Suzuki Harunobu - Fûryû Enshoku Mane'emon

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.