Interpreting Sexual Imagery in Japanese Prints: A Fresh Approach to Hokusai's "Diver

and Two Octopi"

Author(s): Danielle Talerico
Source: Impressions , 2001, No. 23 (2001), pp. 24-41
Published by: Japanese Art Society of America

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42597891

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Impressions

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1

Katsushika Hokusai. Diver and Two Octopi

from Old True Sophisticates of the Club of
Delightful Skills (Kinoe no komatsu), vol. 3.
1814. Color woodblock-printed book,
hanshibon. Dr. Gerhard Pulverer

Collection, Cologne

24 TAL erigo: hokusai's diver and two octopi

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Interpreting Sexual Imagery in Japanese Prints:
A Fresh Approach to Hokusai's Diver and Two Octopi

Danielle Talerico

The French fin-de-siècle novelist and aesthete Joris Karl Huysman

1907) described the most beautiful Japanese erotic print known to
"truly frightening" (pl. i/fig. 1). "It is of a Japanese woman mounted
octopus," Huysmans writes. "With its tentacles, the horrible beast suc
tips of her breasts and rummages in her mouth, while its head drink
her lower parts. The almost superhuman expression of agony and sorr
which convulses this long, graceful female figure with aquiline no
the hysterical joy - which emanates at the same time from her fo
from those eyes closed as in death - are admirable."1 Edmond de Gonc
(1822-1896), the writer and japoniste , comments: "A terrible plate: on
green with marine plants is the naked body of a woman, swooning with
ification, sicut cadaver , to such a degree that one cannot tell whethe
drowned or alive, and an immense octopus, with frightening eye-pupils
shape of black moon-segments, sucks the lower part of the body,
small octopus battens on her mouth."2 Goncourt 's and Huysman's ins
are striking and admirably expressed; even today, many viewers find
image beautiful but repellent.
The image is the double-page illustration of a female diver {ama
two octopi by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) in his three-volume boo
True Sophisticates of the Club of Delightful Skills (Kinoe no komatsu ), pub
1 8 14. 3 Ama are male or female "breath-hold" divers who fish primar
abalone, wreath shell, agar-agar, and edible seaweed. Assisted divers (f
use aids: in the descent a counterweight (approximately 30 lbs.); in th
a helper in the boat who pulls him or her to the surface by a rope tied
the waist. More women dive than men as their thicker layer of subcu
Danielle Talerico received her
fat allows them to endure the cold longer. Diver and Two Octopi is one
master's degree in Japanese art history
most famous of all Japanese erotic images.
from the University of Washington; this
Is this a violation or a scene of pleasure? In a genre overwhelm
essay was adapted from her thesis. She
dominated by phallo-centric works, men are absent here. Hokusai crea
is currently living in Kyoto where she
unforgettable
studies ukiyo-e and Japanese language. image epitomizing female sexual gratification. His i

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 powerful and unique. Despite its ubiquity in scholarly publications, art his-
torians have not thoroughly investigated its original context or source. This
has perpetuated the misconceptions about the subject of the print. Richard
Lane titles the image "Diving-girl Violated by Octopi" and compares it to
another Hokusai image of a disheveled woman lying against a tree after
being "violently raped."4 Jack Hillier describes it as a "nightmare fantasy," a
"ghoulish print of a young woman being violated."5 Actually, Hokusai's Diver
and Two Octopi is a sophisticated parody containing a subtle textual reference
to an ancient folktale. It is not enigmatic; rather it is the pinnacle of sexual
parodies of a specific story.
Hokusai's contemporary audience would have viewed his illustration
quite differently from Huysmans, Goncourt, and subsequent generations of
Western connoisseurs. They would have recognized the origins of the scene
in the ancient folktale Taishokan ("The Great Woven Cap"). Taishokan derives
from a title bestowed upon a person who held the highest rank at court, and
it became the epithet for the seventh-century courtier Fujiwara no Kamatari
(see below), who was well known by this name. It was not unusual for ukiyo-e
artists to parody popular literature, and parody (known as mitate) flourished
during the Edo period (1615-1868). There are multiple forms of Edo-period
parody; this article focuses on parody that overlays the sacred and/ or refined
(sei) with the secular (zoku).6 This type of parody is often sexual and frequently
draws on classics such as the Tale of Genji and Tales of Ise.1
Taishokan is the dramatic story of a diving woman who retrieves a pre-
cious gem from the Dragon King of the Sea. It is essentially a Buddhist moral
tale. Designed to entertain and educate its audience, the story appealed to a
range of social and cultural groups and reached the height of its popularity
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Taishokan glorifies the
founder of the Fujiwara clan, Fujiwara no Kamatari (614-669), and in-
cludes captivating descriptions of exotic lands, fanciful architecture, people,
creatures, and battle scenes as well as several erotically charged dialogues in
the guise of Buddhist teachings. In addition to these elements, the story also
advocates self-sacrificing behavior by women, viewed as the acme of femi-
nine virtue.8

Taishokan has a long literary history and several variants of the tale exist.
The earliest dates to the fourteenth century and is found in Legends Surround-
ing the Founding of Shido Temple (Shidoji engi).9 This version of the tale is the
source of the popular Noh drama Ama (Diver) by Zeami (1363- 1443). 10
Between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries ballad-dramas known as

kõwaka-mai , dramatic chanting associated with Bunraku called joruri, and

theatrical Kabuki versions of Taishokan were performed for Edo audiences.11
Not surprisingly, ukiyo-e artists capitalized on the tale's dramatic and liter-
ary popularity, and the story became a common print theme from the early
Edo period onward.
Early Edo-period ukiyo-e illustrations draw on the ballad-drama version
of Taishokan .12 The story begins with Kamatari, grandson of Kasuga Myõjin,
guardian deity of the Fujiwara clan. 13 Kamatari is overseeing the construction
of Kõfukuji, the tutelary temple of the powerful Fujiwara family in Nara.

