Shunga: Stages of Desire

A very interesting book by the Honolulu Museum of Art on a topic rarely covered in the U.S., and almost never covered in Japan. It is a beautiful coffee table size book, which you probably will NOT want to leave out on your coffee table, at least not if children are ever around. (Not unless you want to be answering a lot of unusual questions from curious kids. . . .) Or, for that matter, if your mom or dad are around. Or the neighbors. On reflection, this is a coffee table book to either keep in the privacy of your boudoir, or keep hidden in the back of your bookcase. But it is a wonderful, high quality book for those interested in one of the more intriguing aspects of Japanese art.

Fun and erotic book in classic Japanese style.

Beautiful quality images with interesting explanations

Art books run the gamut from being completely text to completely images. Often what you get is the worse of both worlds -- poor images (too small, too low resolution) and a superficial text. What we have with this book is the opposite. It's mostly images, high quality reproductions on semi-matte paper, practically all of which aren't going to be duplicates with the other books of Japanese Prints you may own because of the niche of the subject matter. The text (about 1/5th of the book) is well researched and not superficial, diving into topics like 'Women and Shunga' and 'Masturbation and Shunga' in a well organized, multi-paragraph way. I'm quite happy with this one.

Must read book aflr anyone interested in shunga art