Sex And The Floating World

This book offers an entirely new assessment of the genre of Japanese paintings and prints today known as shunga. Recent changes in Japanese law have at last enabled erotic images to be published without fear of prosecution, and many picture books have since appeared in Japan. There has, however, been very little attempt to situate the imagery within the contexts of sexuality, gender or power. Questions of aesthetics, and of whether shunga deserve a place in the official history of Japanese art, have dominated, and the question of the use of these images has been avoided. Timon Screech seeks to re-establish shunga in its proper historical contexts of culture and creativity. Sex and the Floating World opens up for us the strange world of sexual fantasy in the Edo culture of eighteenth-century Japan, and investigates the tensions in class and gender of those who made - and made use of - shunga.

From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of the Booker Prize–winning novel The Remains of the Day In the face of the misery in his homeland, the artist Masuji Ono was unwilling to devote his art solely to the celebration of physical beauty. Instead, he put his work in the service of the imperialist movement that led Japan into World War II. Now, as the mature Ono struggles through the aftermath of that war, his memories of his youth and of the "floating world"—the nocturnal world of pleasure, entertainment, and drink—offer him both escape and redemption, even as they punish him for betraying his early promise. Indicted by society for its defeat and reviled for his past aesthetics, he relives the passage through his personal history that makes him both a hero and a coward but, above all, a human being.

In early modern Japan, thousands of sexually explicit paintings, prints, and illustrated books with texts were produced, euphemistically called spring pictures (shunga). Frequently tender, funny and beautiful, shunga were mostly done within the popular school known as pictures of the floating world (ukiyo-e), by celebrated artists such as Utamaro and Hokusai. Erotic Japanese art was heavily suppressed in Japan from the 1870s, and as a result it has only been made possible to publish unexpurgated examples in Japan within the last 20 years. This publication presents this fascinating art in its historical and cultural context, drawing on the latest scholarship and featuring over 400 images of works from major public and private collections.

Geishas and the Floating World returns readers to a lost world of sensuality and seduction, rich with hedonism, abandon, and sexual and personal politics. "Floating World" refers to Japan's traditional Geisha pleasure districts, but also to the artistic and literary worlds associated with them. At the heart of the "Floating World" and the system it supported was an extensive network of talented courtesans and entertainers, typified by the still fascinating, enigmatic Geisha. Stephen and Ethel Longstreet bring the reader on an in-depth tour of the original and most infamous red-light district in Japan--the Yoshiwara district of old Tokyo that underwent tremendous changes during the more than three centuries of its existence. Beyond the erotic allure the district held, the Yoshiwara also fostered a rich culture and a much studied and revered artistic and literary tradition. This account is adorned with examples of fine woodblock prints and quotations from often bawdy, and always colorful, original sources that offer a gripping portrait of life within the pleasure zone. Geishas and the Floating World balances scholarly insights with a master storyteller's flair for the exploits and intrigues of people operating outside the confines of polite society. Stephen Mansfield's new introduction bridges time, examining gender realities and the Yoshiwara through contemporary eyes, highlighting often overlooked subtleties and the harsh realities associated with this glittering world.

Drawing on both historical and literary sources, examines life in the pleasure houses of Japan during the Edo period from the early 1600s to 1868. Among the topics are the origins, illegal competitors, the cost of a visit, the treatment of the courtesans, traditions and protocols, Yoshiwara arts, th

Venice, 1468. Sosia Simeon, a free-spirited sensualist, is the lover of many men in the fabled city, though married to one she despises. On the edge of the Grand Canal, Wendelin von Speyer sets up the first printing press in Venice and looks for the book that will make his fortune. When he tempts fate by publishing Catullus, the poet whose desperate and unrequited love inspired the most tender and erotic poems of antiquity, a scandal is set in motion that will change all their lives forever.

An illustrated novel of intrigue set in modern Japan for bookworms, computer geeks, & art lovers alike.

Jonny Negron's newest monograph collects the signature pinup illustrations that have gained him a cult following. Negron's art visualizes stylish ladies of all colors - hyper-sexual, curvy, and confident. These risqué compositions use suggestive humor and erotic situations to explore sexual taboos and comment on a mainstream, limited view of beauty.

This book presents the Japanese art of Shunga and Bijinga from the mid 1700s to the mid 1950s. Shunga is Japanese for 'spring pictures' but means 'erotic art'. The translation of Bijinga is 'pictures of beautiful people' meaning women, commonly referred to as 'beauties'. There is a link between them, as both are sexual in nature, with many pictures being of courtesans, or women as subjects of desire. But there is a lot more to it than that! This is not an academic book but more a personal journey of discovery by an accidental collector of Japanese woodblock prints. Bob Bentley informs, entertains and hopefully inspires like-minded fellow travelers embarking on similar explorations. The illustrations show a fascinating culture which thrived in the period when Japan was isolated from the rest of the world up to a time when the style and beauty of its art eventually exploded into the Western imagination. Bob has acquired a number of rare and original prints, as well as the more affordable, including re-prints, some almost as wonderful. The book is based purely on his collection - with delicate prints reproduced in high quality - imperfections and all. Many are exquisite works of art. This is a demonstration of the art that many people can acquire - at one level or another. Although there may be several hand made prints available of the same image, no two are identical. In buying prudently, you will see how it is possible to enjoy originals of the greatest artists, alongside beautifully crafted reprints. Here is a real passion, expressed in clear language, demystifying a culture that has provided the world with some of the most glorious art that has ever been seen.