CAPÍTULO 1. VALORES Y CUERPO
1.5. Clasificación de valores
Under the crypto-colonial influence of Western values, modern Japan assumed censoring attitudes to nudity, sexuality and, thus, shunga. Concerned with the obscenity of these images, and particularly with their public visibility, shunga display was suppressed and institutions faced pressures to self-censor. The focusing on the sexual elements of shunga and their consequent banishment to secret museums, construed the genre as shameful, obscene and morally unbecoming, marginalizing it from other ukiyo-e imagery. Furthermore, it also constructed a class of “vulnerable” viewers, to be protected from undue exposure. Thus, museum institutions both restricted sexual art and patronized the public.
Over the last two decades, the BM has slowly refashioned its approach to shunga, gradually integrating them in exhibitions alongside other materials, distancing itself from the previous Secretum practices. Then, the BM participated in the five-year-long 2009-2013 collaborative shunga research project. International cooperation between English-speaking and Japanese scholars furthered shunga research, as reflected in the publication of the special
Japan Review issue and BM exhibition catalogue. The resulting 2013 Shunga exhibition marked an important step towards overcoming legal and institutional marginalizing attitudes.
The approach chosen by the BM, EB and HAM exhibitions was one that looked at
shunga as part of ukiyo-e inasmuch as Japanese art, making its aesthetic and artistic qualities part of its selling point, in order to – legally and socially – legitimize their inclusion. Whether “art” is the right framework to approach Japan’s early modern – erotic and non-erotic – popular visual culture, or if it provides enough consideration for its functions as a social medium, are issues up for debate, but, unfortunately, exceed the scope of this thesis. However, I would argue that overcoming (self-)censorship and marginalization in order to include shunga in institutional and scholarly discourses alike is the first step towards such discussions. As without shunga inclusion, there can be no debate about the form of such integration or the critical consideration of other pre-existing approaches in the first place.
The BM exhibition paved the way for the realization of a dedicated shunga exhibition in in Japan. The 2015 EB and 2016 HAM exhibitions were facilitated through the joint efforts of Japanese and non-Japanese scholars and museum professionals. Thereby, beginning to bridge the disjuncture existing between scholarly shunga discourses and institutional practices through collaboration. So far, institutional shunga inclusion in Japan seems to remain limited to private museums, as major exhibitions still shy away from full inclusion.213 However, in 2018 the HAM held an exhibition presenting shunga as one aspect of multifaceted artistic expressions of human emotion.214 This is but an early indication of the process of refashioning institutional approaches to overcome shunga marginalization and further examination will be needed, but some of the boundaries marginalizing shunga, seem to have been shifted, opening the way forward towards further inclusion. As the realization of the
Shunga exhibitions show, by jointly tackling shunga (self-)censorship from within and without national and institutional boundaries, scholarly and institutional international collaboration can deconstruct crypto-colonially informed discourses, taboos and official censorship. Thence, overcoming the marginalization of the sexually explicit and showing a way towards more institutional shunga inclusion, in Japan and abroad.
Finally, the compiling of flexible guidelines for the institutional approaches to shunga
and sexually explicit material more generally, would further integration and critical engagement with erotic imagery. With this I am not suggesting universalist principles or application to all sexual art, nor a sort of global cultural-synthesis of the narratives pertaining to erotic imagery in the sense of Fenollosa. Instead, guidelines for the institutional handling of sexually explicit images could help provide a framework for furthering transcultural and multilingual collaboration between national and transnational research and institutions. Thus, facilitating global institutional engagement with shunga.
213 E.g. Tanabe and Thompson 2017.
214 See HAM 2018. The exhibition presented the more humorous aspects of shunga by contrasting their
Conclusion
In Edo period Japan, sexually explicit shunga images were an integral genre of popular ukiyo-e imagery. Shunga were part of the same interconnected subtexts that tied early modern visual culture to traditional classics and popular contemporary themes, as demonstrated by the examples of Harunobu’s mitate of the Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang in his
Zashiki hakkei and Fūryū zashiki hakkei series. Therefore, shunga constitute an important part of the landscape of popular ukiyo-e culture, as well as of the oeuvre of its artists.
Inserting myself into the deliberately inbuilt instability of Herzfeld’s crypto-colonial model, I have presented the case for a relation between Japan and Western nations, in regards to shunga, wherein Meiji officials sought to adapt to Western standards to be recognized as equals.215 Thereby, positioning the Japanese discourses of self-censorship surrounding shunga
on the outer rims of the crypto-colonial system qua cultural imperialism. Christian and Victorian values influenced the transition from early to modern shunga censorship. Through the self-conscious awareness of foreigners’ gaze and a crypto-colonially constructed sense of shame, shunga thus were deemed a concern for public morality and censored as obscenities.
Ultimately, this reduced shunga to the sexual aspects of their content, disregarding their many layers of meaning and complexity and the genre was long marginalized in the academic field. However, scholarship has since made strides towards more critical engagement and inclusion of shunga within ukiyo-e research. But, whilst the scholarly discourses moved towards de-censoring shunga and their imagery, institutional approaches have lagged behind, creating a disjuncture between scholarly and institutional discourses.
I have shown how institutional and museum approaches to the exhibition of shunga
remained largely characterized by marginalization and (self-)censorship, particularly in Japan. Furthermore, the banishment of shunga to secret museums, focusing purely on its sexual elements, not only construed the genre as shameful, but marginalized it from other ukiyo-e
imagery. It also constructed a class of “vulnerable” viewers, to be protected from undue exposure. Thus, museum institutions both restricted sexual art and patronized the public.
Instead, I have proposed a refashioning of the approaches to shunga based on the case of the BM’s 2013 Shunga exhibition and the international and multilingual collaborative efforts surrounding it. After overcoming initial difficulties, the exhibition travelled to the EB and HAM, two private museums in Tokyo and Kyoto, where it attracted record-breaking visitor numbers, without incurring any official sanctions or suppression. Positing international
215
collaboration between scholars and museum professionals as the way forward, to overcome the institutional marginalization and official regulation of shunga. By jointly moving the invisible lines of acceptability from within and without national and institutional contexts, scholars and practitioners contributed to opening new spaces for the inclusion of shunga next to other ukiyo-e within museums and exhibition contexts. Thus, allowing for a more complete representation of both ukiyo-e and Edo period artists’ oeuvre, with due consideration for their layers of meanings and their complexities.
However, by assuming a stance that displays shunga as art, hence asserting the genre’s aesthetic value, in order to socially and legally legitimize its exhibition, the BM perpetuates biases already inherent in ukiyo-e research and discourses, as well as in the originally Western concept of bijutsu itself. While the exhibition presents a balanced selection of materials, its focus lies on outstanding works and renowned artists that fit within the ideas of aesthetic and artistic values of “art”. If presented with due contextualization – especially considering some of shunga’s more problematic subject matters – as in the BM exhibition considered here, rather reflects the genre’s inclusion next to ukiyo-e images.
Whether shunga or erotic and sexually explicit – or even pornographic – material should be considered art and what the consequences of such categorization are, are questions which still require further examination.216 But this first requires their inclusion within institutional discourses.Ultimately, this could enable museums to draw from shunga imagery as they do from other material for the display of broad issues and topics, representing a plurality of perspectives. While this refashioning of shunga approaches allows visitors to draw their own conclusions on them, fostering their inclusion as a genre of Japanese art – to critically engage in, display, debate and enjoy.
Current societal tastes and values informing attitudes and the acceptability of shunga – in Japan and abroad – influence changing approaches to shunga imagery within official, scholarly, institutional and museum discourses. More international collaboration, together with the elaboration of specific – but culturally adaptable – guidelines for the handling of sexually explicit visual material, would further facilitate the institutional integration of
shunga. Indeed, there remains the need for a workable framework for the engagement with the sexually explicit within art and museums that allows due elasticity, while granting secure operation within legal lines. Thus, fostering a diversity of perspectives and approaches, facilitating the inclusion not only of shunga within ukiyo-e and Japanese art history, but also the integration of sexual art and histories within museum institutions.
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Appendix
Images and References
Fig. 1 The impact of Tokugawa shunga regulation as seen on a graph of approximate shunga print series and books output, 1670-1868. Clark et al. 2013, 259.
Fig. 2 Reproduction in Teihon ukiyo-e shunga meihin shūsei, vol. 24: Kiyonaga “Sode no maki” hoka [The Complete Ukiyo-e Shunga, vol. 24: Kiyonaga Handscroll for the Sleeve], 1999. Tokyo, Kawade Shobō Shinsha. Clark et al. 2013, 277.
Fig. 3 Censored image in Kikan ukiyo-e [Journal of Ukiyo-e Art], no. 64, 1976. Tokyo, Gabundō. Clark et al. 2013, 277.
Fig. 4 Suzuki Harunobu, Refashioning of Aridōshi, 1765-1770. Polychrome woodblock print, ink and colours on paper, chūban format (27.6 x 20.5 cm). Screech 2012, 293.
Fig. 5 Suzuki Harunobu, “Sakuma Chōsui”, from Fūryū Goshikizumi (“Five Coloured Ink Sticks, with Style”), ca. 1768. Polychrome woodblock print, ink and colours on paper, chūban format (c. 28 x 18 cm). Haft 2013, 164.
Fig. 6 Katsushika Hokusai, Ehon tsui no hinagata [Picture Book: Patternbook of the Vagina], c. 1812. Screech 2009, 309.
Fig. 8 Suzuki Harunobu, Shared Umbrella in the Snow, 1764-1772. Polychrome woodblock print, ink and colours on paper, with embossing, chūban format (28.6 x 20.6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Fig. 9 Attributed to either Suzuki Harunobu or Isoda Koryūsai, Lovers Under a Willow in the Snow, late 1760s. Black and white rendition of polychrome woodblock print, ink and colours on paper, unknown format. Screech 2009, 30.
Fig. 10a Xia Gui, “Geese Descending to Sandbank”, from Eight Views of the Xiao-Xiang, 13th century. Black and white rendition of ink and light colour on paper, unknown size. Hayakawa 2001, 76.
Fig. 10b Xia Gui, “Mountain Market, Clearing Skies”, from Eight Views of the Xiao- Xiang, 13th century. Black and white rendition of ink and light colour on paper, unknown size. Hayakawa 2001, 76.
Fig. 10c Xia Gui, “Evening Bell from Distant Temple”, from Eight Views of the Xiao- Xiang, 13th century. Black and white rendition of ink and light colour on paper, unknown size. Hayakawa 2001, 76.
Fig. 10d Xia Gui, “Autumn Moon over Lake Dongting”, from Eight Views of the Xiao-Xiang, 13th century. Black and white rendition of ink and light colour on paper, unknown size. Hayakawa 2001, 76.
Fig. 10e Xia Gui, “Fishing Village in Evening Glow”, from Eight Views of the Xiao-Xiang, 13th century. Black and white rendition of ink and light colour on paper, unknown