All of Japan’s great “floating world” (ukiyo-e) print artists—Moronobu, Sukenobu, Masanobu, Harunobu, Kiyonaga, Utamaro, Hokusai, Eisen, Kunisada, Kuniyoshi and Hiroshige—openly engaged in the production of sexually explicit art that celebrated “the way of love.” They imbued their numerous erotic works with humor and joy, visually affirming the conviction that “making love is the prime glory and height of pleasure.” Only recently have scholars begun to explore this facet of “floating-world pictures.” In this lecture, Dr. Ellis Tinios offers comparisons with European erotic art to highlight distinctive aspects of Japanese attitudes toward sex and the representation of the human body in the Edo period (1603–1868).

This event is sponsored in part by Gwen and Henry Baker and