return to shunga menu

view print

HARUNOBU, Suzuki  (1725? - 70)		Furyu Edo hakkei ('Fashionable Views of Edo') Ryogoku no hekisho ('Glowing Vulva at Ryogoku Bridge')
click to view larger version		Date:                 c. 1769 Size:                 chuban yoko-e (c. 20 x 28 cms / c. 8" x 11") Condition:       Ecellent, deluxe impression with metallic pigments, still good colors (for a print                           from the earliest days of full-color printing); a few faint stains, else very good.                           - A famous and important design. Ref. no.: # 591783 Price:  € 1,950.00

"A young man is accompanied by four young women during an outing on the Sumida River near the Ryogoku Bridge. He looks towards the approaching boat, aboard which is a trainer and his monkey. The monkey is dressed up as one of the Soga brothers. The title of the print, Ryogoku no hekisho, is difficult to interpret. Heki is slang for 'vulva' but also connotes an opening. ... The reading of hekisho is similar to the word sekishi in Seta no sekisho ('Evening Glow at Sea'), the third image in the classical sequence Omi hakkei ('Eight Views of Omi'). While in Western cities the market square was an important venue for social life, in Edo-period Japan it seemed to be the bridge, and the Ryogoku Bridge was particularly significant ... (it) is the subject of innumerable prints and inevitably the setting for entertainment, especially fireworks. Every year on the twenty-eighth day of the fifth month, fireworks announced 'the opening of the river'. From that day on for a period of exactly three months, the river would be open for boating. The Edo populace would try to keep cool and enjoy the summer evenings aboard wide-roofed boats (yakatabune), or small boats (chokibune) as illustrated here." (Quote from the publication below) For another impression of the design see: Japanese Erotic Fantasies, Amsterdam, 2005; no.19, p. 95.

   return to shunga menu                                                                 view print