From the article:
Japan’s adult movie industry is among the biggest in the world, and its range of pornographic manga is eclectic and ubiquitous. But it has taken centuries-old works of art for the country to challenge official reticence towards graphic depictions of sex.
In recent weeks, tens of thousands of people have flocked to a tiny museum in suburban Tokyo to cast their eyes over woodblock prints and paintings of couples, and sometimes groups, in the throes of sexual ecstasy.
With titles such as Pillow Book for the Young: All You Need to Know About How the Jeweled Rod Goes In and Out, the images leave little to the imagination.
The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, Hokusai, 1814
Read the article at The Guardian
From Wikipedia:
Shunga was probably enjoyed by both men and women of all classes. Superstitions and customs surrounding shunga suggest as much; in the same way that it was considered a lucky charm against death for a samurai to carry shunga, it was considered a protection against fire in merchant warehouses and the home. From this we can deduce that samurai, chonin, and housewives all owned shunga. All three of these groups would suffer separation from the opposite sex; the samurai lived in barracks for months at a time, and conjugal separation resulted from the sankin-kōtai system and the merchants’ need to travel to obtain and sell goods. It is therefore argued that this ownership of shunga was not superstitious, but libidinous.
Records of women obtaining shunga themselves from booklenders show that they were consumers of it. Though not shunga, it was traditional to present a bride with ukiyo-e depicting scenes from the Tale of Genji. Shunga may have served as sexual guidance for the sons and daughters of wealthy families. The instructional purpose has been questioned since the instructional value of shunga is limited by the impossible positions and lack of description of technique, and there were sexual manuals in circulation that offered clearer guidance, including advice on hygiene.
Shunga varied greatly in quality and price. Some was highly elaborate, commissioned by wealthy merchants and daimyo, while some was limited in colour, widely available, and cheap. Empon were available through the lending libraries, or kashi-honya, that travelled in rural areas. This tells us that shunga reached all classes of society—peasant, chonin, samurai and daimyo.
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