Courtesan with a Young Man (Wakashu) beside a Screen

Courtesan with a Young Man (Wakashu) beside a Screen

Hishikawa Moronobu 菱川師宣

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In ukiyo-e prints, male youths known as wakashu—identified by unshaved forelocks and an upright topknot—are often paired with courtesans. This image belongs to a set of fourteen erotic prints known as makura-e (pillow pictures), or shunga (spring pictures) in modern parlance. While most makura-e within a set tend to be explicit, there are usually two or three earlier in the sequence, as here, that merely hint at romance.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Courtesan with a Young Man (Wakashu) beside a ScreenCourtesan with a Young Man (Wakashu) beside a ScreenCourtesan with a Young Man (Wakashu) beside a ScreenCourtesan with a Young Man (Wakashu) beside a ScreenCourtesan with a Young Man (Wakashu) beside a Screen

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.