Examining disturbing themes in Japanese art and folklore

The trend of depicting humans having sex with animals was particularly popular in 18th and 19th century Japanese art. same as many Adult Art of the Edo Periodthe story has more than just shock value. Many works are comedies, such as (NSFW) Trickster Portrait of Utagawa Kunisada Shows a man having sex with a beautiful woman, and when opened, it is revealed that the man – an enchanted fisherman – is actually having sex with a magical fox, and is having sex with a magical fox before other foxes steal his The fish is distracted.

Other similar “erotic” paintings also used animals as stand-ins for gods, which should not be too surprising to those familiar with them. Greek mythology. But then came paintings and stories of fishermen having sex with stingrays, which didn’t seem to fit into either category. What are they about? It turns out, a lot.

Not a one night stand

Bestiality has been considered a serious offense in Japan since at least the eighth century. just then trivia, The oldest literary sources in the country’s history record a push to purify the land after the legendary Emperor Cai’s death by identifying and eradicating the worst crimes a person could have committed. These included being skinned alive, incest, and “mating with horses, cows, chickens, and dogs.” You’ll notice there are no sea creatures on this list, so…does stingray sex actually happen as a moral loophole for lone fishermen?

Our evidence includes pornographic portraits of Toshihide Katsukawa in the book Da Nan Mi (1789) shows humans and stingrays having sex on a beach. The illustration is accompanied by humorous comments about the excitement of the scene from the flounder in the fisherman’s bucket. If that was all we had to go on, it would be easy to write off the whole thing as a joke. But there’s more.

exist Fang Fangjie Da Huiben (Mid-Edo period) In the works of Terasawa Masatsugu and Sounsai Sensui, there is a scene of a fisherman having sex with a mermaid (fortunately it is not just that A human head grows on a fish) and commented that it felt much better than the Stingray, implying a lot of… experience with the latter. This belief that people often have sex with stingrays can most likely be traced back to a specific folktale.

There is a statue of Taro Urashima riding a turtle on the roof of the shrine.

stingray wife story

stingray wife This is a legend from mainland Japan that tells of an incident that is said to have occurred in Okinawa, where local fishermen caught a giant stingray, mated with it, and then released it. A year later, at sea, a young stingray swam up to the fisherman, spoke in a human voice, and told him that he was the stingray’s son and that he should go with him. The fisherman is then taken to the Dragon King’s palace where he meets his stingray wife and enjoys a sumptuous feast before deciding to return to his human wife.

This is obviously a take story Urashima Taro, It dates back to the eighth century and does not contain any bestiality (Taro is invited by the Dragon King after rescuing a turtle). There is also a possibly older legend of a fisherman from a rural corner of mainland Japan who simply fathered a child with a stingray, and his mermaid offspring later found work living in seclusion in the mountains.

Shuri Tamau Mausoleum, Okinawa, Japan, is one of the three major royal tombs of the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Is xenophobia the answer?

The fact is stingray wife Stories from around Okinawa may help us understand the origins of these stories of people mating with stingrays. For much of the 18th and 19th centuries, Okinawa—or rather the Ryukyu Kingdom—became a vassal of Japan after the invasion of the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma domain in 1609. Even so, it remains within China’s sphere of influence. So much so that Japan had to take advantage of The first and only Chinese warrior History in conducting business with the islands.

To the people of the Edo period, Ryukyu was a strange, isolated land, and their attitude toward Ryukyu was essentially the same as their attitude toward the rural areas of their own country: “Who knows what strange things might happen to the people there?” thing?” Let it marinate for a while and you’ll eventually hear stories about fishermen having sex with fish. This is essentially the Japanese equivalent of labeling Welsh people “sheep-shaggers” in English.

But why stingrays in particular? No one knows the exact answer, but Katana possible contributed to this. The handle of the katana has long been covered in stingray skin (often mistranslated as “shark skin”), which protects the wood from moisture and provides a non-slip grip due to its rough surface. If you’re going to lie about people having sex with animals, you might as well pick an animal that’s crucial to producing respectable weapons for extra outrage. Or, according to other sources, it has more to do with stories claiming that female stingray genitals resemble human ones. We decided not to verify this fact. you understand.

Related posts