Live Auction 5546Asobi: Ingenious Creativity, Japanese Works of Art from Antiquity to Contemporary
Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1864)
Lot 123 FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1864)

(EHON) KAIDAN YORU NO TONO [PICTURE BOOK: TALES OF PUSSY IN THE PALACE AT NIGHT]

Closed15 October 2014

Price Realised

GBP 10,000

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Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1864)
(Ehon) Kaidan yoru no tono [Picture Book: Tales of Pussy in the Palace at Night]
Illustrated erotic book, 3 volumes (complete), colour woodblock with fold-out moving pictures, 1826
Each volume 22.3 x 15.6cm.

Miyagawa Mangyo (1886-1957), an essayist who ran Miyagawa, a famous Tokyo eel restaurant
Mizuochi Roseki (1872-1919), poet and pupil of Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) and thence by descent

Specialist note

This type of erotic book with fold-out pages, giving the story an element of animation – is called shikake-hon. This example is by the author Enba II and Kunisada and each volume comprises a single-page portrait of a woman, followed by two stories illustrated on double-pages, a single-page picture of a woman’s genitals, followed by a four-page story.

See Timothy Clark ed., Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art, (London, 2013), cat. 116, p. 388.