Japanese erotic art. Shunga engraving. Book: Pushakova Anna E

For the first time, a book dedicated to the Japanese frank engraving of Shunga is published in Russian. For the first time, the publication presents more than 700 works. When we selected them from a collection of three thousand, there were real editorial and art battles. The book includes the most interesting, significant and rare works. Attribution of some engravings and books has been carried out for the first time. About Shunga Hundreds of years have passed since the creation of these exciting images, but Japanese erotic prints continue to captivate the eyes of viewers around the world. Shunga books and albums were initially considered the best and indispensable gift for newlyweds from parents, relatives or friends. Some of the engravings in the book depicted very realistic situations, others were more fantasy-like, where lovers took truly impossible poses, perhaps only accessible to experienced acrobats. Everyone in the country was fond of shunga books, regardless of material or social status, old people and young people, men and women. The Japanese government has repeatedly tried to deprive its people of such cheap and accessible entertainment. However, this only led to an increase in the tricks of participants in trade transactions. Among the shunga books are many masterpieces of such eminent and talented engraving masters as Moronobu Hishikawa, Hokusai Katsushika, Issho Miyagawa, Shigenobu Yanagawa, Utamaro Kitagawa, Eisen Tomioka. The authors of the graphic sheets extremely frankly, with the smallest anatomical details, depicted moments of intimate contacts between men and women, men and men, women and women, people and animals (for example, octopuses, tigers), women, men and otherworldly creatures... Shunga can quite reasonably be considered the progenitor of such modern genres of art that have spread widely throughout the modern world, such as anime and manga.

Oh Shunga

One can argue for a long time about who first took up the task of depicting sexual scenes on paper, in clay or marble. They can be found on the frescoes of ancient Rome or on ancient vases in Greece. All of Europe during the Renaissance did not disdain pictures that raised the “tone”. Why only Europe? Something similar was typical for ancient Peru. And what can we say about India, where the Kama Sutra serves as a kind of alphabet for men and women! China was also famous for this art. But if...

For the first time, a book dedicated to the Japanese frank engraving of Shunga is published in Russian. For the first time, the publication presents more than 700 works. When we selected them from a collection of three thousand, there were real editorial and art battles. The book includes the most interesting, significant and rare works. Attribution of some engravings and books has been carried out for the first time.
Oh Shunga
Hundreds of years have passed since the creation of these exciting images, but Japanese erotic prints continue to captivate the eyes of viewers around the world.
One can argue for a long time about who first took up the task of depicting sexual scenes on paper, in clay or marble. They can be found on the frescoes of ancient Rome or on ancient vases in Greece. All of Europe during the Renaissance did not disdain pictures that raised the “tone”. Why only Europe? Something similar was typical for ancient Peru. And what can we say about India, where the Kama Sutra serves as a kind of alphabet for men and women! China was also famous for this art. But if you ask a connoisseur of this genre about the most spectacular examples of fine art, the answer will be unequivocal: the woodblock print masters of Japan from the 17th to 19th centuries worked most successfully in this field.
We are not hinting at the sexual promiscuity of Japanese cultural masters. The fact is that relationships between the sexes in all their diversity in Japan have always been perceived as something natural, and not limited to a purely family framework in the Japanese religion - Shinto - one cannot find anything that would cast a dark shadow on sex.
Even ancient myths dedicated to cosmogonic processes are often filled with purely sexual details. Let us take, for example, the description of the process of the birth of the world, set out in the most ancient written monument of Japan - the Kojiki, dated 712. The result of this completely innocent, from the Japanese point of view, divine incest was the emergence of the Japanese archipelago, and with it the entire world in which we live. A phallic cult associated with the glorification of the goddess of fertility has long existed in the country (and continues to this day!).
Shunga literally means “spring pictures”. Why did the Japanese give such names to the drawings? Most likely, this term was borrowed from the Chinese. But in Japan it took root. Perhaps this is due to the clear sense of changing seasons characteristic of this people. It is in spring, under the warm rays of the sun, that not only nature comes to life, but also human feelings intensify, emotions overwhelm the soul.
Shunga books and albums were initially considered the best and indispensable gift for newlyweds from parents, relatives or friends. Some of the engravings in the book depicted very realistic situations, others were more fantasy-like, where lovers took truly impossible poses, perhaps only accessible to experienced acrobats.
Everyone in the country was fond of shunga books, regardless of material or social status, old people and young people, men and women. The Japanese government has repeatedly tried to deprive its people of such cheap and accessible entertainment. However, this only led to an increase in the tricks of participants in trade transactions.
Among the shunga books are many masterpieces of such eminent and talented printmakers as Moronobu Hishikawa, Hokusai Katsushika, Issho Miyagawa, Shigenobu Yanagawa, Utamaro Kitagawa, Eisen Tomioka.
The authors of the graphic sheets depicted extremely frankly, with the smallest anatomical details, moments of intimate contacts between men and women, men and men, women and women, people and animals (for example, octopuses, tigers), women, men and otherworldly creatures...
Shunga can quite reasonably be considered the progenitor of such modern genres of art that have spread widely throughout the modern world, such as anime and manga.

