Suzuki Harunobu Collection
Furyu enshoku Mane'emon 風流艶色真似ゑもん
Elegant Amorous Mane'emon: A tiny man that spent his time spying on
couples making love.
FORMAT: 12 woodblock prints approx 20Hx28Wcm
PUBLISHED BY: Nishimuraya Yohachi (西村屋与八) ca1770
Meiwa Period (1764 through November 1772)
NOTES: These
pictures demonstrate the entertaining aspect of shunga from the
perspective of the voyeur, the humour evident in both the image and
the text.
The
name Mane'emon in the title is suggesting the size of a bean.
Ukiyonosuke
encounters two beautiful women on his pilgrimage to the Ryushinzan
Shrine to pray to the Goddess of Love. The two women, famous beauties
of their time, Osen of the Kagaya teahouse who is representing the
Ryushin shrine, and Ofuji of the Yanagi-ya who represents the
Kinryuzan shrine offer him the magic shrinking potion to fulfil his
desires which he drinks and is then transformed to the size of a
bean, hence the name, Mane'emon.
Mane'emon
sets off on his travels and watches many people engaging in sexual
acts. His first encounter is with a Calligraphy teacher who is
pursuading one of his young pupils, the title of this print being
Shinkai-Shima (Forced Love). You can see Mane'emon hiding
beneath the table however he is not happy about the situation and
points ut the teachers large nose. Making faces ugly, noses large
etc. was typical of artists when they were portraying someone who
wasn't very pleasant. We can also see two cats mimicking the people
outside the window.
The
next image is entitled Ichatsuki-Shima (Busy Love), you can see a
woman busy applying moxa (burning herb) to an elderly lady while
simultaneously contortioning her body for her partner. Mane'emon is
also applying moxa in the foreground.
Yarikuri-Shima
(Love Revealed), the husband is caught by his pregnant wife, she
pulls him off her niece by his fundoshi. You can see Mane'emon
cowering under a blanket to hide from the fury of a pregnant wife.
Mane'emon explains that in spite of the uproar the niece does remain
at the house to assist with the childbirth.
Shunga
can depict many different sexual acts with or without partners, same
sex and in this next image Fukiyagahama, Sakai-Shima (Playing with a
Dandy) Mane'emon has used a kite to fly up to the second floor of a
teahouse. This teahouse speciality is boys and the kagema (male
prostitute) is lying backwards on top of his partner. The
chrysanthemum motif on the futon is a frequent symbol in shunga for
homosexual love as the blossoms are thought to resemble the male
aperture.
Ukkari
Shinden (Peasant Love), a Samurai wearing a mask takes a young girl,
working in the rice field by surprise. Her parents are also working
the field but they believe the masked creature is from Inari, the god
of rice so immediately start to pray and worship the god.
The man in the mask: I am god from near the shrine.If you give me your daughter I’ll give you good harvest this year.
Her father: Thank you very much god!! Would you like my wife as well?
While this is going on Mane'emon
enjoys a tobacco pipe under the tree.
Kibakarimura
(Pleasures of the Aged). Mane'emon appear from behind a net curtain
where he has been watching a young couple, on this side of the
curtain a older couple inspired by what they can hear coming from the
other side begin kissing, the man even with an enlarged scrotum is
still enjoying his wife.
"At
the top of the seventh print in Harunobu’s series, Hyakki
introduces the scene as follows: "From the gullible village of
Shinden (or, new field), he made his way to the Village of Pure
Passion where he stayed the night. Here he encountered the pleasures
of old age, and portrays the feelings of the elderly."
(まねへもん七 うつかり新田より気ばかりむらに一宿して 老のたのしみを見てとしよりのじやうをおもひ出す;
Mane'emon nana. Ukkari sainden yori ki bakari mura ni isshuku shite,
oi no tanoshimi wo mite toshiyori no jiyau wo omoidasu).
Given
the mosquito net and the plough tucked away under the porch, this
print appears to illustrate a room in a farmhouse on a summer night.
In the field, the corn has ripened. An elderly couple has finished
eating dinner and is enjoying a last cup of tea before bedtime. In
the adjoining room, behind the mosquito net, the old couple's son and
his wife have already begun their love play. However, the main
characters in this scene are not the young couple, but actually their
aged parents: Apparently the old man has been overhearing the sound
of love making emerging from the next room. “Hey Grandma, give me a
kiss. Oh, just listen to those sounds!” Suddenly feeling his
young, vigorous self, he draws her near, pressing a kiss upon her.
“What are you thinking of?!” she retorts, “that's enough!"
(此人とした事がいやはや」「ばゞ口なりとすはせやれ あれ／＼あのおとをきゝやれ」;
Kono hito to shita koto ga iyahaya. Baba kuchi narito suhase yare.
Nevertheless, turning her head toward him, she allows his lips to
meet hers. Thus the scene seems to offer a depiction of mature love
which is quiet and calm and tender. "
Dr.
Ilana Singer Blaine
Mane'emon
goes to the Ikaho Onsen (Hot Springs at Ikaho) and he can be seen
drying his head as he gets out of the bath meanwhile upstairs a young
couple are entwined, next door a blind man is playing the shamisen.
After
leaving Ikaho to Edo Mane'emon rests under a tree. A couple pass by
and the travelling beauty has been put in the mood by the gait of the
trotting horse so she seduces the horse driver; the
enthusiastic attendant waives his fee and offers to take her two
stops further to the Kumagaya embankment on the Arakawa River.
Mane'emon
is coming to the end of his journey but this image is extremely sad
as it seems to be a young couple on their last encounter just before
they take their lives with the short sword. Shinju No Genba (The
Place of the Heart)
Yuriko
Kitsugenkaku (Licensed Quarter of Yoshiwara) In the Kitsugen quarters
of the Yurikoku (the land of pleasure), the famous onnagata (female
role) actor Segawa Kikunojo II (1741-1773) sits on a veranda while
reaching through the folds of a young shinzo (apprentice courtesan)
under the displeased gaze of her mentor at the left; Mane'emon
watches the encounter and breaks wind to add to the scent of the
cherry blossoms.
Seal
with head of carp and sunken 
