The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife
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The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife (蛸と海女) is an erotic woodcut made circa 1820 by Hokusai, perhaps the first instance of tentacle porn. It features a woman entwined sexually with a pair of octopuses. She is kissing a small octopus, while a larger one is performing cunnilingus on her. This ukiyo-e woodcut arose in the Edo period in Japan when Shinto was making a resurgence and the resulting Animism and a more playful attitude to sexuality combined powerfully in Hokusai's piece. It is a celebrated example of shunga and has been reworked by a number of artists.
Similar themes of human females having sexual intercourse with sea life have been displayed since the 17th century in Japanese netsuke, small carved sculptures only a few inches in height and often extremely elaborate.
[edit] Influence
- Kaneto Shindo includes the image in his 1981 film Hokusai manga, an account of Hokusai's life. It stars Ken Ogata as Hokusai and Yuko Tanaka as his daughter Oei.
- Masami Teraoka brought the image up to date with his 2001 watercolor "Sarah and Octopus/Seventh Heaven",[1] part of his "Waves and Plagues" collection.