Shunga – Spring Pictures
Ubu Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of Shunga, the radical and virtuosic erotic imagery that flourished during Japan’s Edo period (1603–1868). Meaning “spring pictures,” the term “Shunga” was a poetic euphemism for a genre that served as both titillation and instruction manual. Produced as exquisite woodblock prints, sumptuous illustrated books and dramatic painted scrolls, Shunga formed a vital artery of Ukiyo-e, the celebrated art of the “floating world.”
Shunga was created by the era’s most respected masters, including Kitagawa Utamaro and Katsushika Hokusai. The latter, world-renowned for his iconic “Great Wave,” applied the same masterly precision to the visceral and the carnal. Operating within a society largely isolated from Western moral frameworks, these artists benefited from an open, non-prudish atmosphere of sexuality. Though often viewed in private, Shunga was celebrated for its refinement, humor and daringly imaginative depictions of human connection.
The selection at Ubu Gallery highlights Shunga’s innovative—and often surreal—visual approach. Exaggerated anatomies, magnifications and close-ups of intimacy and intimate body parts, as well as fantastical encounters with animals, spirits and mythical creatures, were the language Shunga artists used to represent desire as a hallucinatory experience.
Through playful distortions of scale and inventive visual storytelling, Shunga inhabits a world where sexuality intersects with humor and fantasy, pushing the boundaries of the physical into the realm of the extraordinary.
SELECTED WORKS FROM THE EXHIBITION
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