Performing Gender in Shunga: Blurring Boundaries Between Fiction and Reality

Japanese Edo period (1603-1868) erotic woodblock print shunga also assumed the function of blurring boundaries between fiction and reality, and between the depiction of physical bodies and gender representations. The dialogic qualities of shunga, allow active interactions between townspeople audiences and images, bringing the prints to life. The viewer becomes an integral part of the images’ performativity, involved in the portrayed erotic acts. These acts and their autoerotic functions tie the viewers to a scene, integrating them in its visual performance by establishing a bond with the characters and subjects. Thus, the viewer becomes part of the performance itself. Through the mirroring of a shared reality, shunga allow for the blurring of boundaries between gender roles, bodies, fiction and reality. Simultaneously, the external viewer becomes a witness through portrayed voyeuristic figures, and then looks onto their watching gaze within the scene. These performative aspects of shunga enable the blurring of what is reality and what is fiction. With this paper we explore how fictional reflections and the blurring of gender boundaries in Edo society, mirror realities of gender norms and a community that differ from the rigid separation between male and female of the Tokugawa’s moral ideals and narratives.