Puupiirrokset, osa 4

Tekstit on kirjoittanut professori Monta Hayakawa, käännös Transform Corporation: Tyler Shaw ja Tomoko Sakomura.

[fig. 12] Setting: A bedroom in a commoner house. Characters: A husband and wife. Situation. On a summer night, the husband and wife make love uninhibitedly to their great pleasure.
Dialogue: Husband: "In all of Japan, there's no woman as beautiful as you, who doesn't get thin or fat, who has a good bobo and knows how to use it, or who is as highly-sexed and receives as much pleasure in bed as you. Your bobo is of the finest caliber, clingy (tako-bobo, literally “octopus vagina”) and even-tempered (umani-bobo, literally “sweet-soy casserole vagina”) -- it's absolutely superb. Oh, that's so good, so good. After three times from the side, and then honde (normal position), and then once cha-usu (literally, “tea-grinder,” with the woman on top), let's take a little break."
Wife: "Don't stop, keep going until I'm finished. Yes, yes, like that. I'm flowing like a burst dam. Make love to me harder, and go in all the way. Aaaah..."
This culmination of marital harmony offered in the last panel is particularly characteristic of Utamaro, a student of human nature.

Married woman: "You're weak-spirited. Stop worrying so much and calm down. Tonight, my husband will be out past midnight, so let's relax and have fun."
Lover: "In that case, we still have six hours; if we do it three times every two hours, we can get nine bouts in."
Married woman: "Grab me tighter. That's it, that's it."
Lover: "Aah, put in this way it fits perfectly."
Married woman: "Your mara and my bobo match each other precisely, so it fills up nicely."
The last exchange may sound as if the male and female dialogues are reversed, but for a Shitamachi married woman, who would be anxious to engage in infidelity while her husband is away, this kind of explicit dialogue would not be unusual at all.

[fig. 9] Setting: A bedroom in a prosperous mercantile house. Characters: The mistress of the house and its head clerk. Situation: The mistress of the house, tying up her hair while her husband is away, is being seduced by the head clerk of the house, who she has long had a secret relationship with.
Dialogue: Head clerk: "Whether for making love or just toying with, a nice bobo is always a good thing. I can't express how good this one feels to the touch."
Mistress: "Now, wait until I've tied my hair up. You’re in my way. Let go, now. Don't be naughty. Whenever my husband goes away, this is all you do."
Head clerk: "You don't need to tie your hair up -- if this handsome man says so, it's certainly all right. The disorderliness is particularly beautiful. Ah, damn it, I'm really aroused now."
A woman at her toilette has aroused lustful feelings in men past and present, in the East and the West.

[fig. 10] Setting: A bedroom in a commoner house. Characters: Two cheating spouses. Situation: The pair, wearing yukata, cheat on their spouses without reservation.
Dialogue: Man: "After one more time, let's rest a little. That makes exactly five times. In Kôjimachi (a town in Edo), there's the Iwaki Masu-ya (brothel), but here we have an uwaki Masu-ya (in Japanese, the word for "cheating" is uwaki). Oh, I can't hold on any longer, I'm climaxing, yes, yes."
Woman: "Wait, hold on a little longer, I was just about to come. Yes, yes, here I go."
Sound effects: "Picha picha (smacking sound), zuku zuku (thrusting sound), darari darari (slow dripping sound)'”
Man: "When you climax, the head of my mara gets hit with water like you're shooting it out of a gun. Oh, that's a great bobo. It’s the bobo of the tako Yakushi Nyorai (Yakushi Nyorai is the Healing Buddha; tako, or "octopus," was the slang for a clingy vagina)! Oh, my prayers are answered. Ah, but the price is that I’m as exhausted as if I traveled all the way to Meguro (a suburb of Edo)."
The man, as always, jokes left and right. In Utamaro's shunga there are many scenes of couples just out of the bath, which may be an honest exhibition of his own tastes.

