Plate from the Erotic Book Mounds of Dyed Colors: A Pattern Book for the Boudoir (Someiro no yama neya no hinagata), First Month

Masanobu, Okumura. Plate from the Erotic Book Mounds of Dyed Colors: A Pattern Book for the Boudoir (Someiro no yama neya no hinagata), First Month. ca. 1736–44. Hand-colored woodblock illustration; ink and color on paper. 24.3 cm. x 36.2 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. https://www-metmuseum-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/art/collection/search/55597?ft=wakashu&offset=0&rpp=40&pos=31, accessed 13, March 2022.

This print is of a wakashu (on the left) and a courtesan (on the right) competing for the attention of a patron who is visiting the Yoshiwara district. The wakashu is seen to be writing something as the patron watches over, smoking a pipe, while the courtesan tries to catch his attention by slipping her hand into his sleeve. In the background, there is a painting on the wall done in a Chinese literati style. On the left side of the painting, there is a hokku poem that talks about the “Guardian Kings” plums which signifies the season to be spring as that is when plum blossoms bloom. Guardian Kings are a reference to the protectors in Buddhism and contrasts what is happening between the figures.