Four Centuries of Graphic Sex in Japan March 15, 2006

In Japan, artists have created erotic art for thousands of years but nothing rivals the creative explosion of erotic imagery during the Edo period (1603-1868).

Today's Japanese manga ? graphic novels, cartoons and comic books - and anime bear a direct lineage to shunga or "spring pictures" which have rarely been displayed in the West because of their frank pornographic content.

Peeping, Probing & Porn: Four Centuries of Graphic Sex in Japan offers a look at how the visual vocabulary of Edo period eroticism continues to influence Japanese visual culture today ? and Western popular culture.

On view are over one hundred objects from the Museum's permanent collection, including woodblock prints from the Utagawa School, pillow books, scrolls, brothel guidebooks, and seminal examples of manga such as The Rose of Versailles. In addition, we will offer anime screenings and manga readings during the run of this exhibition.

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