Shunga & Erotica

Edo Japan, a printer’s shop, and a book passed from hand to hand with a straight face. Shunga and erotica span Japanese woodblock prints and illustrated books, erotic painting from India and China, and twentieth-century nudes. Shunga, literally spring pictures, were made by nearly every major ukiyo-e artist and circulated widely as humor, instruction and art. Indian pages illustrating the Kama Sutra with Urdu text and Chinese paintings on silk show the same frankness in other traditions, while later works on paper turn to the female nude: a woman after a bath, a nude with a cat, a figure relaxing in a tub. Fine line, soft pigment and silk mounts make these intimate works for a private room or a dressing room. Discretion is part of the charm.