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2

Artist unknown. The Tale of the Taking of

the Jewel (Tamatori monogatari). Late 1670s.
Woodcut, hand-painted diptych, 52.7 x
30.2 cm. each. Worcester Art Museum,
Worcester, Mass., John Chandler
Bancroft Collection

His first daughter, known for her beauty and intelligence, becomes consort
to Emperor Shõmu (r. 724-49) and is known as Empress Kõmyõ (701-
76o).14 Kamatari' s second daughter is known as Kõhaku. She, too, is quite
beautiful, and her reputation spreads to both China and India. The Tang-
dynasty emperor Taizong (r. 627-49) is so moved by tales of Kõhaku 's loveli-
ness that he becomes hopelessly infatuated. An emissary is sent to Japan with
a marriage proposal, but Kamatari refuses the overture. Determined to over-
come Kamatari's opposition and to win Köhaku's hand, Taizong sends a
second emissary. Initially unmoved, Kamatari reluctantly agrees when
Emperor Shõmu intercedes. The elated Taizong orders three hundred ships
to escort Kõhaku to the Tang capital. 15
Aware of her father's plans to erect Kõfukuji, Kõhaku prepares a dona-
tion of gems to be sent from China to Nara under the charge of the great
general Yunzong. The most priceless of all is a spherical quartz gem.16 When
the Dragon King of the Sea learns of the voyage, he attempts to steal the
gem by stirring up a great tempest. The Buddhist demon Rasetsu intercedes,
calming the storm.
Furious, the Dragon King enlists the assistance of the Ashura, warrior
beings who engage in perpetual conflict. The Ashura mount a ferocious at-
tack on Yunzong's fleet, but Yunzong and his men escape. The Dragon King,
angered by the defeat, devises a cunning plan to obtain the priceless gem,
and requests the Sea Dragon Princess Kohisainyo to assist him.17 He sets her
adrift in a reed boat near Yunzong's fleet in Fusazaki Bay (now Shido Bay in

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3 Kagawa Prefecture on the island of Shikoku), where, as he has schemed,
Okumura Masanobu. The Tale of the Taking
of the Jewel ( Tamatori monogatarì). c. 1740s.
Woodcut, horizontal õban, benizuri-e.
Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire,
Brussels, no. 4693. From Narazaki
Muneshige, ed., Beruģīoritsu bijutsakan/
Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire Bruxelles ,
vol. 9 of Hizõ ukiyoe taikan / Ukiyo-e
Masterpieces in European Collections (Tokyo:
Kodansha, 1989), pl. 4
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Yunzong comes upon her and rescues her. The wily Kohisainyo gains Yun-
zong's sympathy by telling him of her abandonment at sea by jealous rivals.
Yunzong allows his guard to drop and Kohisainyo vanishes with the gem.
Kamatari travels to Fusazaki Bay to retrieve the gem, only to recognize
he lacks the power to conquer the Dragon King. After returning to Nara, he
devises a new plan and once again sets out. Disguised as a commoner,
Kamatari woos a diving woman who agrees to become his wife. Three years
later she bears him a son whom they name Fusazaki. After his birth,
Kamatari reveals his true identity and divulges his plan for retrieving the
gem.18 The diver agrees to assist her husband, providing he promises to raise
their son as a courtier and successor to the Fujiwara clan.
After scouring the ocean floor for seven days, the diving woman learns
that the jewel is in the Dragon Palace. Kamatari hatches a plot to lure the
Dragon King away from the palace. Knowing of the fondness of the Dragon
King and his retainers for music, he has all the boats in Fusazaki harbor
sumptuously decorated. With the best musicians and dancers from the
capital, he stages a magnificent performance on the ships. As predicted, the
Dragon King and his retinue appear and quickly become entranced by the
music. Meanwhile, the diver infiltrates the underwater palace and snatches
the coveted gem. Unfortunately, she is detected and chased by the lesser
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 dragons guarding the jewel. Realizing that she cannot outswim them hold-
ing the gem, she heroically slits open her chest to conceal the jewel and tugs
on her lifeline to be hoisted up. Back in the boat, she dies in Kamatari's arms.
Kamatari finds the treasure inside her wound and returns to Nara with the

