# What are the ladies doing in these Japanese prints? (possible NSFW) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 12, 2009, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805 "2009-09-12T06:33:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/1 "2009-09-12T06:33:46Z")
Please help me figure out what these Japanese (?) women depicted in these silk paintings are doing. They appear to be in weird contorted positions, with a suspected sexual aspect, but what? These have been hanging in the hall bathroom at my parents house for years and I always wondered what the heck these girls are doing! Warning, links contain Japanese stylized painting of geisha-looking ladies with the breasts exposed… In [url=http://brookenelson.com/sdmb/mystery\_painting\_1.jpg]Painting 1, the young lady appears to be standing on her head, or otherwise upside down, with her breasts hanging out. Her eyes are closed tightly and she is biting the sleeve of her kimono. In [url=http://brookenelson.com/sdmb/mystery\_painting\_2.jpg]Painting 2, this lady is in some sort of horizontal chest down position, with strange folds of fabric - is that her knee or arm or what under there? What is going on in this picture? In [url=http://brookenelson.com/sdmb/mystery\_painting\_3.jpg]Painting 3, it seems this lady is just relaxing with her breasts exposed, or is there something _more_ going on there? ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/2 "2009-09-12T06:38:06Z")
The answer to your question is probably: masturbating. There are tons, _tons_ of such kinds paintings of Asian descent. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/3 "2009-09-12T06:46:05Z")
[url=http://www.morra-japaneseart.com/gallery/prints/05.htm]Here is an internet art gallery that sells such paintings. Some of them dating back to the early 1700s. **Link is possibly NSFW**. EDIT: Though I realize the paintings I linked to are far more explicit than the ones you did, I still believe the women in your linked paintings are masturbating. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/4 "2009-09-12T06:52:59Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > The answer to your question is probably: masturbating. :eek: That is what I was afraid of! 😉 > [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > There are tons, _tons_ of such kinds paintings of Asian descent. Very interesting, I did not know this. I have seen many with bathing scenes, but showing women masturbating in such contorted positions, I have never before seen. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/5 "2009-09-12T07:03:57Z")
[url=http://www.gregkucera.com/shunga.htm]Here is another NSFW internet art gallery. Still can’t seem to find any that are more discreet like yours though. Yours hinted at certain activities and the ones I’m linking to are not subtle. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/6 "2009-09-12T07:28:12Z")
The ironic thing is that (I believe) most such explicit antique prints, as shown in the links, would be censored in modern-day Japan–and even the old prints (I’ve heard) are not allowed to be reproduced in modern media. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/7 "2009-09-12T08:42:17Z")
Those are fakes. Where are the tentacles? The schoolgirl outfits? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/8 "2009-09-12T08:46:57Z")
The ladies are simply lying there. They look contorted because the art style doesn’t handle perspective very well. The pictures are all trying to look up from below to her face, or down her body from above her face, but the artist is using stylized representations of body parts which aren’t based on those angles of view. Outside of the area that we can see, they may well be masturbating, of course. It seems likely that these are images which were cropped down. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/9 "2009-09-12T13:27:13Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > [url=[http://www.morra-japaneseart.com/gallery/prints/05.htm](http://www.morra-japaneseart.com/gallery/prints/05.htm)]Here is an internet art gallery that sells such paintings. Some of them dating back to the early 1700s. > > **Link is possibly NSFW**. > > EDIT: Though I realize the paintings I linked to are far more explicit than the ones you did, I still believe the women in your linked paintings are masturbating. At least we know that the ladies in question are Japanese rather than Brazilian. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/10 "2009-09-12T15:31:33Z")
Sage rat, I can’t tell whether you’re joking. It’s a genre called “shunga”, yes what we’d call pornographic prints, especially. These are relatively tame-- there are a lot of very explicit ones out there-- sometimes they have little insets that show how the guy and the pro met on a bridge or something (sort of like the start of a porn film where the cable installation guy arrives at the door). In the second print, for example, you see a folded set of tissue paper behind her-- this is sort of shorthand for the sort of clean-up material a courtesan would keep on hand. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/11 "2009-09-12T16:38:14Z")
> [@capybara](#): > > Sage rat, I can’t tell whether you’re joking. Joking about what? I’m not an expert on _shunga_, but I am an artist, so I could only comment on the “contorted” appearance. So if you mean to say that it’s a given that they’re masturbating, perhaps you’re right. I have no idea, I just wanted to express that it seemed plausible from what other pictures I have seen. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/12 "2009-09-12T16:43:14Z")
Your _parents_ have exotic porn in the bathroom? Mine have, you know, waterfowl. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/13 "2009-09-12T17:11:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Those are fakes. Where are the tentacles? The schoolgirl outfits? If you insist… [noparse] [File:Dream of the fishermans wife hokusai.jpg - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dream_of_the_fishermans_wife_hokusai.jpg) [/noparse] ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/14 "2009-09-12T17:17:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If you insist… > > [noparse] [File:Dream of the fishermans wife hokusai.jpg - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dream_of_the_fishermans_wife_hokusai.jpg) [/noparse] Bah, you beat me to it. 🙂 Also **nyctea scandiaca** , if you’re afraid of women masturbating, I suggest watching more porn. You’ll get over it. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/15 "2009-09-12T17:21:21Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If you insist… Wow. Tag team tentacles even. But where is the freaky stuff? ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/16 "2009-09-12T18:39:50Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > The ironic thing is that (I believe) most such explicit antique prints, as shown in the links, would be censored in modern-day Japan–and even the old prints (I’ve heard) are not allowed to be reproduced in modern media. Certainly you couldn’t create such art today, but you can buy explicit collections of shunga prints in most Japanese bookstores. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/17 "2009-09-14T01:51:33Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Your _parents_ have exotic porn in the bathroom? Mine have, you know, waterfowl. Wow! Now that’s kinky! ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/18 "2009-09-14T03:16:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If you insist… > > [noparse] [File:Dream of the fishermans wife hokusai.jpg - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dream_of_the_fishermans_wife_hokusai.jpg) [/noparse] Oh. Oh wow. Uh oh. This marine biologist’s octopus loving daughter is now quite afraid of her dreams tonight. Wow. Uhh, thanks. You know, octopissusses changes color when excited, and, um, well, my, my my…feeling faint… ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/19 "2009-09-14T04:14:10Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > Bah, you beat me to it. 🙂 > > Also **nyctea scandiaca** , if you’re afraid of women masturbating, I suggest watching more porn. You’ll get over it. Definitely not afraid of women masturbating, just seeing scenes of it in my parents’ powder room! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805/20 "2009-09-14T17:07:25Z")
So, **elelle** , how were your dreams, then? In as much detail as you’d like. 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-ladies-doing-in-these-japanese-prints-possible-nsfw/509805.md?page=2)