Edutainment > 10 Types of Female Nudes - by Ishikawa Toraji

Ten Types of Female Nudes I

Ishikawa Toraji - Biography
Dance
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The Japanese painter and printmaker Ishikawa Toraji, 1875-1964 created a series of ten voluptuous nudes title "Ten Types of Female Nudes". The Japanese authorities banned the series for its "pornographic" nature.

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Ishikawa Toraji - 1875-1964

Ishikawa Toraji was mainly a painter. Collectors of 20th century Japanese prints know him for a fine landscape print series showing Mount Fuji and for several other woodblock prints, but mainly for a series of ten buxom female nudes in a style not seen before on Japanese art prints.

Ten Types of Female Nudes

Ten Types of Female Nudes II

Japanese Art Prints
Reading
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In 1934 the artist created this series of ten female nudes. According to Friedrich B. Schwan, the author of a handbook about Japanese woodblock prints (written in German: see literature reference below), the series was immediately banned by censorship for its "pornographic" nature.

The woodblock series shows somewhat buxom Japanese girls in the nude. Nine prints show the girls in the privacy of their home. And one shows a naked dancer in high heels, obviously performing striptease in a bar or theater. All girls wear a modern hair-style that was typical for young girls in the 1920s and 1930s all around the world, including Japan.

"Moga" - Modern Girls

The nudes depicted by Ishikawa Toraji represent a type of young women that the Japanese then called moga, a malapropism of the English word modern girl. It was a new type of young Japanese girls influenced by Western fashion and a Western image of women. Independent, modern, fashionable - in a nutshell, quite the opposite of the traditional role of Japanese women as a docile supplement in a male dominated society.

Modern Bijin

Ten Types of Female Nudes III

Shin Hanga
At the Bath
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These nude images have a certain erotic character - due to the voluptuous shapes of the ladies and the intimate atmosphere. But a classification as pornographic can only make today's generation smile at best. The series Ten Types of Female Nudes (in Japanese: Rajo Jushu no Uchi) should be seen as an attempt of the artist to display the old traditional subject of bijin (Japanese for 'beautiful women') in a modern context and in the style of the shin hanga art movement. In the long history of Japanese woodblock prints, this series is a remarkable and charming interlude of an old subject displayed in a modern style. And the 10 prints reflect the changes of the Japanese society in the 20th century.

We are happy to be able to display 6 of the 10 nude prints. All 6 prints were consigned to us and sold by us since 2001. You can view these images in our archive of sold Japanese prints.

Dieter Wanczura
(July 2009)

More Types of Female Nudes

Ten Types of Female Nudes IV

Bijin Prints of the Shin Hanga Era
Tinkle of a Bell
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Ten Types of Female Nudes VI

Shinsui Ito - Biography
Blue Parrot
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Literature sources used for this article

• Friedrich B. Schwan, "Handbuch Japanischer Holzschnitt", 2003, IUDICIUM Verlag, Postfach 701067, D-81310 München, ISBN 3-89129-749-1

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