Meiji Period Shunga Album, Eleven Hand-Painted Scenes on Silk, Brocade Cover and Gilt Edges
Meiji Period Shunga Album, Eleven Hand-Painted Scenes on Silk, Brocade Cover and Gilt Edges
- Dispatch
- Prepared and sent from Tokyo within 7–14 days, often sooner, or as arranged
- Arrival
- United States · 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 $586, 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.
With EMS, any charge is collected by your postal service on delivery. For pieces of significant value we can often arrange duties prepaid before dispatch.
How the estimate is reached · Ask for a figure on this piece
- Character
- Resplendent 8.5 of 10 ·
- Replies
- Within one Tokyo business day · Ask the curator team
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- Authenticity guaranteed · How we grade
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 Private Luxury of the Meiji Era
This is shunga as a private treasure rather than a print for the market: eleven scenes painted one by one on silk and bound like a precious sutra. The drawing of textiles and faces rewards slow looking, and the cloud-borne final scene shows a painter enjoying the genre's taste for the fantastic.
Best for: Collectors of shunga, Meiji painting and fine Japanese bookbinding
Condition notes
Light marks and wear consistent with age; the colours remain bright. Discs in some photographs were laid over details for discretion.
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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Eleven intimate scenes painted by hand in brilliant colour on silk, bound in figured brocade with gilt edges.
This piece belongs to the private room of the house and is shown to adults only.
The Piece
Lovers appear in the domestic settings beloved of shunga: by a latticed window in winter, beside a blue and white tea bowl, among scattered combs and writing brushes. Several scenes carry brushed dialogue in the manner of the genre, and the last, a supernatural encounter amid billowing clouds, is the most dramatic.
The painter did not sign, as is usual for shunga, yet the drawing and the luxurious binding point to a commission of some ambition.
Art and Social History
Shunga, spring pictures, were also called makura-e, pillow pictures, and warai-e, laughing pictures, for their wit. As the Meiji state pressed on printed erotica, painted albums carried the tradition on quietly as private luxuries.
Details
- Artist: Unrecorded
- Genre: Shunga (makura-e)
- Format: Album of eleven painted scenes
- Medium: Ink and colour on silk, painted by hand
- Period: Meiji era (1868 to 1912)
- Binding: Figured brocade covers, gold title slip, gilt on three edges
- Case: Blue cloth folding case with two toggles
- Cover size: About 21 x 27 cm (8.3 x 10.6 in)
- Made in: Japan
Measured by hand; please allow a gentle margin of about 1 to 2 cm (0.5 in).
Condition
- Light marks and wear consistent with age; the colours remain bright.
- The small discs seen in some photographs were laid over details for discretion and are not part of the work.
- 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 Meiji period album by an unrecorded painter; no signature or seal is claimed. Keep it in its case, away from sun and damp.
Delivery from Japan
Wrapped in acid-free tissue and shipped insured and tracked by EMS or an equivalent express service. 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, and each one is reviewed personally. Further pieces of the kind are kept in Shunga and Hidden Arts and in our ukiyo-e and classical texts archive.
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