Item from the Mokuhankan Flea Market

Abalone Diver's Nightmare...

Size: 26.5cm by 39.5cm (10.43 in by 15.55 in) | Enlargement | Shipping Code: [L] ?

Designer: Kitagawa Utamaro

Era: Post-war | Currency: $ / £ / €

Price: ¥ 8,000$ 73.00£ 53.50€ 62.00 [Item has been sold]

Description: This reproduction print is a 'sanitized' version of a design from Utamaro's shunga book 'Utamakura' 歌まくら (Poem of the Pillow).

Seated on a rock, in the middle of a river, a female diver for abalone shellfish is watching with a mix of horror and fascination the violation of her companion by two scaly river creatures called ‘kappa’. The scary scene is taking place in the bottom of the river beneath some seaweeds.

It depicts interestingly two worlds in one print - the diver in the real world and her imaginary world underneath the water with the water monsters, often accused of assaulting humans in the water.

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