Print #8 from Utamakura (“Poem[s] of the Pillow”) by Utamara (Copy)

Description

Print #8 from Utamakura (“Poem[s] of the Pillow”) by Utamara
Gelatin silver print, from the early 1900s (based on the “silvering” present), mounted on cardboard, image in good+ condition despite age, foxing on cardboard.

“A pair of lovers have sex beneath a sakura cherry tree in bloom. The woman is dressed as a geisha. The man presses his right hand on her breast within of her kimono.”

Print is from France.

Utamakura (歌まくら, “poem[s] of the pillow”) is the title of a 12-print illustrated book of sexually explicit shunga pictures, published in 1788. The print designs are attributed to the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Kitagawa Utamaro, and the book’s publication to Tsutaya Jūzaburō.