priceless gem, where it is placed in the forehead of the Buddha Sakyamuni

in the Golden Hall at Kõfukuji.19
Despite the many dramatic events in Taishokan , the episodes that early
Edo-period ukiyo-e artists chose to illustrate were those of the Dragon King's
retinue listening to the orchestra and a dragon pursuing the diving woman.
Renditions by later ukiyo-e artists reduced it further, eliminating the orchestra
scene altogether. This development emphasizes the exemplary character of
the woman: a self-sacrificing and devoted wife who recovers the gem and
gives up her life for the sake of her son's future happiness. Her heroic suicide
became a subject of parody for later artists. Prints featuring the diver chased
by the Dragon King and his minions are known popularly as the Tale of the
Taking of the Jewel, or Tornatori monogatari , abbreviated here as Tamatori.
The retrieval of the gem underwent minor changes before elements of
the story solidified. Late seventeenth-century ukiyo-e artists closely followed
events described in the ballad-dramas. The continuous narrative imagery,
common among the earliest prints, gave way to more elaborate adaptations.
Eighteenth-century ukiyo-e artists reshuffled the characters and emphasized
the diving woman over Kamatari. In ukiyo-e versions the female diver
emerges as the primary character, and Kamatari fades into the background.
An unsigned, hand-colored, large-format diptych dating to the late 1670s
is one of the earliest extant illustrations of the Tamatori tale (fig. 2). The scene
unfolds on a body of water where seven well-dressed musicians perform on
a decorated platform supported by three boats. The retinue of the Dragon
King, wearing Chinese robes and sea creatures (including an octopus) on
their heads, listens enraptured to the music. While these creatures are dis-
tracted, the diver has retrieved the gem from the Treasure Hall, but she is
pursued by an aggressive dragon. Her boatman and four courtiers pull des-
perately on her lifeline. In the adjacent boat an attendant restrains a frantic
Kamatari from jumping into the water.
The setting for the Tamatori story changed dramatically in the mid-eigh-
teenth century. This was the result of the popularity of a newly developed
perspective technique that may have developed as early as 1601, when the
Jesuit Giovanni Niccolò (1560-1626) founded a painting school in Japan.20
Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764) made a perspective print of the story pic-
turing the Dragon King's palace as an elaborate, exotic structure with black
and orange checkerboard verandas and tiled interior floors that enhance the
intriguing perspective (fig. 3). Masanobu 's inclusion of the Dragon King's
palace is an important development in the visual history of the Tamatori story;
the orchestra is removed, and Kamatari and the diver's boatman are rele-
gated to the background. The palace architecture draws attention to the
chase between the dragon and the diver. Masanobu 's representation estab-
lished a new iconography for subsequent versions of the story which pre-
dominated from the mid-eighteenth into the nineteenth century.

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 There is one other notable innovation in Masanobu's print. Although
the Dragon King's attendants, shown actively pursuing the diving woman,
are similar to late seventeenth-century depictions, the once human creature
wearing an octopus on its head has now turned into a warrior octopus with
a humanoid body. An octopus with an anthropomorphized face was popu-
lar in folk representations on small votive plaques known as ema (fig. 4). These
and the octopus in Masanobu's print are not anatomically correct. The fun-
nel, located on the lower right side of the mantle, functions as part of the
octopus's breathing apparatus and is used to force water out of the mantle
for propulsion. In the votive plaques and the Masanobu print the funnel is
centered under the repositioned eyes as a mouth. In particular, the eyes and
the funnel are repositioned to resemble a more recognizable and expressive
face. The eyes of a real octopus sit at the base of the mantle and point in op-
posite directions in order to increase its range of vision (fig. 5). Masanobu's
print also represents the first pairing of the diver and the octopus, here
prominent in the foreground, which becomes a common print theme by the
late 1 700s.
Some print artists created images of the Tamatori story along the lines
of Masanobu but were beginning to depict the diver as an erotic creature of
the sea. The sexualization of the diver is a crucial element that anticipates
Hokusai's parodie rendition. During the early to mid-eighteenth century,
Tamatori imagery highlighted the diver's abilities to retrieve the gem, paying
little attention to her femininity and sexuality. In Masanobu's treatment
she swims with the gem held to her chest, concealing one of her breasts.
While it is clear that the athletic diver is female, no overt attempt is made
to represent her as sexually enticing. This approach changed from the late

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4 (facing page)
Artists unknown. Votive plaques. 19th
century. Wood, pigment. From Tone
Yütarö, Tako (Octopus) (Tokyo: Hõsei
daigaku shuppan kyoku, 1994), 42

5 (right)
Anatomy of an Octopus. From Jacques-
Ives Cousteau and Philippe Diolé,
Octopus and Squid : The Soft Intelligence ,

trans. J.F. Bernard (Garden City, N.Y.:

Doubleday, 1973), 271

eighteenth century onward. Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) and Ishikawa

Toyonobu (1711-1785) drew seminude divers who bear more than a little
resemblance to their exotic female counterparts in the pleasure quarters of
the Yoshiwara. The anthropologist David Plath suggests that a structural
opposition existed between the abalone divers and the Yoshiwara courtesan
during the Edo period. The courtesan epitomized female beauty. The top-
class courtesan was the most desired and the least attainable. The diver, who
works half-naked in the sea and is known for her rough and easy manner,
represents a primitive, passionate sensuality unspoiled by the overrefine-
ments of Edo civilization. She is presumed to be sexually unencumbered and
attainable.21
The sexualized vision of divers in the later eighteenth century resulted
from the conflation over time of a number of elements. Ancient poetry deal-
ing with the diver's way of life, fourteenth-century Noh dramas featuring
diving women, and sexually charged vocabulary of the Edo period all played
a part in consolidating the notion of divers as objects of desire. Rural areas
like Ise were common locales for banished courtiers during the Heian period
(794-1185), and it is within these courtiers' writings that the first romanti-
cized images of abalone divers can be found. Poems in the eighth-century
Marìyoshu (Collection of ten thousand leaves), the earliest extant collection of
Japanese poetry, contain idealized descriptions of diving life. Some poems on

