Shunga (Sex and Pleasure in Japanese art)
Sagittarius
11-15-2013, 07:09 PM
This is an exhibition at present on show at the British Museum.
It was a fascinating exhibition and I learnt things I didn't know. One of the things was that almost inevitably, Shunga actually started in China and was then taken up by the Japanese. It seems that the only thing that the Japanese really and truly invented themselves was the fan.
The exhibition starts off with examples from about the 1600s and finished off almost to the present day. Of course the older pieces were the most interesting, to me at least, and in spite of the seemingly obsession with extraordinarily sized male genitalia, in a society that accepted sex as totally normal and not something to be sniggered at, just as the Romans had done in Herculaneum and Pompeii when they had erotic painting even on their dining room walls, there really is no way that really and truly describe these as being pornographic. The prints were so beautifully drawn, not just the figures that were most delicately and assuredly drawn, but the drapery of the costumes, some highly coloured using rare colours like vermillion and lapiz lazuli on gold backgrounds. Interestingly also that there were some pictures of man on man action that was apparently quite acceptable in those days and in fact there was one print of an older man graphically buggering a younger man while he, the older man, embraced a woman. Of course in those days female roles in the theatre were all played by young men and it seems they were ripe pickings for older men. But on the whole the prints depicted moments of real tenderness between couples and even some comedy.
In spite of the fact that entrance was restricted to those over 16 years old, and there weren't that many people there at the same time, I still had to wait to read the information as people were studying everything very carefully. I was amused when I was on the way out that there was a very old man and his either wife or carer, trying to look at some of the pictures with the aid of a illuminating magnifying glass while his companion read out the notes to him. It was funny to hear her read out in quite a loud voice the graphic descriptions.
If you have the opportunity to visit this exhibition it is well worth it. It is on until the 5th of January and it would be essential to book ahead. You can do this here:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/ex...hunga.aspx
Here is a surprisingly (for the Daily Mail) moderate review:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/articl...useum.html
It was a fascinating exhibition and I learnt things I didn't know. One of the things was that almost inevitably, Shunga actually started in China and was then taken up by the Japanese. It seems that the only thing that the Japanese really and truly invented themselves was the fan.
The exhibition starts off with examples from about the 1600s and finished off almost to the present day. Of course the older pieces were the most interesting, to me at least, and in spite of the seemingly obsession with extraordinarily sized male genitalia, in a society that accepted sex as totally normal and not something to be sniggered at, just as the Romans had done in Herculaneum and Pompeii when they had erotic painting even on their dining room walls, there really is no way that really and truly describe these as being pornographic. The prints were so beautifully drawn, not just the figures that were most delicately and assuredly drawn, but the drapery of the costumes, some highly coloured using rare colours like vermillion and lapiz lazuli on gold backgrounds. Interestingly also that there were some pictures of man on man action that was apparently quite acceptable in those days and in fact there was one print of an older man graphically buggering a younger man while he, the older man, embraced a woman. Of course in those days female roles in the theatre were all played by young men and it seems they were ripe pickings for older men. But on the whole the prints depicted moments of real tenderness between couples and even some comedy.
In spite of the fact that entrance was restricted to those over 16 years old, and there weren't that many people there at the same time, I still had to wait to read the information as people were studying everything very carefully. I was amused when I was on the way out that there was a very old man and his either wife or carer, trying to look at some of the pictures with the aid of a illuminating magnifying glass while his companion read out the notes to him. It was funny to hear her read out in quite a loud voice the graphic descriptions.
If you have the opportunity to visit this exhibition it is well worth it. It is on until the 5th of January and it would be essential to book ahead. You can do this here:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/ex...hunga.aspx
Here is a surprisingly (for the Daily Mail) moderate review:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/articl...useum.html
"You can be young without money but you can't be old without money"
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
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