Utamakura (Utamaro)

''Utamakura'' (, "poem of the pillow") is the title of a 12-print illustrated book of sexually explicit ''shunga'' pictures, published in 1788. The print designs are attributed to the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Kitagawa Utamaro, and the book's publication to Tsutaya Jūzaburō.

Background

Ukiyo-e art flourished in Japan during the Edo period from the 17th to 19th centuries, and took as its primary subjects courtesans, kabuki actors, and others associated with the "floating world" lifestyle of the pleasure districts. Alongside paintings, mass-produced woodblock prints were a major form of the genre. In the mid-18th century full-colour ' prints became common, printed using a large number of woodblocks, one for each colour.

Kitagawa Utamaro (–1806) began designing prints in the 1770s; made his name in the 1790s with his ''bijin ōkubi-e'' ("large-headed pictures of beautiful women") portraits, focusing on the head and upper torso. He experimented with line, colour, and printing techniques to bring out subtle differences in the features, expressions, and backdrops of subjects from a wide variety of class and background.

In Edo (modern Tokyo) ''shunpon'' albums of prints developed in the 18th century. The books were made of typically twelve prints printed on one side and folded inward, with the edges glued to the adjacent prints and the whole held together with silk thread wrapped around stiff paper covers. The books were of high-quality paper, printed in relatively low printruns, and from the 1770s usually used full colour with expensive pigments and other lavish printing techniques. Sometimes they came with additional pages of text.

Description and analysis

The prints are unsigned, but they are attributed to Kitagawa Utamaro ( – 1806). The preface is signed with the pen name ''Honjo no Shitsubuka'' ("Profligate of Soggy Honjo"); amongst those suspected to have written it are the writer and poet Tōrai Sanna (1744–1810) and the poet (1740–1800). The prints are followed by two stories told over two spreads of text. The stories and prints each stand independent of one another.

''Utamakura'' (, "poem pillow") is a classical Japanese rhetorical concept in which poetical epithets are associated with place names. Utamaro takes advantage of the ''makura'' ("pillow") portion to suggest intimate bedroom activity; the terms ''utamakura'' and ''makura-kotoba'' ("pillow word ) are used throughout the preface.

Unlike other illustrated books of the time, ''Utamakura'' is devoid of accompanying text, and employs luxurious techniques such as embossing, the dusting of mica for a glittering effect, and '' bokashi'', a technique by which gradations of colour are achieved by applying varying amounts of ink to the printing block.

The book appeared in 1788. The prints are multicolour ''nishiki-e'' woodblock prints on handmade ''washi'' paper. Each horizontal print is in ''ōban'' size, about . The book bears no publisher's seal, but from the blue covers of the folding album are the same as others published by Tsutaya Jūzaburō at the time, and the clothing of many of the figures bears an ivy crest similar to Tsutaya's. Few copies remain, and researchers rarely have access to complete sets.

Preface

: Loosening the sash of Yoshino River, forging a bond 'twixt Imo and Se mountains, spreading the skirts of Mount Tsukuba— thus do lovers plight their troth. Enveloping themselves in a screen of mist, spreading a quilt of flowers, reaching for a pillow ... We hereby print pillow pictures in brocades of the East as a plaything of spring at court. With one glance the eye is startled, the heart throbs, the spirit leaps de pausing below the sash, pressing, pressing, entwining the legs like the reeds of Naniwa, from the jewel-comb box of Hakone onwards, it is akin to using the hips. Ah! Rather than some amateur at drawing, the brush of one who is skilled in the art of love, without pressing too hard, this is the way to move the hearts of men. And so, what name shall I give this volume? Why yes, likening it to a poem by Bishop Henjō, borrowing the title of a letter by Lady Sei, and even coming close to the name of the artist, I call it ''Ehon utamakura'', "Poem of the Pillow" — a companion to awakening in spring perhaps.
: First spring, 1788
: Honjo no Shitsubuka

Print No. 1

The first print depicts a pair of ''kappa'' river creatures raping an ''ama'' diver underwater. Her hair flows with the running current, and small, seemingly curious fish swim near. Another ''ama'' watches seated on a rock with an ashamed look, her right hand held to her mouth. Her drenched, dishevelled hair sticks to her. She wears a red waistcloth, but her genitals can still be seen. To the French art critic Edmond de Goncourt she "appear languid and susceptible to temptation.

Utamaro employs a varied contrast of tones in the area of the rocks, while fine lines of the running current partially obscure the underwater scene. Careful attention goes to the individual strands of the women's hair. The ''amas'' in this picture demonstrate the manner in which he depicted them in future prints.

Print No. 2

A ''wakashū'' (adolescent boy) and his older lover recline in a parlour. The woman grasps her lover's collar and confronts him after finding a letter in his robes. She grips the letter in her left hand, whose little finger is bandaged; Edo-period courtesans cut a little finger as a sign of faith towards a man. From a partial opening in her kimono, the woman's pubic hair can be seen. A tea kettle boils on a brazier in the background.

Print No. 3

A couple has joyous sex on the lamplit floor with eyes closed. The woman kisses the man's cheek with a look of ecstasy. She has shaved eyebrows, indicating she is married. The pair appear to be on a bedroom floor surrounded by a ''byōbu'' folding screen, but that she is still in her kimono suggests her partner is not her husband.

Print No. 4

Two lovers have sex on the floor in front of a pair of ''byōbu'' screens decorated with the images of plum blossoms and bamboo. The male is a samurai, and his topknot protrudes beyond the enclosing frame of the image. The woman's kimono bears a Japanese primrose