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6 the subject are imbued with a romantic longing for a simple life near the
Kitagawa Utamaro. Divers, c. 1797-98.
Color woodcut, õban triptych. Private
collection. Photo: Kristen Brochmann
7 (facing page)
Ishikawa Toyonobu (171 1 - 1785). Diver.
c. 1760. Color woodcut, benizuri-e, pillar
print. MOA Museum of Art, Atami.
From MOA Museum of Art, ed., Ukiyoe
hanga (Ukiyo-e woodcuts) (Atami: MOA
Museum of Art, 1985), pl. 45
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sea.22 The sexualization of the abalone diver was also encouraged by terms
connecting sex with water: mizu shõbai ("water trade," or prostitution), mizu
age (sexual initiation), and mizushõ (a wanton woman) to name a few.23 Many
ukiyo-e artists created sexually explicit prints featuring water and sex.24
Despite romanticized images of divers in pre-Edo-period literature,
ukiyo-e artists did not begin to sexualize diving women until the development
of a new genre of prints known as "risky pictures," or abuna-eP This genre
developed as a means of skirting government censorship of erotica known
as shunga ("spring pictures"): the Kyõhõ reforms of the 1720s, the Kansei re-
forms of the 1 790s, and the Tempo reforms of the 1840s.26 Although during
each period censorship of printed materials comprised only a small part of
the overall crackdowns, the restrictions constrained the visual arts.27 The
Kyõhõ reforms, in particular the July 1722 decree by the Edo city magistrate
Õoka Tadasuke (1677-1752), banned all sexually explicit works. But sexually
explicit books and prints continued to be published using pseudonyms or
omitting the usual artists' signatures and publisher seals.
"Risky pictures" featured women entering the bath, trimming their toe-
nails, playing coquettishly with pets or small children, fighting a strong wind
or engaging in any other activity that allowed for titillating glimpses of the
female form.28 A popular theme in this genre was that of scantily clad divers
wringing out their skirts. Over the next sixty years or so, images of abalone
divers were refined, culminating in Utamaro 's 1797 -98 triptych (pl. 2/fig. 6).
Relaxing after a dive, these unadorned women, "natural" and "unselfcon-
scious," achieve the monumentality and serenity of their Yoshiwara cousins.
Ishikawa Toyonobu produced many actor prints in the style of the Torii
School early in his career, but later he specialized in images of beautiful
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 women.29 In a pillar print he shows a diver wringing out her skirt, conve-
niently exposing her legs (fig. 7). 30 Rocks and a few waves washing on the
shore set the scene. The narrow format reduces the space so that the woman
dominates the image; she and the viewer together inhabit an intimate space.
The diver twists her garment, bends slightly at the waist and turns her torso
towards the viewer, revealing both breasts. She cocks her head to show off
her long neck. Her wet hair flows down her shoulders and back. The poem
above reads: "Flutteringly visible, a shell seems like a flower in the waves." 31
"Shell" means the diver's genitalia. Just as waves roll off a beach to reveal the
shells, so does the wringing of her skirt reveal her sex.
A pillar print by an artist working in the style of Suzuki Harunobu
(1724- 1770) features another diver on a rocky shore (fig. 8). Wringing out her
skirt, she is unaware of both the viewer and the creature lurking in the back-
ground. With a scowl reminiscent of the facial expression found on the octo-
pus in Masanobu's print of the Tornatori story, a seemingly ill-intentioned oc-
topus makes its way through the water towards the unassuming diver. In
earlier versions of the story, the octopus's expression signifies its intention to
capture the diving woman. Here, the nature of the relationship between the
diver and the octopus is less straightforward. One possibility is that the octo-
pus's lascivious expression indicates its intention to obtain a coveted love, the
diver.

It is plausible that the artist of this pillar print was familiar with the
imagery of the Tornatori story, as earlier works featuring the tale were in
circulation at the time. This print ushers in the theme of diving woman and
octopus that continues into the nineteenth century. Virtually all Edo-period
images featuring the theme are indebted to the Tornatori story.
Katsukawa Shunshö (1725 - 1792) was best known for his actor prints, but
he also drew female abalone divers. His print of a diving woman and an octo-
pus is similar to the pillar print in Harunobu's style, although the relation-
ship between the two figures is more dramatic and less ambiguous (pl. 3/
fig. 9). Here, the diver steps out of the water onto the shore followed by an
octopus with nine tentacles. The octopus coils one of its tentacles firmly
around the diver's right leg, while reaching with another inside her skirt
towards her crotch. The woman reveals a portion of her left thigh as she at-
tempts to clamber up a rock, grasping the rock with one hand while holding
an unusually large abalone shell in the other. The abalone (< awabi ), a Nara-
period (710-794) metaphor for vagina, is held parallel to her genitals, clearly
evoking their shape.32 While reminiscent of the determined expression of the
octopus in Masanobu's print, the look of consternation on Shunshö's un-
armed octopus suggests sexual tension. This, combined with the abalone
shell and the diver's seemingly dismissive response towards the octopus,
evokes a well-known poem of unrequited love from the Marfyõshã anthology:
"Just like the ear-shell / Which morn and eve Ise seamen / Are said to gather /
From under the deep water,/ My love is one-sided love."33
Following Shunshõ several artists exceeded the bounds of "risky pictures"
in sexually explicit diver and octopus imagery; the multiple appendages of the
octopus take on a phallic character, performing penetration and cunnilingus.34

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 The role of the octopus in these erotic prints is often ambiguous: in some
it plays a female role, in others a male role or a gender-neutral (oral sex)
role. Artists may have intended to create visual/ verbal puns. The word for
octopus (i tako' for example, was common Edo-period slang for vagina. Like
an octopus, the vagina can be characterized as a "sucking" organ with the
ability to grasp onto things tightly.35 A woman ( tako ) is having sex with an
octopus (tako).
Kitao Shigemasa (1739-1820) seems to be the first to directly link
sexually explicit diver and octopus imagery to the Tamatori story in a book
illustration from the Erotic Program of Noh Librettos (Yõkyoku iro bangumî) of 1781
(fig. io).36 Here the artist adds a new dimension to the diver-octopus en-
counter: he adds a penis. Shigemasa uses short, undulating lines to distin-
guish this from the tentacles rather than the numerous dots simulating the
texture of the latter.

