Shunga: The Art of Love in Japan

Enter Ukiyo - the 'fleeting, floating world' inhabited by the merchant class of Japan in the 17th and 19th centuries. Physical love as a means of self-expression and as an art form has always assumed a greater importance in the East than in the West. In the uninhibited atmosphere of Ukiyo, erotic art and literature was openly produced and widely enjoyed; and it was here that Japanese eroticism found its truest and most perfect expression: int he famous wood-block prints know as the Ukiyo-e shunga.

'Shunga' is the generic name given to the erotic paintings, prints and illustrated books of Japan. Translated literally, it means 'spring drawings'...and it is a quality of spring-like freshness that the best of the shunga posess.

Drawn with skill and imagination by some of the greatest names in Japanese art - among them, Moronobu, Harunobu, Utamaro and Hokusai - the shunga portray the sexual practices and conventions of a lively and unabashed society. At once tender, passionate and brimming with a witty, swaggering vitatlity, the shunga open our eyes to the most intimate details of the act of love and show us that, to the Japanese of the period, sex in all its forms was joyful and inspiring - something to be actively explored, studied and, above all, enjoyed.

Presenting more than 200 examples of the shunga in color and black-and-white, the authors have created a superb visual and cultural portrait of one of the most enticing -- and misunderstood -- genres of art.