Untitled erotica (逸題枕絵本）

FSC-GR-780.15

Commentary by Yamamoto Yukari　

Posted December 6, 2017

Original unedited text in Japanese follows

This monochrome erotic book (enpon/ehon 艶本 or shunpon 春本) depicts scenes of sexual union between men and women in close-up compositions spread across horizontally oriented double-page openings. The book comprises twelve images in keeping with erotic publications; explanatory texts appear at the beginning and end of the volume.

Various pairings of men and women are represented in this book but the most striking feature is the close-up views cropped by the horizontal, oblong picture frame. One of the best-known erotic publications adopting this format is the Sode no maki 袖の巻 (Sleeve scroll) attributed to Torii Kiyonaga 鳥居清長 (1752–1815) from ca. 1785 (Tenmei 5) but earlier erotic books and paintings (shunga) by Tsukioka Settei using this design are also known. [1]

Several of the illustrations included in this volume are closely related to earlier Settei compositions and put this work within the realm of Settei’s style. The supple ink lines in this book depicting the men’s and women’s faces, as well as their bodies and clothing, closely approximate Settei’s erotic books; the bold manner of cropping the picture frame also recalls the artist’s work. For example, the figure of the supine woman, her eyes close and silent, as her partner approaches in the sixth illustrated opening (pp. 18–19 on the website) is identical to the third illustration “Secret music, twelve couples” (Hikyoku jūnitsugai 秘曲十二番) in the final volume of another one of Settei’s erotic books, Konrei hijibukuro 婚礼秘叓袋. Moreover, the expression of the woman in the ninth illustrated opening (pp. 24–25 on the website), her eyes shut in ecstatic rapture, closely resembles both the aforementioned Hikyoku jūnitsugai and the twelfth image in Settei’s album of erotic paintings entitled Shunshōhiki zu 春宵秘戯図 (Erotic paintings of spring evenings, Michael Fornitz Collection, Copenhagen). The pairing of a youth with an older woman in the tenth opening (pp. 26–27 on the website) is also known in Settei’s shunga.

The text in this work explains the artful wiles and strategies employed by prostitutes, and bears no direct connection to the illustrations. Tips on how to shed tears in order to play on a client’s emotions, how to resist being kissed by a customer one cares little for, and so forth are written down in a meticulous, thoughtful manner.

書名　 (逸題枕絵本）
執筆者山本ゆかり

見開きの横に長い画面に男女の交合場面を大きく描く墨摺春本である。春画の定型どおり全体は十二図で構成され、巻頭と巻末に詞書が入る。

さまざまな男女の組み合わせが表されるが、特に注目すべきは、身体全体を画面に収めるのではなく、横長の画面を枠のように使用して交合場面をトリミングして捉える点である。この特徴を具える春画は、天明5年（1785）頃に制作された鳥居清長の「袖の巻」が有名であるが、それより前に月岡雪鼎が描いた春本や肉筆春画に見られる趣向である。

横顔の女が静かに横たわり、男が顔を近づける第六図のポーズは、雪鼎の春本『婚礼秘叓袋』の下巻にある「秘曲十二番」の第三図と共通する。また恍惚とした表情で目を閉じる第九図に見られる女の表情は、「秘曲十二番」第一図、および雪鼎の肉筆春画「春宵秘戯図」（フォーニッツ・コレクション）第十二図と近い。第十図のような若衆と年かさの女との組み合わせも、雪鼎の春画に散見されるものである。

男女の顔貌、身体、着物などを表すしなやかな墨線は、雪鼎の春本、特に「秘曲十二番」と近く、画面を切り取る大胆な感覚にも雪鼎らしさがある。雪鼎の描く人物とは耳の表現に違いがあるものの、雪鼎様式に含まれる作風を呈している。

詞書は遊女の手練手管を説く内容で、絵とは直接関連しない。客の気を引くための涙の流し方、気に沿わぬ客に口を吸われたときの対処の仕方などが、懇切丁寧に書かれる。

Selected readings:
Taihei Shujin 太平主人, Konrei hijibukuro『婚礼秘叓袋』(Chiba: Taihei Sho’oku, 2009).

[1] On Torii Kiyonaga’s Sode no maki and Settei’s precedents, see Julie Nelson Davis, Partners in Print: Artistic Collaboration and the Ukiyo-e Market (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2015), chapter 2, and Hayashi Yoshikazu 林美一 and Richard Lane リチャード・レイン, eds., Sode no maki—Torii Kiyonaga 「鳥居清長　袖の巻」, vol. 24 (1999), Teihon・ukiyo-e shunga meihin shūsei 『定本浮世絵春画名品集成』24 vols. (Tokyo: Kawade Shobō Shinsha, 1996–2000), among others.

Untitled shunga