An exhibition of Japanese woodcuts and books of the Edo and Meiji periods (18th and 19th centuries) depicting lovers from literature and life. Images range from lovers yearning for absent partners and expressing their longing in letters and poems; dramatic scenes of thwarted or desperate lovers, sometimes on the verge of suicide; ‘risqué prints’ (abuna-e), with suggestions of eroticism or hints that sex is near at hand, through to more explicit images of sexual partners (shunga or ‘spring pictures) and their context in erotic books; assignations in and around Edo (Tokyo) and the route to the pleasure quarter at night. Artists include Harunobu, Utamaro, Hokusai, Hiroshige, Kunisada, Kuniyoshi and Yoshitoshi. The exhibition is based on the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum and is designed to complement the exhibition at the British Museum Shunga: Sex and pleasure in Japanese Art (3 October 2013 – 5 January 2014).
Please see the website of Fitzwilliam Museum for more information