Hokusai. Shunga

If you thought you knew Hokusai (1760-1849), this will surprise you. Long before The Great Wave of Kanagawa, the great master turned his hand (and his gaze) to something much more intimate. From maids and wives to courtesans, lovers and curious onlookers (and, yes, a famous pair of playful octopuses), Hokusai's shunga (literally, "spring images") are bold, joyful and often so funny they provoke laughter.

This extensive portfolio brings together eight complete books and series of prints published between 1786 and 1823, many of them accompanied by narrative texts written by the artist himself. In a combination of the visual and the verbal, its pages brim with exaggerated anatomies, voyeuristic antics, tender exchanges and a surprisingly egalitarian attitude towards the pleasure of both sexes.

In contrast to the prudishness of 18th century Europe, Japan in the Edo period (1603-1868) accepted sexuality as a natural part of life. Although shunga was officially banned, in practice it was tolerated, and many respectable artists circumvented government censorship and cultivated the genre with enthusiasm, albeit under pseudonyms. These works were made to entertain and titillate, and were even used to attract good fortune: samurai often wore them as talismans when going into battle. Technical innovations in printing during Hokusai's lifetime allowed the use of intense colours and exquisite rendering of fabrics, but the content remained delightfully human: risqué trysts, stolen moments and scenes of marital (or extra-marital) bliss.

This retrospective, which includes new photographs of these curious works and is complemented by a detailed introduction and explanatory essays, offers a dazzling insight into a lesser-known but wildly imaginative facet of Hokusai's 70-plus-year career - proof, perhaps, that even the great masters have their guilty pleasures.

• Pages: 480
• Language: English
• Author: Andreas Marks
• Year: 2025
• MODEL: 9783836596282

Publisher: Taschen