File:Ehon warai jogo 絵本笑上戸 (Picture Book- The Laughing Drinker) (BM 1972,0724,0.4 21).jpg

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Ehon warai jogo 絵本笑上戸 (Picture Book: The Laughing Drinker)   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Title
Ehon warai jogo 絵本笑上戸 (Picture Book: The Laughing Drinker)
Description
English: Illustrated erotic book, shunga, colour woodblock print. 3 volumes. Covers: replacement, lilac. Title slips: replacement. Contents: (vol. 1) 16 leaves: 5 single pages of preface, 1 single-page illustration, 7 double-page illustrations, 1 single-page illustration, 10 single pages of text; (vol. 2) 13 leaves: 1 single-page illustration, 7 double-page illustrations 1 single-page illustration, 10 single pages of text; (vol. 3) 13 leaves: 1 single-page illustration, 7 double-page illustrations, 1 single-page illustration, 10 single pages of text. Inscribed and signed. In fabric-covered chitsu case.
Date circa 1803
date QS:P571,+1803-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 208 millimetres (Vol 1 closed)
Height: 207 millimetres (Vol 2 closed)
Height: 209 millimetres (Vol 3 closed)
Width: 151 millimetres (Vol 1 closed)
Width: 282 millimetres (Vol 1 open)
Width: 153 centimetres (Vol 2 closed)
Width: 275 millimetres (Vol 2 open)
Width: 152 millimetres (Vol 3 closed)
Width: 275 millimetres (Vol 3 open)
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Asia
Accession number
1972,0724,0.4
Notes

It was apparently Kasukawa Shunsho- (d. 1792), possibly in collaboration with Utamaro, who in his erotic black-and-white book Ehon kaname-ishi of 1782 who first came up with the idea to show a half-length picture of a beautiful woman in the first single-page illustration of a volume, and then to match this in the final single-page illustration with a close-up of the genitals. This was further developed by Utamaro and Shunsho- ’s pupil Katsukawa Shuncho- in Ehon hime hajime (Picture Book: First-Time Princesses) of 1790, where it was linked to the popular pseudo-science of ‘physiognomy’. In this late book by Utamaro, a masterpiece among his erotica, the faces and genitals in each of the three volumes are memorably presented in even larger close-up. The compositions are so skilfully drawn and artfully cropped within the page that both kinds of ‘portrait’ seem equally filled with life. Viewers of Utamaro’s ‘large-head pictures’ (o - kubi-e) who also knew his erotica must surely have mentally connected the two.

In one endearing and daring composition, a geisha (female entertainer) straddles her lover, plucking the shamisen and singing as they make love. He lies back, stifling a yawn, and engages her in banter. Surrounding their pillows is a folding screen painted with an ink landscape in Chinese style. The atmosphere is relaxed and intimate. Some thirty or so erotic books and albums are recorded by Utamaro, compared to his twenty or so non-erotic titles, and he is a master practitioner of the shunga genre. Some works actually include the artist and members of his circle as fictional protagonists. Indeed, the preface of this book is playfully written as if by Utamaro’s wife – we do not know for sure that he was married – and implies that she has had to finish the work because he has bunked off on a jaunt: ‘… when a couple is as extraordinarily loving as we are, then there is no better conjunction of the male and female principles than for the wife to add the colouring to drawings done by the husband’. She admits to being like the ‘laughing drinker’ of the title. Each of the three volumes begins with a female ‘large-head picture’ (o - kubi-e) reminiscent of Utamaro’s single-sheet prints and ends with complementary close-ups of female and male genitals, and lovers’ tightly clasped hands (Shunga, cat. 52). The book was bequeathed to the British Museum with other shunga by Sir Gerald Festus Kelly (1879–1972), at one time president of the Royal Academy, together with a letter from him tracing the provenance back through two other British painters, ultimately to the American artist John Singer Sargent (1856–1925). Recent research has revealed that many Western artists since the late nineteenth century, invariably men, have been fascinated and inspired by Japanese shunga. [TC]
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1972-0724-0-4
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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