Onna dairaku takarabeki 女大楽宝開

FSC-GR-780.638

Commentary by Yamamoto Yukari

Posted December 11, 2017

Original unedited text in Japanese follows

This title is an erotic reworking of Onna daigaku takarabako (A treasure box of learning for women; hereafter cited as Onna daigaku), a book of moral teachings for girls.Onna daigakuwas based on the Wazoku dōjikun 和俗童子訓 (Precepts on Japanese customs for children, 1710, Hōei 7) written by Kaibara Ekiken 貝原益軒 (1630–1714). Following Ekiken’s death it was published as a moralizing text (didactics) for use by girls; it explains the important virtues required of girls in order to maintain a “household” (ie 家) within feudal society.


The title Onna dairaku takarabeki (hereafter cited as Onna dairaku) creates a word play on Onna daigaku and could be translated as Great Pleasures for Women and their Treasure Boxes. The inside front cover, title page, frontispiece, main text, even the illustrations, follow the format of Onna daigaku but throughout the moralizing content is replaced by erotic material. A spirit of parody is at play here, and this parodic conceit extends even to the size and placement of the text and the composition of the images. Pages 1–9 (on the website) folio in Onna dairaku exemplifies this reworking. The original text in Onna daigaku might be translated as “Since daughters grow up and go to another household to serve their parents-in-law, parents should not educate them in a more lax manner than sons.” By contrast, in Onna dairaku the corresponding passage reads, “Since daughters will grow up to go to another household to serve her husband, what is essential is that her education focuses on the ways of sex.”  By upholding sexual union as a means to marital harmony, the text explains what spouses need to know in order to achieve this; it also thoroughly details the knowledge necessary to have better sex.

 

Onna dairaku does not list the names of the author and publisher or the publication year. However, a comparison of style and other elements in this work with other parodic erotic books acknowledged as by Tsukioka Settei makes it clear that this title is also by Settei’s hand. It is conjectured that Onna dairaku was produced sometime in the later Hōreki era (1751–1764).

書名　　        女大楽宝開
執筆者            山本ゆかり

女子用の修身書『女大学宝箱』（以下『女大学』）を春本化したものである。『女大学』は貝原益軒（1630～1714）が著した『和俗童子訓』（宝永7年〈1710〉）に基づいて、益軒の没後に書肆が刊行した女子用の修身書。内容は封建社会の「家」を支えるために女子に必要な徳目を説く。

一方でこの『女大楽宝開』（以下『女大楽』）は、まず題名を『女大学』からもじり、さらに見返しや扉、口絵、本文、絵に至るまで『女大学』の形式をなぞって、教訓的な内容を好色な内容に置き換える。そこにはパロディの精神が宿っており、文字の大きさや配置、絵の構成にもその意図が及んでいる。

例えば『女大学』では「女子は成長して他人の家に行き、舅姑に仕えるものであるのだから、男子よりも親の教えをゆるがせにしてはならない」と説くが、『女大楽』では「女子は成長して他人の家に行き、夫に仕えるものであるのだから、色道の心がけが第一に大切である」と説く。夫婦和合の道としての交合を尊び、そのために夫婦が心がけるべきことや、より良い交合のために必要な知識が丁寧に解説される。

『女大楽』には筆者、刊年、版元は記されない。しかし作風やその他の月岡雪鼎筆と目されるパロディ春本と照らし合わせると雪鼎の筆であることに違いなく、宝暦年間（1751～1764）後期頃の制作が推定される。

Selected readings:
Kōzu Shujin 好豆主人, Onna dairaku takarabeki/Onna daigaku takarabako『女大楽宝開・女大学宝箱』(Kōzushoshi Taihei Sho’oku, 1998).

Andrew Gerstle アンドリュー・ガーストル, Edo onna no shungabon『江戸をんなの春画本』(Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2011).


Copies in other collections:
Honolulu Museum of Art
International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Ueda City Library