After this edict, shunga went underground. The Kyōhō Reforms, a 1722 edict, was much more strict, banning the production of all new books unless the city commissioner gave permission. While other genres covered by the edict, such as works criticising daimyōs or samurai, were driven underground by this edict, shunga continued to be produced with little difficulty. There were repeated governmental attempts to suppress shunga, the first of which was an edict issued by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1661 banning, among other things, erotic books known as kōshokubon ( 好色本) (literally "lewdness books"). Thanks to woodblock printing techniques, the quantity and quality increased dramatically. The style reached its height in the Edo period (1603 to 1867). Through the medium of narrative handscrolls, sexual scandals from the imperial court or the monasteries were depicted, and the characters tended to be limited to courtiers and monks. At this point, it was found among the courtier class. The Japanese influences of shunga date back to the Heian period (794 to 1185). Besides " shunga" literally meaning a picture of spring (sex), the word is also a contraction of shunkyū-higi-ga (春宮秘戯画), the Japanese pronunciation for a Chinese set of twelve scrolls depicting the twelve sexual acts that the crown prince would perform as an expression of yin yang. He, like many artists of his time, tended to draw genital organs in an oversized manner, similar to a common shunga topos. Zhou Fang, a notable Tang-dynasty Chinese painter, is also thought to have been influential. Shunga was heavily influenced by illustrations in Chinese medicine manuals beginning in the Muromachi era (1336 to 1573). History Couple in Winter shunga by Suzuki Harunobu, c1770 Most ukiyo-e artists made shunga at some point in their careers. Shunga followed the aesthetics of everyday life and widely varied in its depictions of sexuality. The ukiyo-e movement sought to idealize contemporary urban living and appeal to the new chōnin class. Shunga, as a subset of ukiyo-e, was enjoyed by all social groups in the Edo period, despite being out of favor with the shogunate. Translated literally, the Japanese word shunga means picture of spring "spring" is a common euphemism for sex. While rare, there are also extant erotic painted handscrolls which predate ukiyo-e. Shunga ( 春画) is a type of Japanese erotic art typically executed as a kind of ukiyo-e, often in woodblock print format. From The Adonis Plant (Fukujusō) Woodblock print, from a set of 12, ōban c.
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