There are many firsts in this book. For the first time, a book dedicated to the Japanese frank engraving of Shunga is published in Russian. For the first time, the publication presents more than 700 works. When we selected them from a collection of three thousand, there were real editorial and art battles. The book includes the most interesting, significant and rare works. Attribution of some engravings and books was carried out for the first time. It's not good to brag, but it's really cool!

Oh Shunga

Hundreds of years have passed since the creation of these exciting images, but Japanese erotic prints continue to captivate the eyes of viewers around the world.

One can argue for a long time about who first took up the task of depicting sexual scenes on paper, in clay or marble. They can be found on the frescoes of ancient Rome or on ancient vases in Greece. All of Europe during the Renaissance did not disdain pictures that raised the “tone”. Why only Europe? Something similar was typical for ancient Peru. And what can we say about India, where the Kama Sutra serves as a kind of alphabet for men and women! China was also famous for this art. But if you ask a connoisseur of this genre about the most spectacular examples of fine art, the answer will be unequivocal: the woodblock print masters of Japan from the 17th to 19th centuries worked most successfully in this field.

We are not hinting at the sexual promiscuity of Japanese cultural masters. The fact is that relationships between the sexes in all their diversity in Japan have always been perceived as something natural, and not limited to a purely family framework in the Japanese religion - Shinto - one cannot find anything that would cast a dark shadow on sex.

Even ancient myths dedicated to cosmogonic processes are often filled with purely sexual details. Let's take, for example, the description of the process of the birth of the world, set out in the most ancient written monument of Japan - the Kojiki, dated 712. The result of this completely innocent, from the Japanese point of view, divine incest was the emergence of the Japanese archipelago, and with it the entire world in which we live. A phallic cult associated with the glorification of the goddess of fertility has long existed in the country (and continues to this day!).

Shunga literally means “spring pictures”. Why did the Japanese give such names to the drawings? Most likely, this term was borrowed from the Chinese. But in Japan it took root. Perhaps this is due to the clear sense of changing seasons characteristic of this people. It is in spring, under the warm rays of the sun, that not only nature comes to life, but also human feelings become heightened, emotions overwhelm the soul.

Shunga books and albums were initially considered the best and indispensable gift for newlyweds from parents, relatives or friends. Some of the engravings in the book depicted very realistic situations, others were more fantasy-like, where lovers took truly impossible poses, perhaps only accessible to experienced acrobats.

Everyone in the country was fond of shunga books, regardless of material or social status, old people and young people, men and women. The Japanese government has repeatedly tried to deprive its people of such cheap and accessible entertainment. However, this only led to an increase in the tricks of participants in trade transactions.

Among the shunga books are many masterpieces of such eminent and talented printmakers as Moronobu Hishikawa, Hokusai Katsushika, Issho Miyagawa, Shigenobu Yanagawa, Utamaro Kitagawa, Eisen Tomioka.

