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CJS Noon Lecture ~ "Parody and Satire in Shunga: Takehara Shunchosai's 'Pillow Book for the Young' (1776)"

Thursday, April 5, 2012
4:00 AM
Room 1636, School of Social Work Building, 1080 South University, Ann Arbor

Andrew Gerstle is Professor of Japanese Studies at SOAS, University of London. A specialist on drama and literature, his current project is on erotic books (shunga). Publications include Edo onna no shungabon (2011), Chikamatsu: Five Late Plays (2001), Kabuki Heroes in the Osaka Stage, 1780-1830 (2005), Onna shimegawa oeshi-bumi (2007) and Bidô nichiya johôki (2010). He is planning (with T. Clark) a shunga exhibition at the British Museum in 2013.
After the censorship edicts in 1722, there was a decline in shunga publication until the 1750s when Tsukioka Settei published Onna dairaku takara-beki (c.1755), a parody of Onna daigaku takara-bako. This began a new sub-genre of erotic parodies of didactic books in Kyoto/Osaka. Takehara Shunchôsai, known for his books on famous sites (meishozue), published Makura dôji nukisashi manben tamaguki, an erotic parody of a school textbook. What is the significance of this book’s outrageous burlesquing of Japan’s famous historical figures such as Shôtoku Taishi, Empress Kômyô, Emperor Kôken, Kûkai and Yoshitsune?