Shigemasa places the diver and octopus in a setting taken from mid- to
late eighteenth-century images of the Tamatori story. His rendition is a sexual
parody of the Noh play Ama and a visual pun on early Tamatori-idXt imagery.
The scene is divided into two halves, and a horizontal block of text partitions
the activity above and below the surface of the water. The placement of the
text functions similarly to the division made by the massive wall surrounding
the Dragon King's palace in the Masanobu print (fig. 3). Floating in the upper
left corner is the boat containing Kamatari and his retinue, along with a
bit of dialogue. As in Masanobu's print, Kamatari and the boatmen focus
their attention on the rope attached to the diver, which disappears in the
waves, and they are unaware of the situation developing underwater. Par-
tially submerged in the opposite corner is the structure housing the gem.
Usually a small edifice in late seventeenth-century woodcuts, here it con-
sumes a quarter of the composition. While the text alludes to the Noh play
only by the inclusion of its title, Ama, it is similar in tone to the Noh text, and
expresses skepticism about Taoist practices regarding the extension of life
through sexual congress with virgins.37 Rather than depicting the diving
woman fleeing a dragon and his attendants, the artist has replaced them with
the diver and a single octopus engaged in intercourse.
The text, combined with the illustration, is an obvious parody of the
Tamatori story and entwines the sacred with the secular. Older versions of the
story, such as the Legends Surrounding the Founding of Shido Temple , the Noh
drama Ama , and the ballad-drama Taishokan fall into the sacred category.
Numerous references made in the literary versions of Taishokan to the Lotus
Sutra, Kõfukuji, the gem, and aristocrats such as Fujiwara no Kamatari
establish the link to the sacred and refined. Shigemasa and Hokusai have
taken the vulgar or secular approach.
In Old True Sophisticates of the Club of Delightful Skills, Hokusai produced the
last-known Edo-period sexual image of a diving woman and an octopus. It
is the culmination of the history of Tamatori imagery that parodies the self-
sacrificing virtue of the diving woman's role. Each of the three volumes of
Hokusai's book opens with a bust portrait (< õkubi-e ), follows with seven color
prints of couples engaged in sex and finishes with a genital close-up (< õtsubi-e ).38

34 TALERIGO: HOKUSAI'S DIVER AND TWO OGTOPI

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 The first volume, for example, concludes with a genital close-up of a woman
inserting her middle finger into her vagina. The second volume ends with a
close-up of a penis about to penetrate a vagina. The third volume concludes
with what appears to be the same penis and vagina - post coitus.
Old True Sophisticates contains two types of text. A primary narrative re-
counts one man's sexual escapades. This text is unaccompanied by illustra-
tions. In volume one the protagonist Hanada Umenosuke develops a sexual
relationship with his aunt's son-in-law's daughter Takanami Oiso. In volume
two the couple becomes involved with Oiso's maid. In volume three the
enterprising Hanada becomes an acupuncturist, providing sexual treatments
to a manservant who continually returns for further consultations. The man-
servant introduces Hanada to a woman who is persuaded to submit to a
similar course of therapy.
Secondary narratives unrelated to the main text are featured above or
around the twenty-one illustrations and are exclusively devoted to the image
on which they appear. These texts literally encase the activities, consuming
virtually every space not devoted to figures or architecture. Although this
compositional arrangement is common among Hokusai's sexually explicit
illustrated books and can be seen in such works as Gods of Intercourse (Mampuku
wagõjin) of 1821 and Adonis Plant (. Fukujusõ ) of about 1820, the inclusion of mul-
tiple autonomous texts is not. In Gods of Intercourse , for example, the main
narrative relating the sexual adventures of two neighboring families, one
8
wealthy, the other poor, and both with thirteen-year-old daughters, runs
Style of Suzuki Harunobu. Diver and
above the images throughout the album. Pages of solid text without illustra-
Octopus, c. 1760s. Color woodcut, pillar
print. Tokyo National Museum. From tions do not appear in other sexually explicit books by Hokusai.39
Yoshida Teruji, ed., Mshikie shõkijidai The overall tone of Old True Sophisticates is both humorous and titillating.
(Early color woodcuts), vol. 4 of Ukiyoe Hokusai depicted unlikely and traditional couples engaged in amusing sex-
taisei (Tokyo: Tõhõ shoin, 1930-31), ual activities. Included are illustrations of a widow instructing her foster child
pl. 143 on sexual procedures; a painted gibbon on a folding screen masturbating to
the point of ejaculation while watching a couple engaged in intercourse; a
woman inscribing her lover's erect penis; and in the print under discussion,
the pairing of a diver and two octopl.
In Hokusai's Diver and Two Octopi , the diver lies amidst a rocky outcrop-
ping printed in dark green and yellow, probably signifying slick seaweed. Her
profession is not readily apparent, as she is shown without traditional diving
attire. Her legs are spread apart, making room for the large octopus between
her thighs, and her bent left leg caresses the mantle of the octopus while her
hands firmly grip two of its large tentacles. The diver's pleasure is apparent
at a glance. This is not an attempt to push the octopus away, as her arms,
bent at the elbows, are relaxed up to her hands. The large octopus is shown
with seven of its tentacles wrapped around the torso and shoulders of the
diver. While sucking on her vagina with its funnel, the octopus graphically
stimulates her clitoris.