The authors of the graphic sheets depicted extremely frankly, with the smallest anatomical details, moments of intimate contacts between men and women, men and men, women and women, people and animals (for example, octopuses, tigers), women, men and otherworldly creatures...

At the British Museum's exhibition of erotic woodcuts, Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art, you quickly realize how wrong it would be to dismiss the works on display as mere pornography.

Exhibition curator Tim Clark says: “I think people are surprised by these sexually explicit works, their beauty and humor and, of course, great humanism.”

Tim Clark, exhibition curator

One of his favorite works of the 165 included in the catalog is a set of 12 prints by Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815). The hugging figures are drawn exceptionally subtly, and the bold framing of the compositions allows the viewer to feel even more clearly the reality of the scenes depicted.

Clark says he admires most of all the “sensibility and sophistication of the carvers and printers” who turned the fine lines of Kiyonaga's drawings into woodcuts.

Exhibition of paintings shunga is the result of a scientific project that started in 2009 and involved 30 employees. The goal of the project is to “recover a collection of works and subject them to critical analysis,” says Clarke.

About 40% of the works presented at the exhibition belong to the British Museum, where shungu began collecting in 1865. A significant part of the remaining work belongs to the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto.

Favorite definition shungi for Clark it is “sexually explicit art,” where the emphasis is on the word “art.” He notes that “we in the West have not had such a combination of sexually explicit and artistically beautiful until recently.” Surprisingly, almost all famous Japanese artists of that time painted shungu.

As explained in the exhibition, early shungi were made from expensive materials. They were valued and passed down from generation to generation. It is recorded that one pictorial scroll shungi cost fifty momme silver - an amount sufficient in those days to buy 300 liters of soybeans.

In addition to the completely obvious, shungi There are also unusual ways to use it. They were believed to have the ability to strengthen the courage of warriors before battle, and were also a talisman that protected against fire.

Besides the entertainment value, shunga also performed an educational function for young couples. And despite the fact that their authors were exclusively men, it is believed that many women also enjoyed looking at these drawings.

Nishikawa Sukenobu

Shunga. A man seduces a young woman, lying on the floor behind him shamisen. Hand-colored woodcut with green background. The same print, but uncolored, is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (1711-1716)

Painting, horizontal scroll, shunga. One of 12 erotic encounters. An adult samurai and a young girl are hugging under a blanket. A woman straightens her bed. Ink, paint, gold and silver pigment, gold and silver leaf on paper. Not signed. (Early 17th century)

Many prints show sexual pleasure as mutual caresses. “They are strongly connected to everyday life,” says Clark. “Sex is often depicted in everyday settings, between husbands and wives.”

The print shown at the very beginning of the exhibition is such an example. “The Pillow Poem” Kitagawa Utamaro (d. 1806) depicts lovers in a room on the second floor of a tea house. Their bodies are intertwined under luxurious clothes, and he looks passionately into her eyes. Her buttocks are visible from under the kimono.

« Pillow Poem "(Utamakura), Kitagawa Utamaro. Shunga, colored woodcut. No. 10 of 12 illustrations of a printed folding album (set of individual sheets). Lovers in a closed room on the second floor of a tea house. Inscribed and signed. (1788)

A world of humor and satirical allusions

Kawanabe Kiyosai

However, many of shunga can hardly be considered a naturalistic depiction of sex. This becomes obvious when looking at the huge genitals and the shocking and humorous situations depicted in many of the prints. Between erotic shungami and what is known as varai-e, or “funny pictures”, there are many similarities.

The left scroll of a pictorial triptych by Kawanabe Kiyosai (1831-1889) from the early Meiji era depicts a passionately embracing couple. The back shows a playful kitten with bare claws, whose attention is clearly drawn to the most sensitive parts of the male anatomy. The viewer can guess what happened next.

“In fact, I often wanted to laugh when looking at these pictures,” comments exhibition visitor Jess Oboiro. “For some reason, the Sunday crowd was in a kind of quiet reverie... although, naturally, that’s not the mood in which to view this type of art, is it?”

