15 Lovemaking Cyborgs of the Modern Shunga Artist Naoki Yamaji
15 september 2021 
25 min. read

15 Lovemaking Cyborgs of the Modern Shunga Artist Naoki Yamaji

Naoki Yamaji was born in Tokyo in 1994. He studied fine arts in Japan for three years from 2013 to 2016. Nowadays, the artist is based in Amsterdam. The theme of his work is about the superfluous position of human kind in an increasingly mechanized society, and the dramatic changes in human life after the machine was invented.

Naoki explains on his site, ‘The capitalist society is replacing human kind with technological items because of its reasonablity. We are losing the position one after another in the society although the technology is originally invented to improve our life.’

Naoki Yamaji self portrait

Part from the ‘Self-Portrait 2‘ work (2021)

His paintings are composed by two elements, an abstract part and a figurative part. The former represents the sense or emotion owned by human and the latter represents the rationality or coldness the machine has. Naoki underlines the importance of the balance between these aspects in the society and his works show their ideal balance.’

In 2016, he flew to London to examine the European art scene and visited numerous museums and art galleries. During his search, Naoki became aware of the differences between Western and Japanese art in terms of the expression and interpretation. This fascination led to a style that mixed both and represent the art of this period.

During the past years Naoki’s work was part of important exhibitions such as at the Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi in Venice. He has also been exhibited with the artists Khalil Charif and Meg Shirayama and was nominated for the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize 2020, and selected for the shortlist at London Fruit & Wool Exchange in London in 2020.

In Naoki’s shunga series he combines the sexual life as depicted in the Edo/Meiji era and that of the near future. The scenes invoke the question whether the sexual intimacies are between human and machine, between machines or between humans? Whatever the answer to this question, his work (and vision) shows that the day the machine takes over our sense is at hand.

All the paintings below are acrylic and paper on canvas…

Naoki Yamaji fellatio art

Shunga no.1

Naoki Yamaji fellatio art

Shunga No.1a

Naoki Yamaji shunga 2

Shunga No.2.

erotic robots Naoki Yamaji

Shunga no.2a

Naoki Yamaji shunga painting

Shunga No.2b.

Naoki Yamaji shunga 3

Shunga No.3

Naoki Yamaji robots

Shunga No.3

Naoki Yamaji Shunga 4

Shunga No.4

Naoki Yamaji shunga art

Shunga No.4a.

Naoki Yamaji shunga 5

Shunga No.5

Naoki Yamaji shunga

Shunga No.5a

Naoki Yamaji shunga 6

Shunga No.6

Naoki Yamaji

Shunga No.6a.

Naoki Yamaji shjunga 7

Shunga No.7

Naoki Yamaji Japanese artist

Shunga No.7a.

Naoki Yamaji shunga 8

Shunga No.8

shunga Naoki Yamaji

Shunga No.8a

Naoki Yamaji shunga 3

Shunga No.9

Naoki Yamaji cunnilingus

Shunga No.9a‘ (2019)

Naoki Yamaji shunga series

Shunga No.10‘ (2019)

Naoki Yamaji machine

Machine

Naoki Yamaji modern shunga

Machine (detail)

modern shunga Naoki Yamaji

Machine (close-up heads) 

Naoki Yamaji speaking to him

Speaking to Him‘ (2020)

modern shunga art Naoki Yamaji

Speaking to Him (detail)‘ (2020)

Japanese artist Naoki Yamaji

Speaking to Him (close-up)

Naoki Yamaji gay art

Work in progress (2019)

Naoki Yamaji phallus cyborgs

'Phallus cyborgs'

Phallus Cyborgs Naoki Yamaji

Click HERE for the headless erotica of the modern shunga artist Aiko Robinson…!!

Join Naoki Yamaji on Instagram….!!

What do you think about Naoki’s modern variation on shunga art? Leave your reaction in the comment box below…!!

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 15 Sep 2021

Tomi Ungerer's Fornicon meets Shunga, very interesting

Marijn
By

Marijn

on 15 Sep 2021

Thanks Darya. Nice description!

JB
By

JB

on 15 Sep 2021

Like Darya, it also made me think, albeit remotely, of Tomi Ungerer's Fornicon, but there's a je ne sais pas quoi in Naoki Yamaji's work that is disturbing, and dystopian, and cold. Ungerer's Fornicon characters and situations, even his impossible fuck machines, portray and retain sensuality. Not here. This goes far beyond incel loneliness and nightmares. Damnation? Dreams and hopes broken? Interesting proposition.

Marijn
By

Marijn

on 15 Sep 2021

Thanks JB. Interesting, although I don't completely share the artist's bleak vision there's no denying that we're increasingly transforming into a cyborg (next thing will probably be a phone implant) but I don't think human creativity can be replaced by technology.

JB
By

JB

on 15 Sep 2021

I agree... Or do I? It begs the question, because the way tech and art mix and... Hmmm... "mingle" is also interesting. The secret ingredient is, I'd say, imagination... But even that is questionably non-replaceable. AI can mimic almost anything at this point. We live in interesting times! (And odd and bizarre too!) When will AI start writing code and come up with its own algorithms, that define what's next to be created, then create it?

Marijn
By

Marijn

on 15 Sep 2021

An AI that can program as well or better than humans that's the endgame and would mean the end of our species. But at this stage it is only about pattern recognition and nowhere near creative thinking. We know very little about the brain and how information is processed. We are a long way from general AI and we won't see these kind of developments in our lifetime.

Abdull F.
By

Abdull F.

on 15 Sep 2021

Very strange

Marijn
By

Marijn

on 15 Sep 2021

Thanks Abdull. Strange yes, but do you like it?

Abdull F.
By

Abdull F.

on 15 Sep 2021

Stranger things need reflection, I can't say I like it or not right now. The thought behind the paintings needs some reflection and reading. Thank you for caring

Marijn
By

Marijn

on 15 Sep 2021

That's great. It is already a good thing that Naoki's art evokes reflection.

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