Description:
ōban tate-e; bijinga; nishikie
Label Text:
Unlike many of the other bijinga in this section, this work features an unnamed woman. The official guild of censors restricted the naming of women in woodblock prints to only those courtesans who worked at licensed pleasure houses. In addition, commercial prints with overtly sexual subject matter were prohibited. This series, while ostensibly a selection of girls and their pets, is really an opportunity for Kuniyasu to display creative subversion of the censors and their laws: the addition of the girl’s pet rat gives the scene a playful and domestic quality, while also allowing Kuniyasu to offer the viewer a glimpse of the girl’s bosom. In addition, by organizing the series about “playthings,” Kuniyasu and his publisher put a new spin on a ubiquitous erotic subject, a necessity in the highly competitive industry of print publishing.
- BB, ed., 2014
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2004.180 |