Humor in shunge can be both spicy and obscene. As with much of the folk culture of the Edo period, and certainly with the sexually explicit art of more modern eras, there is an element of rebellion.

“Shunga constantly turns to more serious genres of art and literature, parodying them, often as a joke, but sometimes with sharp political overtones,” says Clark.

One example is shunga-versions of books on moral education for women. Sometimes sexually explicit parodies are so similar that they appear to be made by the same artists and publishers as the originals. In fact, they actually come from the same publishing background.

However, when satire shungi got too close to the truth, censorship immediately appeared. Declared illegal in 1722, shunga was banned for two decades. Similar persecutions also occurred later, but art shungi never completely disappeared. It skillfully used its semi-legal status to reach new levels of satire. Many shungi still amaze with their boldness and freedom of imagination.

One set in the exhibition features portraits of kabuki actors and enlarged images of their erect penises. The style of the pubic hair follows the actors' wigs, and the bulging veins match the lines of their makeup.

Summer practice at the art institute took place in different cities of the Union. After the second year, our group went to Kyiv. In Kyiv, at the Museum of Eastern and Western Art, I first saw Japanese ukiyo-e prints in the original. They were great. Graceful line, combination of line and spots, noble color scheme. It was impossible to tear yourself away from the engravings on display in the museum. At the institute, I actively participated in the work of the student scientific society. Interests pushed me either into the photography section or into the graphics section. I chose an interesting topic for myself and delved into the work of the Japanese artist Utamaro. This is how my passion for Japanese prints began.
First, I’ll tell you a little about ukiyo-e, a movement in the visual arts of Japan that developed during the Edo period (1600-1868).

First, it is necessary to mention the exceptional closedness of Japan. The rapid spread of Christianity in the years 1543-1640 was met at first calmly, and then began to cause more and more protests, as Christianity began to pose a threat to the traditional religion of Japan. In 1603, during the Tokugawa reign, the isolation of Japan from the rest of the world began due to the beginning of the trade and cultural expansion of Europeans. The Japanese were prohibited from traveling abroad or trading with other countries, and all foreigners living in the country were under strict control. During the 17th–19th centuries, Japan experienced a period of relative stability and cultural growth. It was thanks to its closed nature that an amazing culture was formed in Japan, which was based on a view of the world and man as a single whole. Life in harmony with nature was cultivated.
The word "ukiyo" in ancient times denoted one of the Buddhist categories and could be translated as "the mortal, changeable world." At the end of the seventeenth century. Ukiyo began to mean the world of earthly joys and pleasures. Ukiyo-e are pictures of the daily life of the urban class of the Edo period.
The technique of woodcut printing, or printing from wooden boards, appeared in Japan back in 794-1185 along with the spread of Buddhism. Wooden board printing was used to make black and white prints of various Buddhist saints and to illustrate the text of sutras.
In the seventeenth century. Illustrated woodcut books appeared, published in mass editions. In these editions, text and illustrations were printed in black.
The first easel engravings were also black and white, then they began to be lightly tinted by hand with cinnabar (tan-e), later the engravings were tinted with dark red paint (beni-e) or shaded with thick black paint, which created the effect of being covered with black varnish (urusi-e). e). Gradually, the number of boards for color printing increased, and in 1765 the first multi-color engravings, called “brocade paintings” (nishiki-e), appeared.
Originating in the 17th century. Engraving was the most widespread and accessible form of art for citizens. Themes for ukiyo-e prints were often plots from genre stories of ukiyo-zoshi, Kabuki theater plays, classical and modern poetry.
The creation of ukiyo-e engraving involved an artist, a carver and a printer. The publisher played an important role, studying demand and determining circulation. Often it was he who set the theme of the engraving and influenced the nature of the publication.
The process of creating the engraving looked like this. The artist made a contour drawing in ink on thin, transparent paper. The engraver, having pasted the design face down onto a board of cherry, pear or boxwood, cut out the first printing plate. Then several black and white prints were made, on which the artist designated the intended colors. The carver produced the required number (sometimes more than thirty) of printing plates, each of which corresponded to one color or tone. The printer, having discussed the color scheme with the artist, applied paint of vegetable or mineral origin and manually printed the engraving on wet rice paper.
Poems were often included in the engraving, and the art of calligraphy added its own unique touch to the work.
The collective method of work of the artist, carver and printer, the narrow specialization of the craftsmen, and the guild organization of the process determined the originality of Japanese woodcuts.
The development of Japanese woodcuts was determined by several leading schools - dynasties: Torii, Kaigetsudo, Katsukawa, Utagawa.

Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) was the most famous follower of the Kiyonaga dynasty of printmakers, who largely determined the features of Japanese classical woodcuts during its heyday. Not without reason, called the “singer of female beauty,” Kitagawa Utamaro introduces into ukiyo-e the type of large bust-length portraits of okubi-e, in which he tries to convey the various emotional experiences of his heroines.

Okubi-e-lit.: pictures in the window. A type of composition in ukiyo-e engraving, representing a close-up bust image in front or profile. An example is the work of Kitagawa Utamaro and Toshusai Sharaku.

Utamaro was the creator of female images that embodied the national ideal of beauty. In his series of engravings on themes from the lives of women - “Competition of Loyalty”, “The Hours and Days of a Girl”, “Selected Songs of Love”, “The Most Beautiful Women of Our Time”, etc. - as a rule, there is no narrative or action. His heroines seem to freeze for a moment, and it seems that in the next moment they will continue their smooth graceful movement. But this pause is the most expressive moment when the tilt of the head, the gesture of the hand, the silhouette of the figure convey the feeling by which they live.
I’ll tell you a little about the heroines of Utamaro’s engravings - about geishas.
A geisha is a traditional Japanese artist who entertains her clients (guests) by dancing, singing, leading a tea ceremony, and talking. And if initially the roles of geishas were played by men - actors and musicians of the Kabuki theater, then later only women became representatives of this profession. The “golden age” of geishas occurred in the 19th century; in those days they were real stars, muses for many poets and artists. It was then that the strict traditions of their art were laid down, which have survived almost unchanged to the present day.

And if initially the roles of geishas were played by men - actors and musicians of the Kabuki theater, then later only women became representatives of this profession. The “golden age” of geishas occurred in the 19th century; in those days they were real stars, muses for many poets and artists. It was then that the strict traditions of their art were laid down, which have survived almost unchanged to the present day.
Geisha work mainly takes place in tea houses and traditional Japanese restaurants, where the geisha acts as the hostess of the party, entertaining male guests. A geisha must direct the conversation and make her guests have fun, often flirting with them while maintaining her dignity. A geisha's earnings in a tea house are usually a fixed hourly wage for her work.
However, the most talented and successful geisha demonstrate their ability to play musical instruments, sing and dance in periodic performances open to the general public. Such performances allow the geisha to become a widely known and popular personality.
The life and everyday life of little girls, future geishas, ​​from an early age took place in geisha houses - okiya - where they were often sold by poor families. Throughout their childhood, they were forced to work first as maids, then as assistants to the main geishas in the house, who taught these girls the basics of their future profession and later helped them receive an education. In Japan, a similar tradition has ancient roots: the student lives in the house of his art teacher, first doing homework, assisting him and eventually becoming a master of his craft.
The course of study in specialized educational institutions includes various types of arts that a geisha must master: playing a musical instrument (usually the Japanese lute - shamisen), traditional types of singing, traditional dance, the art of conducting a tea ceremony, the art of making flower arrangements - ikebana, poetry, calligraphy, painting - that is, those types of arts that will allow the geisha to further entertain her clients.
Watching the older geisha in her home, the girls learned to select a kimono suitable for the required purpose, put it on, and also learned the art of conversation. The future geisha acquires a so-called “older sister” (theoretically, this could be any girl who has become a geisha), who must train her, her “younger sister.” Often the eldest geisha in the house becomes the eldest sister, however there are many exceptions to this rule.
By the age of 11-15, most girls in training undergo an initiation ceremony - from that moment on they are called aspiring geishas (maiko) and receive a new name.
The next step for a maiko is mizuage, a ceremony marking her rise in status. Maiko changes her hairstyle five times, symbolizing each step leading to becoming a geisha. In the mizuage ceremony, the tuft of hair at the top of the head is symbolically cut to create a more mature hairstyle to mark the transition from a girl to a young woman. After the mizuage ritual, the next important turn in the life of a maiko is the replacement of the red embroidered collar of the “child” with the white collar of an adult geisha. As a rule, everything happens around the age of twenty.

