Sensual Eisen Prints of the Playboy Tsuyajihei And a Geisha
30 september 2017 
2 min. read

Sensual Eisen Prints of the Playboy Tsuyajihei And a Geisha

In the nineteenth century, artists like Kunisada (1786-1865) and Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) and their contemporaries started to add new ideas for narrative continuity in their designs. An example of this is a luxury feature such as a foldout page which was used in the Eisen prints below…

eisen prints

Geisha and Tsuyajihei at the berth‘ (1836) from the series ‘Tales of Sexual Conquest and the Violet of Edo (Iro jiman Edo murasaki)

Sandal In the Water

This scene from Keisai Eisen‘s (1790-1848) Tales of Sexual Conquest and the Violet of Edo presents a casual encounter between the playboy Tsuyajihei and a geisha who has dropped her sandal in the water leads to an “aperture” of a different kind as the foldouts open to expose the sensual scene beneath (unfortunately I don’t have the complete image at this time)…

eisen prints

Geisha and Tsuyajihei making love‘ (1836) from the series ‘Tales of Sexual Conquest and the Violet of Edo (Iro jiman Edo murasaki)

Framing Devices

Eisen skilfully makes a distinction between the two compositions by compressing the larger number of components in the first scene into a smaller two page space. In this plate the landscape is essential with the figures placed around the edges as framing devices, and extending the more intimate second scene over a four-page spread. The background has been removed and the outline of the entangled lovers pushes to the edges of paper.

Click HERE for more Eisen prints portraying couples in sensual encounters!

About the author
Marijn is the founder of shungagallery.com. With more than 20 years of experience within the sensual and erotic art of shunga he is an authority in the genre. During this time he served many customers with complementing their art collection.
Darya
By

Darya

on 22 Feb 2020

Tsuyajihei looks here very similar to a character of my favorite piece by Shigenobu (the one with astonishing blue clothing)! If that piece by Shigenobu was created in early 30s indeed, then Eisen could be inspired by it. The design itself (fig 2) looks very close to Shigenobu's picture.

Marijn
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