Is Shunga Merely Erotic Art or Filthy Pornography?
In my article What is Naked Tourism? I mentioned that in the late 1960s I enjoyed visiting Europe's most famous museums to view the world's most famous paintings and sculptures. One of those paintings, seen here (click on image for larger NSFW view), is a most famous example of shunga erotic art from Japan and was available for viewing along with more than 150 other works of shunga at the British Museum in London from 3 October 2013 to 5 January 2014.
For my readers who are not familiar with this painting:
Pictures From History, 'The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife's
The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife (蛸と海女 Tako to ama, literally Octopi and shell diver), also known as Girl Diver and Octopi, Diver and Two Octopi, etc., is a zoophilia-associated woodcut design of the ukiyo-e genre by the Japanese artist Hokusai.
It is from the book Kinoe no Komatsu ('Young Pines'), a three-volume book of shunga erotica first published in 1814, and is the most famous shunga Hokusai ever produced. Playing with themes popular in Japanese art, it depicts a young ama pearl-diver woman entwined sexually with a pair of octopuses.
The larger of the two mollusks performs cunnilingus on her, while the smaller one, his son, assists on the left by fondling her mouth and nipple. In the text above the image the woman and the creatures express their mutual sexual pleasure from the encounter.
The Wikipedia translation for the text above the image:
LARGE OCTOPUS: My wish comes true at last, this day of days; finally I have you in my grasp! Your "bobo" is ripe and full, how wonderful! Superior to all others! To suck and suck and suck some more. After we do it masterfully, I'll guide you to the Dragon Palace of the Sea God and envelop you. "Zuu sufu sufu chyu chyu chyu tsu zuu fufufuuu..."
MAIDEN: You hateful octopus! Your sucking at the mouth of my womb makes me gasp for breath! Aah! yes... it's...there!!! With the sucker, the sucker!! Inside, squiggle, squiggle, oooh! Oooh, good, oooh good! There, there! Theeeeere! Goood! Whew! Aah! Good, good, aaaaaaaaaah! Not yet! Until now it was I that men called an octopus! An octopus! Ooh! Whew! How are you able...!? Ooh! "yoyoyooh, saa... hicha hicha gucha gucha, yuchyuu chyu guzu guzu suu suuu...."
LARGE OCTOPUS: All eight limbs to intertwine with!! How do you like it this way? Ah, look! The inside has swollen, moistened by the warm waters of lust. "Nura nura doku doku doku..."
MAIDEN: Yes, it tingles now; soon there will be no sensation at all left in my hips. Ooooooh! Boundaries and borders gone! I've vanished....!!!!!!
SMALL OCTOPUS: After daddy finishes, I too want to rub and rub my suckers at the ridge of your furry place until you disappear and then I'll suck some more. "chyu chyu.."
I regret being unable to visit London during the exhibition of sex and pleasure in Japanese art and I fear that if the UK lets in another million or so Muslims, we may never see erotic art ever again in the UK.
Some of my readers may recall my article about the city museum of The Hague cancelling an exhibition of a work of art that they feared might offend Muslims and my article about Burger King withdrawing its ice-cream cones after the lid of the dessert offended a Muslim and my article about Muslims boycotting Starbucks because the woman on their Logo is purported to be of Queen Esther, the Jewish Queen of the Persians.
Muslims will not view shunga as art but as filthy pornography.
Some readers may object, "But Bernie, some Christians and Jews may view it as filthy pornography as well."
That's true, but no one will lose their head over it if Christians or Jews complain.
Related:
I particularly enjoy seeing erotic art on a woman's body, it's like a twofer:
