Utamaro - Utamakura (Poems of the Pillow)

 Kitagawa Utamaro Collection

Utamakura 

歌まくら (Poems of the Pillow: a series of 12 images) c1788

FORMAT:PRINTS: 12 woodblock
PUBLISHED BY:
DATE: ca1788

Utamakura serves as a significant tool to achieve yugen (mystery and depth) in Japanese poetry by adding profundity and indirect beauty in poems. Also, it can be used as a source for identifying significant figures and places in ancient Japan. Utamakura enables poets to express ideas and themes concisely and thus allowing them to stay within the confines of strict waka structures. To find out more click the link above

The album 'Poem of the Pillow' is a masterpiece among erotic works by Utamaro and among the entire erotic 'oeuvre' of the Ukiyo-e school. It transcends the existing conventions of a genre which all too easily resorted to stereotypical scenes of lovemaking. The size of the figures is unusually large and they are brought close to the picture plane and viewed from low angles. Stylistically and technically, too, there is much innovation: a fine pale brown outline to the bodies in place of the normal black, and a variety of 'painterly' brush strokes used to depict the drapery. 'Poem of the Pillow' comes at the start of a sequence of 'de-luxe' colour-printed books and albums designed by Utamaro and published by Tsutaya - on the themes of birds, shells, snow, moon and flowers - which widened considerably the range of subject-matter and styles in Ukiyo-e.

Pillow was a little wooden box that women used to support their elaborate hair do's when sleeping, it was also used as a term for love making.

Poems of the pillow is a series of 12 images.

Preface

PRINT1 - Underwater Rape
This is rather a complex scene with a diver watching two monsters to be what looks like raping/assaulting another diver under the water. In reality it is the woman own fantasy of a voiolent encounter.

PRINT2 - The woman in this image has just discovered a letter hidden in robe of her young lover who has gone on the defensive, holding his hand up. She grips him and gives him an annoyed look. There is a slight opening in her kimono showing her pubic hair.

PRINT3 - Lovers infront of a standaing lantern. Eyes closed suggesting they are both enjoying the moment. The woman has shaved eyebrows which leads us to believe she is married however she is still in her kimono which makes us believe the man may not be the husband.

PRINT4- Lovers infront of a plum blossom and bamboo screen. The woman's kimono bears a Japanese primrose mon crest, a mark born by the geisha Tomimoto Toyohina, whom Utamaro often depicted

PRINT5 - From the woman's tsunokakushi headdress the scene is presumed to take place at a shrine; since the Meiji period (1868–1912), the tsunokakushi has come to be associated with Japanese weddings, but in the Edo period they were used for temple visits.The man whispers into the womans ear as she bites on the papers

PRINT6 - Kept mistress with a young lover beside a chrysanthemum decorated screen.The woman sticks out her tongue towards the mouth of the man, who has his head covered in a kerchief. His ruffled, curly sidelocks protrude from the kerchief, in contrast to the straight, brushed up hairs of the nape of the woman's neck and her sidelocks.

PRINT7 - A pair has sex on the floor by an open veranda. By the threshold of the veranda sits a sake set on a tray with sakazuki sake cups and a chōshi sake decanter on it, suggesting the scene follows a Budhhist memorial service.
The woman's eyebrows are shaved again indicating a married woman, but her black kimono suggests she has recently been widowed. She covers her face, perhaps in shame, and her emotional state is expressed in her tensed toes. The black of her kimono contrasts with the white of her skin.
The man's grasps the woman's leg from behind to facilitate penetration. Though difficult to see at first glance, through the woman's translucent silk kimono appears the lusty face of the man

PRINT8 - Lovers under the Cherry Blossom (Euphemism for virginity). A couple outside in the throws of love making and have they been disturbed by a passer by. What have they seen? His hand inside stroking her breast.

PRINT9 - A young woman fighting off rape by a hairy man.Such violence is rare in Edo-period shunga, and the perpetrators are usually depicted as ugly. She says to him "let go you old fool", the man tells her to save her words and stay still.

PRINT10 - Probably the most famous Shunga image - Lovers in the upstairs room of a Teahouse.These lovers stealing a few moments together upstairs. Subtle transparencey of the man robe and the lovely flowing  curves of her neck and back and the white of her bare bottom against the dark clothing really makes this print stand out. A close look reveals the man's right eye peering out just below the edge of the woman's hair.

The words on the mans fan can be translated into this saucy little poem;

Its beak caught firmly in the clamshell
The snipe cannot fly away 
of an autumn evening
( kyōka poem by Yadoya no Meshimori (1754–1830))

PRINT11 - A portly couple making love on the floor then the woman pulls the blanket over them.

PRINT12 - Dutch Couple. Very often Dutch men and women were used along with Portuguese however it was usually a european man with a Japanese woman.