[fig. 11] Setting: A room in a commoner house. Characters: Two lovers. Situation: On a summer evening, the pair (not unexpectedly, just out of the bath and wearing yukata) make love in an acrobatic position. An uchiwa (round fan) is depicted by their heads on the floor.
Dialogue: Man: "I like to suck on your mouth while we make love."
Woman: "It feels like I'm being filled up by a stem both up here and down there."
Man: "Although I hear that Yamaguchi (a man's name) and Tennô (a nickname) like doing this, the true generals are Sekimata (a man’s name) and I. And Kanai Zenzô and Tsuchiya Kashirô are even one rank above us. It seems that Kashirô always masturbates before sex, and thereby lessens his endurance."
Woman: "Well, Kashirô-san's penis must be big, like his head. What nerve he’s got, seducing widows. In the summer, a strange position like today’s is the only way to do it -- the breeze from below my buttocks feels nice."
Man: "However, you won't be able to hold me when you climax. Don't worry, I'll be sure to hold you tight."
The names and nicknames all belong to Utamaro's actual friends. In later years, Utamaro often inserted the names of people like this into his shunga -- quite funny for those in the know.

[fig. 12] Setting: A room in a deai-chaya. Characters: Two lovers. Situation: The lustful pair slowly enjoy themselves to their hearts' content as they eat and drink.
Dialogues: Man: "The bobo is the Fukagawa (a district in Edo's Shitamachi) harayagura (a sumo technique in which the opponent was lifted by the belt onto one’s stomach, and propelled out of the ring), and the mara is the Azabu (a district in the center of Edo) ippon-matsu (a single pine tree, used as a landmark). Whatever happens, continue to have fun as long as your hips can go. Humans don't live for many years. If we could live three hundred, five hundred years, continuing day and night, I think the most a person could have sex would be 56,790 times. That would be even better than winning the Kan’nôji Temple tomi-kuji (a lottery with a large jackpot). Well, once I've warmed you up completely, let's begin the main event."
Woman: "I think it's about time to get started -- I've become very ready for you."
Man: "Playing with you like this is worth one thousand ryô (about one billion yen or 8.5 million euros today)."
Woman: "Then, how much would being inside me be worth?"

In this piece, the male and female characters parlay witticisms back and forth from beginning to end. However, this is not merely Utamaro's style; the dialogue also represents the temperament common to the Edo literati at the time.

14 Chôbunsai Eishi, Title unknown
Woodblock, 10 from a set of 12, benigirai-e
ca. 1790
21.2 x 31.8 cm

Chôbunsai Eishi, though born the eldest son in a samurai household that reached the level of senior vassal in the bakufu government, was also an artist from early on in his life; he was classically trained, but enjoyed creating works particularly in the ukiyo-e genre, including shunga.
The work presented here is simply colored, but with a reason. During the Kansei era (1789 - 1801) the bakufu enacted administrative reforms one after another, among which was a sumptuary law forbidding splendor or extravagance. In accordance with this, Edo publishers were constrained from producing flamboyantly colored ukiyo-e. This work is an example of one published during that period.
Eishi makes use in this work of rare settings such as an archery ground and the precincts of a temple. Also of note is that, characteristically for shunga of this period, names of actual people and shops pop up frequently in the text and many of the plots would have been inside jokes.

[fig. 1] Setting: A room in a ryôri-chaya. Characters: A geisha and a najimi client. Situation: Playing with a geisha at a ryôri-chaya, the client takes advantage of the fact that his companions have fallen asleep drunk to make advances to her.
Dialogue: Man: "I've fallen completely in love with you, so I'm through playing around. So don’t you sleep with other clients."
Woman: "You play around much more than I, so don't say such hurtful things. Hurry, before Eiju-san wakes up. Oh, it looks like Bunkan-san is drunk."

[fig. 2] Setting: A room in a Yoshiwara house of pleasure. Characters: A prostitute and her client. Situation: A dispute between a prostitute and a client.
Dialogue: Man: "I'd hate to injure my kozô (little monk; slang for penis), so let's put a little spittle on it."
Woman: "I'm not some whore that's rough with their customers like those Fukagawa girls. Don't do that. I don't like it." 

[fig. 3] Setting: A study in a commoner house. Characters: A literary husband and wife. Situation: In between reading, the husband and wife make love.
Dialogue: Woman: "Oh, oh, that feels so good, like all of Japan coming together."
Man: "What do you mean, "all of Japan coming together"? No wonder it feels like I've jumped into the ocean. You certainly are putting out a lot (of liquid)."