From the age of 18, a geisha has the opportunity to work according to a personal schedule, however, only successful geisha who receive many invitations to various events can take advantage of this opportunity. Also, from the age of 18, a geisha has the opportunity to acquire “danna”. Initially, “danna” was a patron, sometimes the lover of a geisha, and sometimes simply acting as a philanthropist. Often, a geisha and a danna have a close love relationship that ends in the birth of children. The dann's duty is that he must cover the numerous running expenses of the geisha he patronizes (for example, purchasing a kimono for her), as well as contribute to the growth of her popularity. The appearance of a danna in a geisha's career is not a mandatory element, but without this, the geisha has virtually no chance of leaving the okiya and becoming a full-fledged star in her profession.
Contrary to popular belief, geisha are not prostitutes. In the Japanese entertainment industry, geishas and prostitutes have historically occupied different positions, which manifest themselves in external differences: a prostitute tied the belt of her kimono with a simple knot in front, which allowed it to be undone many times a day, a geisha's belt knot is tied in the back with a complex knot, and without outside help it can be undone and Moreover, it is not possible to tie it. In addition to the different ways of tying a belt, there were many prescribed differences in the clothing and hairstyle of geishas and Japanese courtesans, taiyu or oiran, which prevented the geisha from being confused with a courtesan or prostitute, and also clearly indicated the woman’s social status and her occupation.
It is important that from the moment the geisha profession appeared, they were legally prohibited from providing sexual services for money.
Geisha is respected in society and is the embodiment of femininity. Her professional duties, however, do not include providing sex to her clients - if a geisha gives herself to someone, it happens solely by her will and is part of her personal life, not her profession.

At the same time, the Japanese had unique concepts of beauty: geishas covered their faces every day with several layers of whitewash, while their teeth, on the contrary, were inked. They had to sleep with a special cushion under their heads to prevent their heavy hair from becoming disheveled.

Looking at books from the Soviet period with reproductions of engravings, I have never seen engravings of an erotic nature. Censorship strictly monitored the published literature. Meanwhile, shunga (shunga) - Japanese erotic prints, were widespread in medieval Japan. Many outstanding and renowned engraving artists have worked in this thriving genre for more than two centuries. Utamaro, as it turned out, was one of the artists working in this genre. When the Internet entered our lives, Japanese erotica was widely represented on numerous sites dedicated to Japanese art. Shunga in Japan is perceived as a completely natural subject for an artist.
Literally translated, "shunga" means "spring pictures" and is considered a term for erotic Japanese graphics of the 17th-20th centuries, but the word has long been used as a synonym for traditional Japanese erotica in general.
Once I saw shunga on the Internet, I was surprised by the culture of engraving. If in European art eroticism usually carries a touch of indecency, then Japanese shunga are natural and beautiful.

It must be admitted that sex in Japan has never been considered something shameful. Religious preachers have long explained to their flock that two principles are combined in the human body - the sublime and spiritual, on the one hand, and the earthly, pleasure-seeking, on the other. Both of these principles require constant self-care. Therefore, both romantic love and the physical pleasures of lovers were equally encouraged by religion and cultural traditions.

In European art of ancient times, erotic scenes were also a common subject. In the Middle Ages, attitudes towards this topic changed radically. The body began to be considered a vessel of sin, and everything connected with human nature acquired a sinful character. In medieval engravings, the relationship between a man and a woman is painted in sinful colors. Often the third character in sex scenes is the devil. Later, in the 17th and 18th centuries, erotic engravings carried a connotation of indecency and perversity. In the modern era, erotic fantasies acquired shades of unconventional relationships.
The difference between Japanese art is due to the fact that in Japan, like in many other ancient cultures, there was a cult of the phallus. Agricultural festivals associated with this symbolism have been held since ancient times and even now attract many participants and spectators.

