SHUNSHO. SHUNGA - Erotic scene.

A shunga print depicting two men and a woman having sex. Probably, from the Ehon jinkoki ????? (Picture Book: Joys of Ejaculation), 1789. Shunga (??) is the Japanese term for erotic art. The word “shunga” literally means spring picture, with “spring” being a euphemism for sex. Most shunga was published in books, with the larger images spanning two facing pages. Although shunga is generally unsigned, hidden signatures and known pseudonyms often permit identification of the artist. Katsukawa Shunsho was a Japanese painter and printmaker in the ukiyo-e style, and the leading artist of the Katsukawa school. Shunsho is most well-known for introducing a new form of yakusha-e, prints depicting Kabuki actors. However, his bijinga (images of beautiful women) paintings, while less famous, are said by some scholars to be "the best in the second half of the [18th] century".

Erotic works by the artist Katsukawa Shunsho are illustrated in Gian Carlo Calza, Poem of the Pillow and other stories by Utamaro, Hokusai, Kuniyoshi and other artists of the Floating World, New York, 2010, pp. 193-210.