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Edo onna no shunga-bon: Iro to warai no fûfu shinan

This book analyses four erotic illustrated parodies of Japanese 18th-century women conduct books, by Tsukioka Settei (1726-1786), together with other sources, to understand their role in women’s history. While comparing the originals and their parodies, the book argues that these books challenge the hitherto accepted view of women and women’s education in the Edo period, and by extension orthodox Confucian ethics of the period that were espoused by the government. Because the parodies were published as erotic works (shunga), they became taboo from the early 20th century and were virtually forgotten about in histories of Japanese society and culture.