Hamaguri Genji kasengai 蛤源氏歌仙貝　

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Commentary by Mutō Junko

Posted January 7, 2018

Original unedited text in Japanese follows

This book of erotic imagery illustrates the secret pleasures and sexual techniques of the bedchamber. The compositional structure of the book positions poems, illustrations, and the main text in the manner of a traditional Japanese game of kai-awase 貝合わせ(literally, “shell matching”). In the game, the half “face-down shells” (jigai 地貝) placed on the left side represent the sun/light (yang), and the half “face-up shells” (dashigai 出し貝) on right-side represent the moon/dark (yin). The type of shell used in the game was the hamaguri (Common Orient Clam, meretrix lusoria), with episodes from the eleventh-century Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (Tale of Genji) painted on the inside.

In Hamaguri Genji kasengai, the table of contents lists imaginary pairs of shells such as “Number One on the Left: Bamboo Screen Shell,” “Number One on the Right: Shell of Forgetfulness,” “Number Two on the Left: Plum Blossom Shell,” “Number Two on the Right: Flower Clamshell”, and so on. Illustrations containing the poems and the main text follow. Originally a three-volume work, this book contains thirty-six poems on love in keeping with the term kasen 歌仙 (a reference to the “thirty-six historical poets”) in the title.

The tale recounted in the book revolves around a man aged twenty-four or twenty-five with the unusual name of “Minister Clam” (Hamaguri Daijin). He possesses a clam that enables a person to become invisible to others when placed against the forehead and another clam that permits a person to shrink one’s body to smaller sizes. In this way, he can peek voyeuristically into people’s sex lives, but in the process he attains enlightenment (satori) into the nature of the harmony between yin and yang.

The illustrations can be attributed to Okumura Masanobu (奥村政信) due to the similarities in the depiction of human figures and to Masanobu’s text in Neya no hinagata 閨の雛形 (A pattern book for the bedchamber). The Eiri shunga ehon mokuroku (Catalogue of illustrated erotic books) dates Hamaguri Genji kasengai to 1749 (Kan’ei 2).

Selected readings:
Shirakura Yoshihiko 白倉敬彦, Eiri shunga ehon mokuroku 『絵入春画艶本目録』(Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2007).

Copies in other collections:

Honolulu Museum of Art

書名蛤源氏歌仙貝
執筆者武藤純子

本書は閨房の秘戯や性的秘事を絵入りで記した艶本である。構成は貝合わせに模した歌仙、挿絵、本文から成る。貝合わせとは、左が地貝（陽）、右が出し貝(陰)で、左右一対の貝を見つける伝統的な日本の遊びである。貝は蛤を用い、内側には源氏絵などが美しく描かれる。本作では目次に左一すだれ貝、右一わすれ貝、左二梅の花貝、右二花貝といった対になる架空の貝をあげ、次に歌仙を添えた挿絵と本文が続く。本来は三巻本で、題名の「歌仙」に因んで36首の恋の歌を載せる。あらすじは、夢の中で、蛤大臣の異名をもつ貝集め好きの24～25才の男が、額につけると他人から姿が見えなくなったり、時に体が小さくなったりする貝を用いながら、好色生活の様々を覗き見て、陰陽和合の悟りを得るというものだ。展開は「豆右衛門物」に似ている。絵師は人物の描き方や『閨の雛形』との共通点などにより奥村政信と考証できる。年代は『絵入春画艶本目録』によれば1749年（寛延二年）である。

[1] Shirakura 2007.