the flow “like a pumpkin in the currents of a river.” Thus, for the most part the Ukiyo-e illustrate scenes between courtesans and actors and are set in a world full of pleasure. The shungas allow us a glimpse into a universe where the greedy enjoyment of life is paramount and the pleasures of carnal love play an important role.
Japanese woodcarving developed over a period of the two centuries from around 1670 to 1870. Utamaro, the undisputed master of colour wood-carving, was active for only three decades of this period, between 1770 and 1800. This also happened to be the golden age of the Ukiyo-e. In his book on Utamaro, Edmond de Goncourt explains the fascination of erotic woodcarving: ‘It is really worth studying the erotic paintings of the Japanese, if only because of the amazing pleasure to be had from their drawing, the impetuosity, the natural power of these sexual unions, or because of that uncontrollable desire to make love and push through the paper walls of the next room to do so. What a confusion of bodies, some entangled, some united, what greedy vigour in the arms which both attract and repulse the partner. Feet with curled toes fly through the air, long, deep embraces are exchanged. Eyes closed, eyelids downcast, their faces turned towards the ground, the women look almost as if they have fainted. And finally, look at the force and power with which the man’s penis is drawn!’
Often, these books and scrolls would form part of a marriage dowry and were supposed to serve as an introduction to the art of lovemaking. In the form of printed or painted scrolls, the shungas thus became family heirlooms. In noble families, they formed part of the sexual education of the young daughter who was destined to become an insatiable lover. They were, therefore, intended not only to awaken her sexual imagination but also to bring a particular visual pleasure to the person who contemplated them.
Many of these books were destined for Yoshiwara, the pleasure district in the flourishing city of Edo in the seventeenth century. During the Tokugawa period (1600–1853), the rich bourgeois of the big cities who had during a long period of peace managed to enrich themselves still further, were enjoying a period of extraordinarily hedonistic pleasure. Districts full of dubious hotels grew at an astonishing rate until they became the centre of community life. Guides to these “houses of ill repute” were written which described in minute detail the charms and defects of the most famous courtesans, not omitting to mention the girls’ prices, of course.
These “love guides” also contained information concerning the women’s characters: which of the concubines was particularly clever and innovative, who was loyal and who was sincere. Other books gave lists of intimate details, with advice about how to behave with the women and explained the sexual practices that were specific to each one. For connoisseurs, there was even information about where one could find rare and unusual pleasures.
22. Images of Spring, coloured shunga, 18th century. Silk on card.
The collector and businessman, Hayashi Tadamasa (1851–1906), who was one of the first to bring these precious Japanese woodcarvings to Paris, owned no less than two hundred “guides to the houses of pleasure,” describing the life of the courtesans of Yoshiwara.
Utamaro (1753–1806), the absolute master of coloured woodcuts, divided his life between his art and the Yoshiwara district. Goncourt, who wrote his biography, wrote of him that “He spent his days with his editor or in his studio and his nights in Yoshiwara.” Since his publisher’s office was situated right at the entrance to the infamous district, the path between his studio and the houses of pleasure was doubtless a short one. Perhaps we could consider him a Japanese Toulouse-Lautrec? There were fifty houses of ill-repute listed at that time, with nearly 6,000 girls, of whom at least 2,500 were courtesans offering various pleasures. Edo, which is now the city of Tokyo, numbered at the time over a million inhabitants. The greatest courtesans of the period owed the brilliance of their existence not only to the wealthy city bourgeoisie but even more particularly to the large number of provincial aristocrats who had ended up in the capital. These were men with no occupation and nothing to do; the hours they spent enjoying the pleasures of the Yoshiwara district made it easy for the police to keep them constantly under surveillance.
23. Images of Spring, coloured shunga, 18th century. Silk on card.
Just as European absolutism had declined in influence, so Japanese warrior ideology had lost an important part of its influence in Japan. Gradually love and sexuality came to replace the more bellicose activities of the nobility. So when the noblemen moved around the capital with their numerous suites, they travelled regularly by horse to the Yoshiwara district or were carried there by litter. The state police had, therefore, not hesitated to grant a licence to the pleasure district; it made their task of surveillance much easier to have this group of individuals all in one place. Yoshiwara was founded about 1600 on marshy land – then known as “rush land” – and was situated behind the imperial palace. In 1657, after the great city fire, it had to move to the area near the Merciful Temple of Asakusa, but its name remained unchanged. The district was then surrounded by walls and ditches and divided into nine separate areas. Entering this “town of perpetual daylight which glitters resplendent like a peacock’s tail”, the first thing one would have encountered was the main street with its fifty tea houses which really did serve tea and nothing more.
In a way, they acted as the antechambers to the brothels and as places where clients and prostitutes could meet and agree on terms. Parties took place there and everything was so incredible and splendid “one began to doubt whether one was still on earth.” The “library” of these “houses of ill-repute” usually consisted of erotic books. As clients waited their turn, they would pass the time drinking tea and flicking through these albums with their risqué pictures and amusing stories. As with the Greeks, physical love signified an elevated state of being for the Japanese also. Like the Greek hetaera, the courtesans of Yoshiwara were proficient in different arts. They wore beautiful and costly garments just like real princesses. Jippensha Ikku, a friend of Utamaro, once said of the women of Yoshiwara: “They are educated like princesses. From a very early age they are given a full education. They know how to read and write, they learn all the arts, music as well as the tea ceremony, ikebana or the best way to arrange a bunch of incense.” At the beginning, the courtesans used to use an old-fashioned poetic language, as had been the custom in the imperial palaces over a thousand years earlier, but which no longer bore any resemblance to everyday Japanese.
24. Images of Spring, coloured shunga, 18th century. Silk on card.
So, is the geisha a robot-like creature created solely for man’s satisfaction? She is, as Théo Lesoualc’h has remarked, the product of a long transformation wrought by the Japanese to the image of woman: the flawless form in which all elements of “femininity” can be found condensed. Nothing in a geisha’s behaviour is left to chance. In the eyes of the man, she is the symbol of perfection, from her refined and artistic hairstyle or her way of wearing make-up and wooden-soled sandals, right down to the perfectly-judged manner of her behaviour, which clearly dictated how she should position her body, what her conversation should be and how she should express her feelings. “The geisha is the archetype of woman. She is the erotic fetish of feminine grace, although codified and reduced,” wrote Lesoualc’h.
A Westerner looking at shungas will notice first of all the cold and detached expressions on the faces of the couples making love. Both sexes consummate the sexual act with a stoic impassivity as if they were only partially involved in the act. Only their stretched-out and curled toes and the cloth which the woman bites with all her might to contain her excitement betray the extent of their ecstasy. Following the traditional rules of this art nothing which could possibly move the observer is expressed here. One might also notice the extremely exaggerated, almost caricature-like dimensions of the male organ. Could it be a fear of impotence that lies behind these over-inflated penises? Or is it the product of a fantasy which itself hides man’s fear of woman’s untamed nature? However, what we also find
