Printed orihon (accordion) shunga, consisting of 28 woodblock color-printed panels, two of which have flaps...
A total of 17 panels with color-printed woodcuts (one double-page & one four panels wide). Oblong 12mo (70 x 84 mm.), orig. wooden boards, orig. purple silk title label (but no title!) on upper cover. [Japan]: late 19th century.
A very rare kind of shunga, this is an example of a mitate, an “appropriation of a classical source…then used to portray the modern, urban demi-monde.”–C. Andrew Gerstle, “Shunga and Parody” in Timothy Clark et al., eds., Shunga. Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art (British Museum: 2013), p. 335.
In this shunga, the appropriation is the tea ceremony. The... More