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

Okumura Masanobu

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The artist’s signature appears in the corner of a screen to the upper right of the scene in which a wakashu (homosexual youth) competes with a courtesan for the attentions of a visitor to the Yoshiwara pleasure district. The opening scenes of erotic books tend to be less risqué than the subsequent images, and this one, the “First Month” from Pattern Book for the Boudoir, is indeed tamer than those for the other eleven months pictured in the book. A seventeen-syllable hokku poem accompanies each image. Here, the reference is to a special species of plum called Niō, alluding to the Guardian King figures that guard a temple gate. One of the sculptures opens its mouth to pronounce the mystical syllable “Aun”—but here it is linked to the playful custom of marking the first laughter or joke of the New Year. Niō ume aun no kuchi no hatsuwarai “Guardian Kings” plums Utters the sacred syllable “Aun” in the first laugh of the year. —Trans. John T. Carpenter

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art