Quote from Wikipedia:
This cult reigned not only in the classical world, where its name came from. It is equally common in various stages of development among the most primitive tribes and among civilized non-European peoples (for example, among the Japanese), and in the form of numerous experiences among the peasant population of Europe. The rude custom, which is so often encountered among us, of putting a “cookie” on an offender or to protect against the evil eye, originates from the phallic cult, since the image of the phallus, the symbol of which in this case is the “cookie”, was in former times considered everywhere as a protector from all evil spirits and enchantments.
A typical country of phallic cult, which has survived to this day despite prohibitions, is Japan. According to shintopathic cosmogony, even the very islands of the Japanese archipelago are nothing more than giant phalluses created by the F.-s. We find real images of F. and kteis in shrines and on the roads. The symbols of F. (mushroom, pig's snout) and kteis (beans, peaches) serve as sacrifices.

Indo-European and Semitic religions, including Ancient Egypt, are full of traces of the F. cult. Even at the dawn of Vedic mythology, we encounter the image of a fertilizing bull, which is repeated in many variations in all Indo-European mythologies (Dionysus is the “mighty bull” among the Greeks); in Brahmanism there is already a clearly powerful deus phallicus, Shiva, whose main symbols are linga = Greek. phallus and yoni = kteis, they are also symbols of reproduction and renewal. In the allegorical form of a sphere and a prism, these symbols everywhere adorn the temples of this god of birth and destruction. Since the 12th century, F.'s admirers have formed the Lingait sect, who constantly carry small figures of F. with them as protection against evil obsessions. The worship of Shiva is expressed in some by severe asceticism, in others, on the contrary, by the most unbridled debauchery.
Just as in Ancient Rome, images of the phallus made of bronze or stone served as decoration for women, giant images of it were erected in temples, and even today, fakirs at temples offer barren women to kiss the phallus. The Greco-Roman Ph. cult, concentrated mainly around Dionysus and Aphrodite, is a cult borrowed from Semitic religions; under different names he dominated throughout Western Asia and Egypt. This cult was expressed most typically in Syria. The temple of Astarte and Attis was decorated at the entrance with images of the phallus and entire F. scenes from the cult of Astarte. Many castrated people in women's clothing served the goddess; others, exciting themselves with music and dancing, brought themselves into ecstasy and castrated themselves. In Phenicia, during festivities for the deceased Adonis, women cut off their hair and prostituted themselves.
Among the most primitive tribes, traces of the F. cult are found in a variety of places and in a variety of forms. The Gilyaks reverently treat the cut skin of the bear's phallus; the Ainu place huge wooden phalluses on their graves; Bushmen, residents of the Admiralty Islands, inhabitants of Sumatra, etc. make F. images of their gods. The genesis of the phallic cult lies in the animism of primitive man in general and in particular in the idea of ​​the plurality of souls of the individual, that is, in the idea that, in addition to the main duplicate soul of the whole person, there are also independent souls of individual parts of the body. The organs of fertilization, from this point of view, more than any other, should have had an independent existence; Everything spoke for this: the mystery of the process of reproduction, and the even more impulsive unconsciousness of the process in which the organs of fertilization act in addition to and even against the wishes of the individual. Hence the idea of ​​the phallus as an individual that can exist even completely separately from a person and manifest its miraculous actions in this state.

Virgin Belt
The other was once untied.
We vaguely weave voices in the garden.
Only the hand can easily find
A place of joyful meetings

Quote: “The first thing that is noticeable in shunga is that Japanese lovers do not try to undress each other. The Japanese attitude towards the naked body is radically different from the European one. In pre-reform Japan, the naked body itself was not considered acutely arousing. Women did not attach much importance to bare breasts, so men in public baths and while swimming together in hot springs usually wore something like an apron over their stomachs, and women undressed completely.

