''Shunga'' is an erotic theme that manifested very popular form in Japan during the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.
It mainly occurred in the pictorial and graphic school called ukiyo-e. The artistic technique used to create the prints ukiyo-e style consists of performing a print on a sheet of wood (engraving), which is inked and then place it on a piece of tracing paper, aiming to pressure and to achieve the print. As engraving, etching and therefore it is possible to perform multiple prints from the same parent timber so Industrial and fairly inexpensive.
The shunga theme, which is encompassed within the representation of everyday scenes so characteristic of ukiyo-e, meant a new way to channel the sexual passions of the Japanese individual, through art. But it was a completely intimate way to create art. In fact, did not enjoy the same acceptance of works such as those concerning historical scenes or landscapes, to give examples. That is why the artists were not allowed to sign the works of sexual themes. This was stated Japanese politics of the time, wearing the habit of Buddhism, predominant religion, which itself admitted sex as correct but, like everything else, should be measured. And so, art, sex should also be contained.
The Edo Period (XVII-XIX centuries) is marked as the birth of the shunga genre. At this time, the military government was in control reduced the power of the feudal lords, and therefore the imperial court. This allowed a mighty change in society. The merchant class was increased compared with the peasantry. This led to a renewal of tastes, reflected in an increased release of the arts; hence the rise of the most innovative scenes, ie daily, as shunga themes. What happened in Japan during the Edo Period resembles, and much, to the scene of the city of Florence during the Renaissance, for example. The middle and upper strata of society were the first applicants shunga, but trying to do it in a more or less private. Sometimes it was intended to justify the purchase of this magical pornography adding a value to it. For example, saying that such images could increase fertility, serve as aphrodisiac in particular cases, or to ward off fire protection warriors. Anyway, the real reason was surely the enjoyment of sex through his vision in the prints.
By Hishikawa Moronobu (1680).
Thus, it can be considered as the precursor of shunga artist Hishikawa Moronobu, who used the ukiyo-e still in black and white, so little was developed this technique in his time. The ever increasing ukiyo-e, using relatively inexpensive way to create art, made the shunga genre popularized was over quickly, and hence also derives its completion.
''The dream of the fisherman's wife'' in woodcut ukiyo-e. By Katsushika Hokusai (1814).
With the improvement of technology, the works became much more colorful. Thus, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries shunga is in full swing. Although the artists did not sign their works, further study of art history may attribute many such important authors as Sukenobu Nishikawa, Kitagawa Utamaro and Katsushika Hokusai. The creation and trade shunga genre is commonplace, although as emphasized before, why not frowned upon.
In fact, in the eighteenth century various changes in the military government in order to solve the country's problems will be given. The Kyoho reforms of 1722, although they were mainly aimed at solving the Japanese economy, the influence of the West (since traded with Japan Netherlands) were the first to attempt to regulate and even pause the constant creation of shunga; a type of representation that, at that time, the West was not refined but simply gross. However, no censorship is proclaimed for the production of shunga in ukiyo-e, which was the preferred way to create. So the 1790 Kansei reforms were forerunners of great social change in terms of gender. For example they took care to normalize prostitution and sex separation in certain public areas. The reforms also played art. Topics considered dissidents were extremely controlled; were those related to sex and eroticism. As a result, this will also lead to the suppression of the artists who worked in guilds. They lived under the constant supervision of the head of the guild, which was responsible for reviewing the topics represented in the corporation. Thus, it significantly reduced the expressive power of the artists as to the Kansei reforms, ukiyo-e without too much trouble could symbolize all kinds of erotic scenes.
in woodcut ukiyo-e. By Kitagawa Utamaro (1803-1804).
Not long after, some of the most illustrious artists were also repressed, as already named Utamaro, who was jailed and then placed under house arrest for nearly two months have represented the shogun (military governor) Hideyoshi surrounded by several concubines. Fruit of experience, not create more work again, and even died two years later. Later, outside of this subsection, the Tempo reforms occurred during the 1840s. Politics intervened powerfully in the art and culture held previously. Was removed, not directly, but gradually, the creation of ukiyo-e, through the undervaluation of materials to produce the same. The theme shunga and other everyday representations (the courtesans or theater actors) were banned, but nevertheless, the prints related to nature or the samurai remained in force. Probably the Tempo reforms were the most decisive in dealing with the issue of subsequent definitive ban on shunga genre.
''The promises of Izumo'' in woodcut ukiyo-e. By Terasaki Kogyo (1899).
After the signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854, establishing trade relations between Japan and the United States, the Japanese country ceased to be isolated. Therefore, he received a large spread of Western culture come. While the shunga genre is reached to prevent in the Prefecture of Tokyo in 1869, it is true that throughout the country continued to produce outside the law. The style of it is westernized. It brought new techniques and began to imagine Westerners having sex. For example in the play'' promises'' Izumo two Caucasian people appear with typical beach clothes, making love in the sea.
Similarly, in the West, shunga genre was one of the most critical conceive Japonism, ie, the artistic movement born under the influence of Japanese art on Western, which can be seen as individual artists as Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Pablo Picasso.
Moreover, during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) things on the subject of shunga remained more or less in line, and repression was not at all comparable with the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Shunga appealed to certain artists of the West, as mentioned earlier, it allowed innovate and break with the artistic tradition inherited from Christianity. However, this eroticism was considered obscene, and thought that would spill over to Japan too. The Criminal Code of Japan, 1907 would be the final step to ban the shunga genre, which hovered between life and death, because of their constant ups and downs in a society that did want shunga but it relegated to something dirty, especially with contributions from the ever growing Western thought. The penal code was able to commandeer thousands of erotic pictures and albums. Also penalized the creators and distributors of'' obscene'' with paying a fine or serving a sentence. This law was transcendental and absolute end to allow the creation of shunga subject, that he would be replaced later by pornographic photography. Although shunga, linked to the ukiyo-e to satiety, and also with the engraving, no longer made, it is true that it does have a clear and direct heir: the theme hentai (Japanese animated pornography).
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