Emakimono shunga, 12 peintures sur soie : Histoire de la jeune fille céleste et de sa robe de plume

12 original paintings on silk in a scroll, itself covered with silk. The Emakimono is a painted scroll with horizontal narrative.
Scroll composed of a wooden rod around which the paintings are rolled. The external margins are made of printed green silk while the background on which the paintings are mounted is made of another lighter green silk fabric; the whole is mounted on paper. Occasional worming or light small stains on the silk. Each painting: 18x23.5cm. Very fine condition.
The 12 paintings tell the story of a goddess who came from heaven wearing a feathered robe and who visits the world of humans. This famous legend is a myth in several Southeast Asian countries, notably China and Japan. She becomes trapped in the human realm when her robe is hidden and eventually falls in love with a mortal man. In the paintings it is a poor fisherman. The presence of this fisherman evokes one of the oldest and most classic Japanese tales: the fisherman and the turtle. One notes the presence of Mount Fuji which opens and closes the tale.
It is extremely rare for shunga to tell a story; they are always isolated scenes that may have a common background, but never a narrative through images. In 12 panels, the paintings tell of the meeting and departure of the goddess to her world when she finds her feathered robe again. Beyond this particular phenomenon, the paintings belong to the end of shunga creations, and it is the only period of this art that saw the birth of a new manner, not only in representation but also in the distribution of roles in sexuality. The paintings no longer merely reproduce an already established style but create a new one for the needs of the story. One will notice in each sexual scene the presence of handkerchiefs, intended for intimate cleansing, before or after the act.