[fig. 4] Setting: Outside a commoner house. Characters: A young man and woman well acquainted with each other. Situation: The young man and woman, who live near each other, sit outside on a bench enjoying the coolness of a midsummer evening, and begin to make love when adult eyes are turned.
Dialogue: Woman: "Hurry, while Mother is having a quick bath. Don't bother with that sort of thing, get to the real bit."
Man: "Your nurse is still calling for you, although you keep saying 'I'm coming.'"

[fig. 5] Setting: The second floor of a deai-chaya near Shinobazu-no-ike Pond (a famous spot for lotus flowers). Characters: A well-acquainted couple. Situation: The woman, out for some shopping at a komamono-ya (merchant that sold accessories and makeup for women), meets an acquaintance and they decide to go up to the second floor of the deai-chaya for a fling. The box beside the woman's head is a container for harikata (artificial phalluses).
Dialogue: Woman: "I wanted to buy a harikata just like your penis at the komamono-ya, but they didn't have any as thick."
Man: "Don't cry out so loudly! The people pulling up lotus roots outside will laugh. I also don't like that the afternoon sun comes into the second floor of this Izumi-ya."
Man: "Wow, you're letting out a lot of liquid. Well, let's wipe some off and get started."

[fig. 6] Setting: A back parlor in a commoner house. Characters: A well-acquainted couple. Situation: A lighthearted flirtation between a well-acquainted couple.
Dialogue: Woman: "Yahei-san, stop it. Go to a brothel for that sort of thing."
Man: "I've enjoyed exploring with my finger since I was born. There certainly are some interesting tools down there. You could run a good business with these kinds of assets."

[fig. 7] Setting: A room in a Yoshiwara house of pleasure on a summer evening. Characters: A prostitute and her mabu. Situation: A discussion between the prostitute and mabu.
Dialogue: Woman: "Like a shallow stream, my heart is clear and pure enough to see through to its very bottom, so don’t doubt my sincerity, Jin-san."
Man: "Somehow you've become slick, like a wooden pillow at a roadside inn. You almost seem like an amateur.

[fig. 8] Setting: An archery ground; customarily, when an arrow hit the target a shopgirl would sound a drum. Characters: The archery ground shopgirl and a young customer. Situation: The young man makes advances to the shopgirl; at the time, prostitution was a side business for archery grounds.
Dialogue: Man: "I’m sure you’ve noticed that I've been watching you for a long time. Today, I'm going to 'take my prey.' I suppose because you're a shopgirl at an archery ground, it sounds like a drum inside your bobo."
Woman: "Your equipment is large, so it feels nice. Ah, the "arrow" has hit its target!"

[fig. 9] Setting: A room in a brothel at an okabasho. Characters: A prostitute and her customer. Situation: The lustful guest is amazed at the even more lustful prostitute.
Dialogue: Man: "I'm well known myself as a playboy -- people call me Mudachû (Wasteful Chû) -- but you're extraordinary; we've done it five times in a row and you're still not satisfied. You should take the name 'Kunin (nine men)' and become a prostitute in the Yoshiwara licensed quarters."
Woman: "Please call me again if you come to Kisemen (the name of the brothel) again soon. I’ve never felt this good before. Ohh, I'm coming again!"

[fig. 10] Setting: The grounds of a temple. Characters: A man looking for some companionship and a woman. Situation: The young man and woman, who have both come to visit the temple early in the morning, meet by chance, and at the young man's suggestion engage in a frolic on the temple grounds.
Dialogue: Woman: "Being called to by you here, my morning prayers must have reached Kannon-sama (a Bodhisattva, guardian of women). I suppose making love on the temple grounds is disrespectful to the deities, but won’t you go stronger and deeper in?"
Man: "I prayed to Jizô-sama (a Bodhisattva, guardian of children) that my enoko (slang for penis) was lonely. Apparently my prayer was heard, since like the pigeons that flock around the temple gates receive beans from the pilgrims, here I've picked up a splendid bean ("mame," slang for vagina) myself. 

Lasipalatsin Mediakeskus Oy ©2001 8.9.2004