Press release Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese art 3 October 2013 – 5 January 2014 Rooms 90-91, admission charge Tickets will go on sale 2 September 2013 Parental guidance advised for visitors under 16 years In early modern Japan, 1600-1900, thousands of suppressed in practice, shunga publications sexually explicit works of art were produced, flourished on the boundaries between these two known as ‘spring pictures’ (shunga). This exhibition, worlds, even critiquing officialdom on occasion. the first of its kind in the UK, examines the often Paintings were never the object of censorship, and tender, funny, beautiful and undoubtedly national networks of commercial lending-libraries, accomplished shunga that were produced by some the main means of distribution for shunga books, of the masters of Japanese art, including Utamaro were not regulated. and Hokusai. The exhibition is drawn from collections in the UK, Japan, Europe and USA and Early modern Japan was certainly not a sex- will feature some 170 works including paintings, paradise. Confucian ethics that focused on duty sets of prints and illustrated books with text. and restraint were promoted in education for all Shunga is in some ways a unique phenomenon in classes, and laws on adultery, were severe. There pre-modern world culture, in terms of the quantity, were also many class and gender inequalities, and the quality and the nature of the art that was a large and exploitative commercial sex industry produced. The exhibition explores key questions (the ‘pleasure quarters’). However, the values about what is shunga, how it circulated and to promoted in shunga are generally positive towards whom, and why was it produced. In particular it sexual pleasure for all participants: in one begins to establish the social and cultural contexts memorable colour print from the series Erotic for sex art in Japan and aims to reaffirm the Illustrations for the Twelve Months of c. 1788 by importance of shunga in Japanese art history. Katsukawa Shunchō (worked 1780s-1790s), for instance, a husband and wife enjoy lovemaking at Shunga were mostly produced within the popular a window in mid-summer, to the cry of a cuckoo. school known as ‘pictures of the floating world’ Women’s sexuality was readily acknowledged and (ukiyo-e), by celebrated artists such as Hishikawa male-male sex recognised in particular social Moronobu (died 1694), Kitagawa Utamaro (died contexts. Although men were the main producers 1806) and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). and consumers, it is clear that women also were Earlier, medieval narrative art in Japan had already an important audience; the custom of presenting mixed themes of sex and humour. Luxurious shunga to women in a marriage trousseau seems shunga paintings were also produced for ruling to have been common, and some works seem to class patrons by traditional artists such as have been created more for women than for men. members of the Kano school,, sometimes During the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, influenced by Chinese examples. This was very shunga was all but removed from popular and different from the situation in contemporary Europe, scholarly memory in Japan and became taboo. where religious bans and prevailing morality Ironically, it was just at this time that shunga was enforced an absolute division between ‘art’ being discovered and enthusiastically collected by and ‘pornography’. European and US artists such as Lautrec, Beardsley, Sargent and Picasso. The British It is true that official life in this period was governed Museum acquired its first shunga prints as part of by strict Confucian laws, but private life was less the George Witt Collection in 1865 and now has controlled. Banned after 1722, but rarely one of the best collections outside of Japan. The exhibition is part of Japan400, a nationwide UK series of events celebrating 400 years of Japan-British relations. The exhibition has been generously sponsored by Shunga in Japan LLP The exhibition follows after a major three-year international research project from 2009-2012, funded by a generous grant from the Leverhulme Trust. Notes to Editors: The British Museum has long been committed to In conjunction with the exhibition, British Museum displaying the best of Japanese art and culture. In 1995 the Museum staged the exhibition The Press will publish a catalogue with contributions Passionate Art of Utamaro, which included all of from more than thirty authors worldwide. Lavishly the great shunga works by that artist. Many other illustrated, this volume will feature new research major special Japan-related exhibitions have been and previously unpublished material from major presented at the BM on such themes as Rimpa art public and private collections. (1998), Shinto (2001), Kazari (2003), Kabuki Priced £50 (hardback), will be available from the Heroes (2005), Crafting Beauty (2007), Dogu British Museum Book Shop and online at (2009), as well as a complete re-installation since britishmuseum.org 2006 of the Museum’s Japanese collections in the Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries, Japan Follow updates on the exhibition via Twitter on from prehistory to the present. Since 2005 one #ShungaExhibition and the Museum’s Twitter Japan-related ‘Objects in Focus’ display has been account @britishmuseum presented each year in Room Three, the Asahi Shimbun display series, including Manga, A special shunga issue of Japan Review with Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave’ and Jōmon prehistoric research articles by 15 project members will be ‘flame’ pots. published by International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), Kyoto in 2013. The exhibition will be accompanied by a public programme of lectures and events. Women of the pleasure quarter: a Japanese painted screen The international research project has been funded 29 August – 3 November 2013 by a generous grant from the Leverhulme Trust, Room 3, Objects in focus involving a wide network of more than thirty This beautiful screen is one of the most important scholars worldwide. surviving paintings from the ‘floating world’ (ukiyo- e) school of art. The accompanying display reveals The four principal institutional research partners the culture and sexual economy of the so-called are: The British Museum; School of Oriental and ‘pleasure quarters’ in late 18th-century Japan. African Studies (SOAS), University of London; The Asahi Shimbun Displays International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), Kyoto; Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto For further information please contact the Press Office on 020 7323 8394 / 8522 or [email protected] For high resolution images go to picselect.com register for free and find the British Museum under Arts .