Hatsuyume no makura gusa 初夢之枕草

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Commentary by Julie Nelson Davis

Posted September 17, 2015

Over the course of his accomplished career, Utamaro designed thirty-one erotic illustrated books. Nearly all ukiyo-e artists provided illustrations for erotica, but the fact that Utamaro’s total number of books with erotic content exceeds those without—only twenty-one titles—demonstrates the success realized by the artist (and his publishers) in the genre. Although erotic books (kōshokubon) were banned under official edict in 1722, this did not halt their production. Instead, artists, writers, and publishers skirted those restrictions by issuing these as “anonymous” works, without signatures or seals. How erotic books were sold is not known, but the sheer number of extant works indicates the subject must have been profitable. [1] Utamaro’s name does not appear on this copy, yet there can be little doubt about the accuracy of this attribution. As was common in erotica, Utamaro’s images include a range of social types, from the Edo dandy to the ruffian and from the high-ranking lady to the maidservant, enjoying the pleasures of male-female sexual congress in a variety of locations and positions.

The preface employs the term shunga 春画 (spring pictures) to describe this book, using a host of puns and allusions to classical literature as part of its tongue-in-cheek ribaldry:

In an idle moment Lord Tsurayuki felt his heart moved by pictures of women. Feeling extremely fortified by the brushwork of shunga, he had his first dream of the New Year about an erotic story [makura sōshi]. Ah, this is what the Lady Sei meant about “things worth seeing.” He spent many nights of pleasure with Murasaki Shikibu, and there he dipped his brush to compose pages of passion. So the Seven Gods of Good Fortune and Kichijoten, too, laughed in harmony as they came together. In truth it is the benevolence of the cosmic forces to draw forth these waters of rejuvenation, served from the water well. Ono no Komachi, likewise ensconced behind the jeweled curtain, devises this book. [2]

The preface is signed with the pseudonym Jinkyōtei (Pavilion of the Wasted Kidneys), but to whom this may refer is not known. Although the Pulverer copy is not dated, a volume held in the British Museum includes the year Tenmei 6 (1786) after the writer’s signature. This might not be when either version of the book was produced, since the style of Utamaro’s designs more closely matches his approach in the mid-1790s or later (1794–95). [3] Including the earlier year of 1786 instead of 1794 or 1795 seems to have been intended as a dodge to circumvent the censorship prohibitions on erotica in the early 1790s.

Issues of the title, printing, and completeness further distinguish the Pulverer copy from the British Museum version. The Pulverer example bears a handwritten title on the exterior slip (daisen) that reads Hatsuyume no makura gusa 初夢之枕草 (Pillow book of the first dream). The British Museum impression has on its exterior a different handwritten title: Ehon kiku no tsuyu 艶本幾久の露 (Erotic book: Everlasting dew on the chrysanthemum). [4] For this catalogue, we elected to retain the title written on the Pulverer copy for its historical merit. In addition, the Pulverer version has images printed in full color and is complete in three volumes, while the British Museum variation is monochrome with only two volumes. Although it was not unusual for color and monochrome versions to be produced at the same time, scholars have suggested that the color version may be a later printing. [5] The second and third volumes in the Pulverer collection have also been rebound, with the covers switched on the two volumes. Using the typical three-volume marking as upper, middle, and lower, internal pagination in volume two is marked as “lower” (ge 下) and in volume three as “middle” (chū 中), suggesting that when the volume was rebound the covers were switched by accident.

Selected readings:

Asano Shūgō 浅野秀剛, “Tenmeiki no Utamaro” 「天明期の歌麿」 Kokka 1229 (March 1998), 15–29.

Asano Shūgō and Timothy Clark, The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro (Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun; London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1995).

Timothy Clark and C. Andrew Gerstle, “What was Shunga?” in Clark, Timothy, C. Andrew Gerstle, Aki Ishigami, and Akiko Yano, eds., Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 2013), 16–33.

Julie Nelson Davis, Utamaro and the Spectacle of Beauty (London: Reaktion Books; Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007).

Hayashi Yoshikazu 林美一, Edo makura-eshi shūsei: Utamaro sei 「江戸枕絵師集成　喜多川歌麿　正」, 175–77, 197–233 (Tokyo: Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 1990).

Copies in other collections:

British Museum, London

[1] Timothy Clark and C. Andrew Gerstle, “What was Shunga?” in Clark, Timothy, C. Andrew Gerstle, Aki Ishigami, and Akiko Yano, eds., Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 2013), 21. Readers should consult this exhibition catalogue for more information on the subject.

[2] Translation by Alessandro Bianchi and Julie Nelson Davis.

[3] Asano Shūgō, “Tenmeiki no Utamaro,” Kokka 1229 (March 1998), 22.

[4] See the British Museum website http://tinyurl.com/nkrd8qc (accessed August 4, 2015).

[5] Asano Shūgō and Timothy Clark, The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro (Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun; London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1995), entry 488.

Hatsuyume no makuragusa