The diver appears to shift her weight onto her right forearm in order
to lift her torso slightly. Her neck arches as she reaches to meet the funnel of
the smaller octopus, which sucks from her mouth. Its tentacles work her
torso: two touch her chest and one wraps around her left nipple. Three other

impressions 23 35

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 9

Katsukawa Shunshõ. Diver and Amorous

Octopus, c. 1773 -74. Color woodcut,

25.2 X 19 cm. Mâx Palevsky Collection.
Photo: Christie's, New York

tentacles cradle her neck, allowing the octopus to insert its funnel into her
mouth with greater ease. Her slightly closed eyes and relaxed facial expression
suggest content.
Neither octopus in the Hokusai print is drawn with anatomical accuracy:
both are shown with the funnel placed between the eyes rather than on the
right side of the mantle, and the mantle of the larger of the two is dispro-
portionately greater than the rest of its body. At the same time they are more
convincing than the renditions by earlier artists. Their eyes bulge slightly and
the jet-black pupils focus in mismatched directions. The more accurately de-
picted eyes serve to dehumanize the octopi, heightening the foreign qualities
of these strange and mysterious sea creatures and reinforcing the exoticism/
eroticism of the act.

The diver and octopi are framed by text consisting of a humorous

dialogue between them. It begins in the upper right passage above the large

36 TALERIGO: HOKUSAl'S DIVER AND TWO OCTOPI

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 octopus and continues above the image, ending in a statement made by the
small octopus written in the lower left corner, just below the diver's head. The
text begins with the words of the large octopus:

[Octopus:] Wondering when, when to do the abduction, but

today is the day. At last she's captured. Even so,
this is a plump, good pussy.40 Even a greater deli-
cacy than a potato.41 Saa, saa, sucking, sucking,
sucking to complete satisfaction, then to take her
to be imprisoned in the Dragon King's palace.
Zufu, zufu, zufu, Chu! Chu! Chu! Chu! Zu! Zu!

[Diver:] That hateful octopus fu, fu, fu, fu... rather aa,
aa. . .sucking on the surface of the inner mouth of
my womb until I'm breathless, aa, eee, I'm com-
ing!42 By that projecting mouth. By that projecting
mouth the open vagina is teased. Oh! What to do?
Yoo, oo, oo, oo, hoo, aa, that, oo, good, good, oo,
good, good, haa, good, fu, fu, fu, fuu, fuu. Again!
Yoo, yoo, yoo, yoo. Until now although people
have called me aa, fu, fu, fu, fuu, fuu, fuu... octo-
pus! Octopus!43 Oo, fu, fuu, fuu.

[Octopus:] Zuu, zuu, zuu, zuu, hicha-hicha, gucha-gucha,

jutsu, chu, chu, chu, chu, guu, guu, zuu, zuu.

[Diver:] Say! How about, how about the feeling of being

entwined by eight legs? Oh, oh, it's swelling inside,
aa, aa.

[Commentary:] Juices are flowing like hot water. Nura, mura, nura,
doku, doku, doku.

[Diver:] Ee, moo, I'm becoming ticklish. One after another

until I lose track fu, fu, fu, fuu, fuu, limits and
boundaries are gone oo, oo, oo, I've arrived anna,
aaaaaa, there, there, here, here, uu, mu, mu, mu,
fun, mufu, umu, uuuuu, good! Good!

Small Octopus: After my parent is finished, I, too, will use my pro-

jecting mouth to rub from her clit to her ass until
[she] loses consciousness, [and] when she revives,
I'll do it again, chu, chu.44

While Hokusai's print is obviously lacking in the standard iconographie

elements of the Tornatori story, the connection between the tale and the imag
is apparent in the large octopus's reference to the Dragon King's palace. It is
clear that Hokusai was familiar with both the tale and the subject of diving

