Shôzan: Genji seducing a beauty
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Koikawa Shôzan (1821-1907)

Prince Genji seducing a young and shy beauty at the desk; on the floor an illustrated book with the one hundred classical poems by one hundred poets. Outside the of the window a bird is singing on a on a blossoming plum tree.

Series: Shiki no orifushi (Moments in the Four Seasons)

Date: 1858

Original Japanese colour woodblock print, nishiki-e

Size: Horizontal Aiban, 21 x 32 cm (image)

Excellent impression and colours. Fine deluxe print, with embossing, lustre printing and metal pigments (partly oxidized). Minor creases, else excellent condition.

Ofer Shagan, Japanese Erotic Art. The Hidden World of Shunga, London 2013, p. 152f, no. 16 a-l. In Shagan, Encyclopedia of Japanese Erotic Art: Shunga, Vol. I, Tokyo 2011, p. 094 ff illustrated with preface, the title given as Shiki no orifute. This preface is signed with Shôzan's pseudonym Insuitei.
Cf. also Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, no. 1973.9.5 (attributed to Kunisada).

These exceptionally splendid prints are special broadsheets for an album; they later appeared again in a book edition, the three-volume ehon "(Renjô) Iro shiki shi" (The Colours of Love in the Four Seasons), cf. Freer/Sackler, Pulverer Collection, FSC-GR-780.10.1-3

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