Japanese Shunga Woodblock Print, Framed

Blue checked cloth, a red under-robe and a hairpin slipping loose, all in one busy frame.

This framed shunga woodblock print comes from Japan and dates to the Meiji Period (1868 – 1912 CE), in ink on paper. Shunga were often humorous as well as frank, and the dialogue written around the figures usually supplies the jokes. Here a couple lies intertwined, the man wrapped in blue and white checked cloth, the woman in red and purple with ornaments in her hair. Lines of script run along both sides of the page, with a center fold from its original binding. It is 21 inches wide, 19.5 high and 1.5 deep.

Plenty of conversation, most of it in the margins.