From time to time, Shunga Gallery releases articles on the erotic paintings of China. Now, there's a brief look at the spring pictures of Korea produced by two famous 18th century painters, Kim Hong-do (Danwon) and Shin Yun-bok (Hyewon).
Fig. 1. Kim Hong-do (Danwon), self-portrait (Wikipedia.org)
Fig. 2. Danwon, Cloud Rain Pictures. An encounter of a married couple, as the woman wears jjokjin meori, the popular hairstyle of married females (davincimap.co.kr)
Fig.2a.
Fig. 3. Danwon, Cloud Rain Pictures. Young man makes advances to a smoking gisaeng (davincimap.co.kr)
Fig.3a. Detail
Scarce and Subtle
The devotees of Chunhwa emphasize the simplicity and lyrical mood of the genre, distinguishing it from "schematic and bizarre" Japanese prints (a phrase from the Korean source). Korean spring paintings depict couples and threesomes engaged in outdoor or indoor sexual activity. In comparison to Shunga, Korean erotic images are more modest in terms of settings, poses, and circumstances. The size of genitals is also not as enormous as in Shunga pieces because the accent is put on realism. The scarce examples that can be found on the internet don't contain any forms of paraphilia, Utamaro and Eiri are the ones depicted below. Let’s take a closer at these extraordinary examples of Utamaro and Eiri are the ones depicted below. Let’s take a closer at these extraordinary examples of Utamaro and Eiri are the ones depicted below. Let’s take a closer at these extraordinary examples of Utamaro and Eiri are the ones depicted below. Let’s take a closer at these extraordinary examples of Utamaro and Eiri are the ones depicted below. Let’s take a closer at these extraordinary examples of Utamaro and Eiri are the ones depicted below. Let’s take a closer at these extraordinary examples of Utamaro and Eiri are the ones depicted below. Let’s take a closer at these extraordinary examples of Utamaro and Eiri are the ones depicted below. Let’s take a closer at these extraordinary examples of Utamaro and Eiri are the ones depicted below. Let’s take a closer at these extraordinary examples of Utamaro and Eiri are the ones depicted below. Let’s take a closer at these extraordinary examples of Utamaro and Eiri are the ones depicted below. Let’s take a closer at these extraordinary examples of Utamaro and Eiri are the ones depicted below. Let’s take a closer at these extraordinary examples of Utamaro and Eiri are the ones depicted below. Let’s take a closer at these extraordinary examples of rape art…
Subtle Korean erotica may amuse those romantics who don't get violence or excessive decorativeness. The images are "silent": unlike in Shunga, no texts are applied, so we can only guess about the circumstances. Also, there's no evidence of Chunhwa woodblock prints, possibly, because the erotic genre was not demanded as much. While Chinese aristocrats entertained themselves with erotic paintings, and Japanese women believed that huge phalluses could prevent fire, Korean nobles considered the sexual sphere vulgar; thus, erotic art wasn't of great interest to local artists until the end of the 1700s.
