In this shunga scene from the first volume of Kuniyoshi‘s The Pillowed Boudoir series, set in the kitchen, Taketaro, a vendor of ‘osaragi‘ rice cakes, tells his wife Rakuyo he wants a quickie before he goes out on his rounds.
‘Intimate couple in the kitchen‘ (c. 1839) from the series ‘The Pillowed Boudoir (Chinpen shinkelbai)‘ by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861)*
Sudden Movement
The box of wares can be seen in the bottom right corner. With her feet at different levels of the room, Rakyo is trying to wash the rice, and she complains that the water is pouring out. In a humorous touch, Taketaro continues to stoke the fire in the stove by blowing through a bamboo tube. The water flowing from the pot conveys a sense of the jolt and sudden movement but just behind the lovers a cat dozes unruffled. The cat is off course one of the major indicators that this is a design by Kuniyoshi.
Click HERE to check out some designs from the series that are available for sale in our gallery…!!
I have discussed this design earlier in a post that also tells about Kuniyoshi’s fascination for cats. You can check it out HERE…!!!
Source: ‘Shunga, Erotic Art in Japan‘ by Rosina Buckland
*Photo by KuniyoshiProject.com