impressions 23 37

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10
Kitao Shigemasa. Parody of the Noh
Drama Ama [Diver) from Erotic Program
of Noh Librettos (Tõkyoku iro bangumî).
1781. Woodblock-printed book, hanshibon.
From Richard Lane, Hokusai : Life and
Work (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1989), 170
38 tal erigo:
woman and octopus, whether through the prints of Masanobu, Shunshõ,
Shigemasa, or others. Owing to the literary popularity of the Tamatori story
and the numerous prints of it (both sexual and otherwise) in circulation, Edo-
period viewers of Hokusai's rendition would have easily responded to the
allusion.
Like Shigemasa, Hokusai created a parody of the Tamatori story in which
the parody consists of the vulgarization of a sacred tale. The diving woman
in the original narrative is revered as a wife and mother, whose one purpose
is to sacrifice herself to secure a better life for her son. To present this exem-
plar of self-sacrifice, as Hokusai has done, as someone who has abandoned
her sacred quest and given herself over to long, languid gratification of her
sexual desire would have amused the satiric sensibilities of early nineteenth-
century Edoites.
Hokusai's famous image has rested in the category of the "macabre"
and "bizarre" for the past century. As much as ukiyo-e has been celebrated
and studied in the West, an examination of the original context, related im-
ages, antecedents and text serves to dispel some of the mystification of ear-
lier accounts. Hokusai's Diver and Two Octopi is the most extreme version of
the Tamatori story and is very much in the hedonistic Edo spirit celebrating
female desire and pleasure.
hokusai's diver and two octopi
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 Notes
1 Translation from Richard Lane, Hokusai :
Life and Work (New York: E.P. Dutton,
1989), 166. For the original French text,
see J.K. Huysmans, Certains (Paris:
Ancienne Librairie Tresse et Stock,
1889), 88-89.
2 Translation from Jack Hillier, The
Japanese Picture Book : A Selection from the
Ravie z Collection (New York: Harry N.
Abrams, 1991), 84. For the French text,
see Edmond de Goncourt, Hokousaī:
L'Art japonais au XVI Ile siècle (Paris:
Flammarion, 1895), 142.
3 The title is typical of sexually explicit
books, with the literal reading of the
characters resulting in one meaning
and the phonetic reading in another.
Frequently the literal title is somewhat
scandalous while the phonetic title is
rather innocuous. Here Old True Sophisti-
cates of the Club of Delightful Skills is the
literal translation provided by Paul Berry , Kazuhiko, ed., Fūzoku ehon ukiyoe (Customs
professor of Japanese art history at Kan-
sai Gaidai University, Osaka Prefecture.
Young Pines of Kinoe is the phonetic reading
suggested by the art historian Tsuji
Nobuo. Possibly the term kinoe was used
because the date of publication, 1814,
was a "senior wood" (kinoe) year based
on the ten calendar signs or celestial
stems (jikkan ). Komatsu stems from the
Heian nobility's custom of pulling up
young pines as part of the New Year's
celebration. See Katsushika Hokusai,
Kinoe no komatsu (Young pines of kinoe),
with explanatory text by Tsuji Nobuo,
in vol. 5 of Edo meisaku ehon (Edo-period
masterpieces of illustrated books)
(Tokyo: Gakushū kenkyûsha, 1996), n.p.
4 Lane, Hokusai , 167.
5 Jack Hillier, The Art of Hokusai in Book
Illustration (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1980), 170.
6 For this type of parody, see Hayakawa
Monta, "Mitate-e ni tsuite - 'Mitate'
no kõzõ to imi (Parody pictures - the
structure and meaning of 'mitate')," in
Takeda Tsuneo, ed., Bijutsushi no danmen
(Profile of art history) (Osaka: Sebundõ
shuppan, 1995), 427- 45. For a brief
English summary of Hayakawa's article,
IMPRESSIONS
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see Timothy Clark, " Mitate-e : Some
Thoughts, and a Summary of Recent
Writings," Impressions 19 (1997), 22.
7 Both the Tale of Genji and Tales of Ise were
first sexually parodied in literature, then
in prints (see Ryütei Tanehiko, Nise
Murasaki inaka Genji , trans. Donald M.
Richardson and Teruo Tanonaka
¡Winchester, Va.: D.M. Richardson,
1985] and Jack Rucinski, "A Japanese
Burlesque: Nise monogatari ," Monumenta
Nipponica 30, no. 1 [spring 1975], 1 - 18).
Ukiyo-e artists subsequently illustrated
the literary parodies. See, for sexual
parodies of Genji in prints, Fukuda
Kazuhiko, ed., Enshoku Genji-e (Erotic
pictures of the Tale of Genji ) (Tokyo: KK
Besuto Seraazu, 1991), and for those of
Tales of Ise , illustrations from the erotic
album Nise monogatari by Kikugawa Eizan
(1787-1867), reproduced in Fukuda
and manners in ukiyo-e illustrated books)
(Tokyo: Kawade shobõ shinsha, 1991),
107-11.
8 Melanie Trede, "Image, Text and
Audience: The Taishokan Story in Visual
Representations of the Early Modern
Period. Studies of Pictorial Narrative
in Japan" (Ph.D. diss., University of
Heidelberg, 1999), 4.
9 For further discussion of Shidoji engi, see
Umezu Jirõ, "Shidoji e engi ni tsuite
(Regarding the pictures surrounding the
founding of Shido Temple)," Kokka 760
(July 1955), 208-23; for images see
Nara National Museum, ed., "Kokuhõ,
jüyö bunkazai (Shikoku [i] : Tokushima,
Kagawa)" (National treasures, important
cultural properties [Shikoku (1): Toku-
shima, Kagawa]), in Bukkyõ bijutsu
(Buddhist art) (Tokyo: Shõgakkan, 1973),
114-17.
10 The actor-playwright Komparu Gonno-
kami (fourteenth century) most likely
composed the original version of Ama ,
but the latter half of the play was added
later, perhaps by the playwright Zeami.
Despite Komparu's contribution, Zeami
is most often credited as the author. For
an English translation of Ama, see Royall
23 39
 Tyler, Japanese No Dramas (London:
Penguin, 1992), 22-36.
11 Kõwaka-mai are a type of ballad-drama
commonly chanted by three men who
recite the texts in a highly stylized man-
ner with the accompaniment of the
beat of a fan or two drums and a flute.
Kõwaka-mai date from the fifteenth
century and most recount military events24 One example is Utamaro 's Lovers , a
derived from sources such as the Tale
of the Heike.
12 The köwaka-mai Taishokan contains a
scene where Kamatari lures the Dragon
King and other sea creatures of the
palace with orchestral music. This scene,
commonly found in early Edo-period
ukiyo-e prints, is not included in other
literary versions of the tale.
13 Kasuga Myõjin is the ancestor god of
the Fujiwara family, enshrined in the
Kasuga Taisha at the foot of Mikasa
Hill in Nara.
14 Kõmyõ, the daughter of Fujiwara no
Fuhito (659-720), was a nonreigning
empress.
15 Yoshida Kogorö, Tanrokubon: Rare Books
of Seventeenth-Century Japan (Tokyo:
Kodansha International, 1984), 108.
16 Asahara Yoshiko and Kitahara Yasuo,
eds., Mai no hon (The book of traditional
Japanese dance), Shin Nihon koten
bungaku taikei 59 (Tokyo: Iwanami
shoten, 1994), 20 and 30. Gem or jewel
is used here as a translation of suishõ no
tama , the term used in the ballad-drama
version of the story where it is described
as a spherical quartz gem. In other dra-
matic versions of the tale the term menkõ-
fuhai is used, referring to a Buddhist im-
age which always faces the viewer. Artists
depicting the tale, however, consistently
feature the item as a spherical gem.
17 Asahara and Kitahara, Mai no hon , 26.
18 Yoshida, Tanrokubon , 108.
19 Ibid., 109.
20 Timon Screech, "The Meaning of
Western Perspective in Edo Popular
Culture," Archives of Asian Art 47 (1994), 58.
21 See Dolores Martinez, "The Ama:
Tradition and Change in a Japanese
Diving Village" (Ph.D. diss., Oxford
University, 1988), 212.
40 TALERIGO: HOKUSAl'S DIVER AND TWO OGTOPI
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22 Ibid ., 210.
23 Liza Crihfield Dalby, Geisha (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1983), 325.
In his sexual slang dictionary, Shibata
Chiaki notes ten terms connecting water
and sex. See Shibata Chiaki, Seigojiten
(Dictionary of sexual terminology) (Tokyo:
Kawade shobö shinsha, 1998), 320-21.
monochrome woodcut illustration from
the 1795 book The Sash of Hitachi (Ehon
hitachi obi). See Timon Screech, Sex and
the Floating World: Erotic Images in Japan,
iyoo-1820 (London: Reaktion Books,
!999)> I30-34-
25 "Risky pictures" is a term coined by
Professor Berry.
26 During the Edo period sexually explicit
works were frequently bound in book
form, and generally featured people from
various social classes in a wide array of
graphically depicted sexual positions.
During the seventeenth century these
books enjoyed great popularity, and
most print designers created them.
27 These reforms were implemented in
response to unrest due to economic
hardships. The politicians Matsudaira
Sadanobu (1758-1892) and Mizuno
Tadakuni (1794- 1851) instigated the
Kansei reforms and Tempo reforms,
respectively. See Sarah Thompson and
H.D. Harootunian, Undercurrents in the
Floating World: Censorship and Japanese
Prints (New York: Asia Society Galleries,
1991). 39-
28 Ibid., 48.
29 The Torii School dominated the design-
ing of theatrical billboards, programs,
illustrated books and prints for Kabuki
theaters in Edo.
30 The pillar print, a narrow, vertical format,
became standard in the "risky pictures"
genre, particularly for those images in
which the figure is moving vertically in
space. Pillar prints also created a voyeur-
istic perspective appropriate to the "risky
picture," the narrow format being often
employed to frame the figures in a manner
reminiscent of viewing activities through
a keyhole. Thompson and Harootunian,
Undercurrents , 50.
 31 Translated with the assistance of Profes- Professor Berry and Hiroko Sakurai and
sor Berry, Galen Lowe and Izumi Lowe. based on transcriptions from Fukuda
32 Martinez, "The Ama : Tradition and Kazuhiko, Ukiyoe no miwaku (The allure
Change," 212; and Shibata, Seigojiten , 26. of ukiyo-e) (Tokyo: Kawade shobõ shin-
33 From Suga Teruo, trans., The Mariyo-shu: sha, 1986), 179; Katsushika Hokusai,
A Complete English Translation in 5-7 Kinoe no komatsu , 85 - 86; and Yasuda
Rhythm. Part 2, vol. 11 (Tokyo: Kanda Yoshiaki and Sano Bunsai, Hokusai in
Institute of Foreign Languages and Edo oyomu , vol. 1 (Tokyo: Futami shobõ
Kanda University of International shinsha, 1996), 68-69.
Studies, 1991), 311.
34 Artists who created such imagery include
Shunshö, Katsukawa Shunchõ (active
1770S-90S) and Keisai Eisen (1790-1848).
35 Shibata, Seigojiten , 199.
36 There is debate as to who created this

