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?
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?
