• Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693). 男色大鑑: 本朝若風俗男色 Nanshoku ōkagami: Honchō waka fūzoku (The Great Mirror of Male Love: The Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Illustrated by Yoshida Hanbei (fl. ca. 1681–1693). 8 vols. in 10 parts. Osaka: Yamazaki Ichibei; Kyoto: Fukaeya Tarōbei, 1687.

Curatorial note:

The Great Mirror of Male Love is a masterpiece of “floating-world literature,” a major genre of Japanese fiction that focused on themes related to the pleasure quarters and theater districts of Japan’s major cities. Written by celebrated author Saikaku and punctuated with images by leading book illustrator Hanbei, the book is a collection of forty tales about romantic relationships between men and adolescent boys in seventeenth-century Japan. Despite the widespread publication of erotica during this period, Hanbei’s illustrations are not suggestive, but depict key dramatic moments. Here, for example, in the tale The Sickbed No Medicine Could Cure, a boy is forced to commit ritual suicide (seppuku) for killing the samurai suitor who threatened his life. Breaking all records in seventeenth-century publishing, the Mirror of Male Love appeared in many editions. Marquand’s is one of only two known copies of the first deluxe printing.

and

Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology. Purchased 2014–2017 as part of the Kiyoshi Shibui Collection.

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Title:
  • 男色大鑑
  • Nanshoku ōkagami
Language:
  • Japanese
Call number:
  • PL794 .N37 1687
Extent:
  • 8 volumes : illustrations ; 28 cm
Format:
  • Book
Type:
  • Fiction
  • Pictorial works
Description:
  • Title from label.
  • Consists of 10 physical volumes. Volumes 2 and 7 divided into two parts each, bound separately.
  • Artist: Yoshida Hanbē.
Publisher:
  • Kyōto : Yamazaki Ichibei ; Ōsaka : Fukaeya Tarōbei, Jōkyō 4 [1687]
Subject:
  • Gay men—Sexual behavior—Japan—Fiction
  • Samurai—Sexual behavior—Japan—Fiction
  • Actors—Sexual behavior—Japan—Fiction
  • Japan—Fiction
  • Yoshiwara (Tokyo, Japan)—Pictorial works
Title sort:
  • Nanshoku ōkagami.
Spatial:
  • Japan
Created:
  • 1687-01-01T00:00:00Z
Date:
  • 1687
Location:
  • SAX PL794 .N37 1687
Identifier:
  • ark:/88435/5t34sp51c
Edm rights:
  • No Known Copyright
Alternative:
  • Honchō waka fūzoku
  • 本朝若風俗男色
Creator:
  • Ihara, Saikaku, 1642-1693
Author:
  • Ihara, Saikaku, 1642-1693
Illustrator:
  • Yoshida, Hanbē, active 1678-1705
Former owner:
  • Shibui, Kiyoshi, 1899-1992
References:
  • S. Izzard. Early images from the floating world, c2008, page 26.
Provenance:
  • SAX copy: Shibui Kiyoshi (1899-1992), Sebastian Izzard,
Abstract:
  • Great Mirror of Male Love.
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