erotic album. Lane states that it is by an

unknown artist working in the style of
Shunshõ, while Tsuji Nobuo attributes it
to Shigemasa. Tsuji is followed here. See
Lane, Hokusai , 170, and Tsuji Nobuo, ed.,
Kinoe no komatsu (Young pines of kinoe) in
Ukiyoe hizõ meihinshū (Tokyo: Gakushū
kenkyüsha, 1992), 16.
37 For a translation of the text, see Danielle
Turner, "Katsushika Hokusai's ' Ama
and Octopi Print,' from Kinoe no komatsu :
A Re-examination," (M.A. thesis, Uni-
versity of Washington, 2000), 58-59.
38 Genital close-ups were made in response
to the bust portraits and were meant as
a joke. The genital close-ups in volumes
two and three of Hokusai's book corre-

spond to the titles of their respective

volumes: Sexual Fluids of the Phallus and
Coming on the Way to a Small Satisfaction.
Both titles were meant to be humorous.

For further discussion of these titles, see

Turner, "Katsushika Hokusai's Ama
and Octopi Print'," 68-69.
39 Hokusai, Kinoe no komatsu , n.p.
40 The term bobo is used here to refer to

the woman's genitals. See Shibata, Seigo

jiten , 307.
41 Ibid., 33. The word potato {imo) is used
here as a synonym for penis. It is a refer-
ence to the Satsuma ¿mo, a potato known
for its long, round shape.
42 "Inner mouth of my womb" refers to
the cervix.

43 Octopus (tako) is used here as a slang

term for vagina. Shibata, Seigojiten , 199.
44 Translated with the assistance of

IMPRESSIONS 23 41

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