('The Immovable') surrounded by flames, dragons, carps set against a blue background. The print is entitled Praying to Fudo Myo-o from the series Monmon (a term employed for tattoo in Osaka) and was created in 1976.



Takeda Hideo can be a modern Japanese print artist who created a large quantity of prints dominated by tattoos. He likes to call himself a cartoonist but with his distinguishing and original series, Genpei and Monmom, depicting tattooed warriors and colourful, at times erotic, cartoons, he has been embraced by a worldwide audience.



Tribute to Utamaro - Paul Binnie

A modern erotic print by the young Scottish artist Paul Binnie (1967-present) with a young completely naked girl sitting on a wet wooden table looking at the beholder inside a tempting pose. On her back a tattoo of a shunga design and style by the terrific Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro from his acclaimed oban series Picture Book: Pulling Komachi (Ehon Komachi-biki) published in 1802. Binnie's print is entitled Utamaro no shunga (Utamaro's Erotica) in the series A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo (Edo sumi hyaku shoku) published in 2005. The artist's red seal within the reduce left corner, reading Binnie, is made in to the shape of a butterfly, referring to Puccini's opera 'Madame Butterfly', where the heroine is taken unwittingly as a 'temporary' wife. There's a further version (2009) of this design devoid of the tattoo.



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