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KORYUSAI, Isoda  (fl. 1765 - 85)		Enshoku hoya ho ('Sensual Colors')
click to view larger version		Date:                 c. 1775 Size:                 oban yoko-e (c. 25. 5 x 39 cms / c. 10" x 15 3/8") Condition:       Fine impression, color and condition. As an                           album print it shows the usual centerfold mark.                           Full paper size. - An important and rare design. Ref. no.: # 591782 Price:  € 3,400.00

A young boy is watching, through the open sliding-door of the adjacent room, a couple under a huge blanket engaged in sexual intercourse. The man looks up in surprise. The depiction is from one of only two series by the artist designed for the large oban size, and belongs to the truly pioneering shunga works of the time: ALL OTHER, full-color, shunga works from before that period* were either executed in the smaller chuban or koban sizes, or were published in illustrated, woodblock-printed books (ehon). The oban format of this series was a novelty, and had a huge impact on the type of all later shunga compositions, resulting in, e.g., the 'zooming-in' on objects or the exaggerated enlargement of genitals. * Shunga from the Moronobu school and their followers during the 'Primitive period' had, indeed, already been published in the oban-format, but this was before the advent of full-color printing. For another design from the series see: Japanese Erotic Fantasies, Amsterdam, 2005; no.27, p. 108.

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