Chōkyōsai Eiri. Neat Version of a Love Letter or Pure Drawings of Female Beauty (Fumi no kiyogaki), plate 7 / Ōban album, 1801.

Artist: Chōkyōsai Eiri [鳥橋斎栄里] (Japanese, fl. c. 1759–1818)

Date: 1801 (Kyōwa 1)

Medium: Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper; Horizontal ōban, 249 x 377 mm

Genre: Shunga

Series: Fumi no kiyogaki (婦美の清書き, Neat Version of a Love Letter or Pure Drawings of Female Beauty) – Plate 7

Indeed, with the next scene we come upon just one such lady of the samurai court: here, shown taking advantage of an official outing to temple and theater, to rendezvous with a secret lover on a teahouse balcony. She wears the characteristic tsunokakushi formal headgear (seen today only at traditional style weddings), which obscures the face of her lover and results in a somewhat weakened composition. — Richard Lane, 1999. [LIB-3445.2025] Chōkyōsai Eiri: Fumi no kiyogaki /Ed. Hayashi Fumichi. — Tokyo: Kawade Shobō Shinsha, 1996.

Dialogue from Fumi no kiyogaki, Plate 7

男（おとこ）：「おまえさんは入らないさきから、とんだやりようだの。どうでも情けがあるそうだ。」
女（おんな）：「たとえ芝居を見なくても、こうするのが楽しみ。なんでも幕なしに入れておくれ。それ、アユ、もういっそいくし、ええ、もう……」

Man: “You’re getting into it even before I’ve entered — quite the way to go about it. Seems like you’ve got real passion.”
Woman: “Even if I don’t get to see the play, this is what I enjoy. Just go in without any curtain, no matter what. There, Ayu… I’m already going… ahh, already…”

Note:
The woman’s line plays on theatrical vocabulary with erotic double meanings. The phrase “幕なしに入れて” (maku nashi ni irete) literally means “put it in without a curtain,” but here functions as a sexual metaphor — the “curtain” evoking both the theater and the vaginal opening, implying unmediated or immediate penetration. This is a typical example of shunga’s layered innuendo.

The name “Ayu” (アユ) could be a term of endearment, a personal name, or a pun. Ayu (鮎) is also the name of a sweet river fish, sometimes associated with delicacy, seasonality, and subtle erotic symbolism in Edo-period poetry. It may serve here as a nickname or lightly coded term of affection, possibly with regional or contextual nuance now lost.

The whole album can be seen here: SVJP-0034.2015