Artist: Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川歌麿, c. 1753–1806)
Title of Series: Negai no itoguchi (ねがいの糸口, Threads Leading to Desire, or The Prelude to Desire)
Date: 1799 (Kansei 11)
Publisher: Unknown
Media: Horizontal ōban (大判横絵), full-colour woodblock prints (nishiki-e. 錦絵)
Four sheets from a thirteen-print album by Utamaro, the second of his three great shunga sets. These works show a mature and voluptuous style following his earlier Utamakura (Poem of the Pillow, 1788), and preceding Ehon Komachi-biki (1802). Each scene is accompanied by erotic dialogue in flowing calligraphy.
Sheet 3: 253 × 379 mm
A woman straddles her partner with one leg raised as he leans forward to embrace her. Her lifted kimono reveals her lower body; her lover wears a purple-striped outer robe and black obi. The yellow and green bedding lies aside. A black candlestick dissects the space.
Sheet 8: 249 × 365 mm
“Here a widow secretly meets her married lover. The importance of the eyes in Utamaro’s art is clearly shown: the woman twists round to catch the man’s gaze as he uses his fingers to stimulate her. She lifts her hand to her mouth in surprise at his bold move and raises her eyebrows in anticipation. He tries to engage in some humorous banter about her ‘pussy’, but she tells him to stop joking and to ‘get started quickly’. She wonders aloud what he sees in her when he already has a chic wife’, although she herself is dressed in a fashionable striped robe”.
Sheet 10: 255 × 384 mm
A woman leans forward, trying to reach her partner’s toes with her lips. Her hips are raised as her partner enters her from below. He is depicted with a relaxed expression, one of his legs stretched forward, his robe draped loosely over his shoulders. Their outer robes lie to the right.
This scene depicts a married couple engaged in intimacy. The husband appears overly eager, hastily attempting to arouse his wife, while she responds with calm composure, saying something like, “Take it easy—you’ll get there.” As he lifts her leg and leans in, she turns her face toward him, her expression serene. The artist highlights the contrast between the man’s flushed skin and the soft, flowing garments, rendering even the subtlest movements of the woman’s body with striking sensitivity.
| アレサ そこじゃやわえな とこやかいへやる かんぞーしんるよ アレサやりしょる |
Aresa soko ja yawae na tokoyakai e yaru kanzō shinru yo Aresa yari-shoru |
Hey! That spot’s too soft— Move it over gently. You’re pressing the tissue too hard. Hey, you’re doing it again… |
Sheet 12: 252 × 382 mm
The woman half-sits with her legs half-bent. The lovers’ bodies are already joined as they kiss each other on the lips. The man stands on his knees, entering her from the front. Their garments flow together in vibrant patterns. To the side, a shamisen rests on the floor.
Reference:
[LIB-2971.2022] Chris Uhlenbeck, Margarita Winkel. Japanese erotic fantasies: sexual imagery of the Edo period. — Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, ©2005.
[LIB-1473.2014] Shunga: Sex and pleasure in Japanese art / Edited by Timothy Clark et al. — London: British Museum Press; Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2013.
[LIB-1476.2013] Rosina Buckland. Shunga: Erotic art in Japan. — London: The British Museum Press, 2010.
[LIB-3441.2025] Nanokusa Yoshiki. Shunga: 48 Painters of Edo (Bessatsu Taiyō). — Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2023 (in Japanese).
