Meiji Period Shunga Painting on Silk, Lovers before a Forty-Eight Positions Screen, Mica Highlights, 130 cm
Meiji Period Shunga Painting on Silk, Lovers before a Forty-Eight Positions Screen, Mica Highlights, 130 cm
- Dispatch
- Prepared and sent from Tokyo within 7–14 days, often sooner, or as arranged
- Arrival
- Estados Unidos · usually 4–7 days after dispatch, insured and tracked Check the Shipping Flowchart here
- Import
Duties and customs · View the estimate
A guide for this piece: about $540, based on the 10% US charge on the declared value of goods made in Japan.
The final figure is set by US Customs and depends on where the piece was made and the kind of object it is. Many antiques over a century old carry no ordinary duty; most jewellery and leather goods add a single-digit rate.
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- Character
- Resplendent 9 of 10 ·
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- Within one Tokyo business day · Ask the curator team
- Guarantee
- Authenticity guaranteed · How we grade
| Figure | cm | in |
|---|---|---|
| Width | 130.0 cm | 51.2 in |
| Height | 58.0 cm | 22.8 in |
Every piece is measured by hand, in centimetres as Japan measures. Please allow 1–2 cm (about ½ inch) for the give of the material and the hand that held the tape.
Where each figure is taken · View the plate
Print, painting and frame
Condition report
Very Good
- Giftable
- Mint
- Excellent
- Very Good
- Good
- Honest Wear
- As Found
A Manual Hung Behind the Lovers
A painted crowd scene with a learned joke behind it: the screen catalogues the very pleasures shown before it. Hand-painted shunga of this size is rarely offered.
Best for: Collectors of hand-painted shunga and Meiji figure painting
Condition notes
Light soiling at the margins, a central fold where two silk panels meet, and marks on the reverse from an earlier backing.
Grades, ratings and commentary are given to the best of our ability, knowledge and experience, and condition remains partly a matter of personal perception. What we stand behind without qualification is authenticity, truthful description and provenance, to the best of our knowledge. How we grade
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A painted pleasure room on a grand scale: lovers entwined before a folding screen inscribed with the forty-eight positions, brushed on silk and touched with mica, more than a metre across.
This piece belongs to the private room of the house and is shown to adults only.
The Piece
This is nikuhitsu shunga, erotic painting made by hand rather than printed, the most private form the genre took. A crowd of lovers fills one interior, robes of indigo, scarlet and lilac pooled across the floor, while a paper lantern, a tea tray and scattered books set the scene.
Behind them a silver-edged screen carries a text illustrated with miniature couples, a playful encyclopaedia of the shijuhatte, the forty-eight positions of Edo lore. Forty-seven are pictured. An inscription at the upper right is dated to the spring of a kinoto-hitsuji year, which suggests 1895; the painter is unrecorded.
Mica, kira, glints in the women's hair and on the pillows, and the smallest accessories are painted with real care.
Details
- Artist: Unknown Artist, unsigned
- Genre: Shunga painting (nikuhitsu)
- Date: Attributed to the Meiji period, possibly 1895 from the inscription
- Medium: Ink, colour and mica on silk
- Construction: Two silk panels joined, with a central fold line
- Size: about 130 x 58 cm (51.2 x 22.8 in)
- Mount: Unmounted
Measured by hand; please allow a gentle margin of about 1 to 2 cm (0.5 in).
Condition
- Light soiling around the margins.
- A fold line runs down the centre where the two panels meet.
- Marks on the reverse from an earlier backing; every photograph is part of the description.
Condition grade B (very good) on the Japanese scale; see Japanese condition ranks, explained.
Authenticity & Care
Offered as a hand-painted work on silk, unsigned, examined and photographed in Japan. Round discs in some photographs were placed for discretion and are not part of the painting. Keep silk from sun and damp; specialist remounting is recommended.
Delivery from Japan
Shipped flat between rigid boards, insured and tracked. Given its size, the shipping cost is quoted and agreed before purchase. Import duties and taxes, where applicable, are payable on arrival. Every sale is final; please ask anything you wish to know before you buy, and see our published policy.
Considered offers are welcome through Send an Offer. Further pieces are kept in Shunga and Hidden Arts.
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Collectors also search: shunga painting on silk · forty-eight positions shijuhatte · Meiji nikuhitsu erotic painting
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