Primary signs seemed erotically important - and Shunga artists depicted the genitals in detail and anatomically accurately with all the vessels, wrinkles and hairs, as a rule, exaggerating the organs to gigantic sizes. With the same naturalistic passion, they showed how the “juices of love” poured out and sperm splashed (which, for example, is unacceptable for China, which is culturally closest to Japan: according to Taoist concepts, sperm is an essential substance that must be preserved and accumulated). However, Japanese lovers always have crumpled hanagami napkins thrown around them to absorb the flowing and splashing water. The more such lumps, the more tireless the couple.


You give yourself
Without hesitation
You quickly lie down.
Like a bird from a branch,
The dress came off.

Household Japanese shoes - wooden geta sandals on stands - are not at all suitable for intricate body positions and convulsive movements during mutual love. Dislocations, sprains and fractures are guaranteed here, therefore the artist’s characters are forced to wear shoes only by the plot situation - for example, it happens on the road. The naked legs of lovers in the pictures are more expressive than their faces (sometimes, in the eyes of a European, they are completely identical), and their behavior is much more individual than the meticulously demonstrated closure of the genitals.
Legs sticking out of the colorful manufactory carousel with splayed fingers, curled with effort, make the most incredible, most unbridled sexual act a little funny and therefore very real.
Shunga demonstrates an unprecedented breadth of ideas about what human sex is in general. From panoramic landscapes full of universal sadness with a tangle of lovers somewhere on the outskirts or thoughtful intercourse by an open window while contemplating seasonal beauties - to pictures of detailed physiological, cruel, funny, surreal - in any combination of these definitions.”

You screamed
Having found the rod with my hand.
And again silence
Deep,
Not a sound

“The fantasy of a girl copulating with an octopus is typical of the work of Japanese masters and has ancient roots. The first Japanese netsuke, depicting a woman's intercourse with sea reptiles, date back to the 17th century. Two centuries later, in 1814, the great Hokusai created the famous engraving “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife,” in which the heroine gives herself to two octopuses at once. The girl’s thrown back head and her eyes closed in languid bliss speak more than eloquently of the sensations she is experiencing... An octopus penetrating a woman with all its tentacles is a frequent theme of the genre.”

It seems to me that Japanese artists will depict the copulation of cicadas and the loving communication of birds with the same care.
Lovers on the shunga are just a natural part of the world around them, in which birds sing, trees bloom, a curious monkey hangs on the branches, and their everyday life goes on behind a paper screen or sliding wall.

http://slovari.yandex.ru/dict/japan/article/s133.htm?text=%D0%A1%D1%8E%D0%BD%D0%B3%D0%B0%20&stpar1=1.1.1
http://slovari.yandex.ru/dict/japan/article/u3.htm?text=%D0%A1%D1%8E%D0%BD%D0%B3%D0%B0%20&stpar1=1.2.1
http://intim.club4relax.com/article.php?tid=2&aid=95
http://www.friends-forum.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-32769.html
http://debri.ru/c/sjunga_169_foto/
http://www.morra-japaneseart.com/gallery/prints/05.htm
http://www.galleryeast.com.au/japanese/shunga/main5.htm
http://jaga-lux.livejournal.com/139215.html
http://www.mk-piter.ru/2006/05/11/024/
http://www.bibliotekar.ru/k91-Eysen/16.htmhttp://annapo.com/index.php?page=1&sub=1
http://www.akantiek.nl/hokusai%20p1132.htm
http://www.akantiek.nl/shun.htm
http://ruboko.narod.ru/obosn.htm
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http://sales-books.by.ru/ypone03.htm
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http://www.morra-japaneseart.com/img/prints/detail/largedetail/large%20M%20165.htm
http://annapo.com/index.php?page=1&sub=1
http://hentai.anime.dvdspecial.ru/hentai.shtml
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A3%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%91-%D1%8D
http://www.artwall.ru/index.phtml?productID=3407
http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/ruwiki/81780