Performing female roles of the Floating World in Utamaro’s Negai no Itoguchi

In recent years, gender has become a widely debated subject, not only within academia, but also in society at large. Similarly, the study and public engagement with erotic ukiyo-e, woodblock-printed shunga (‘spring pictures’), has increased both in Japan and elsewhere. The relevance of the application of modern research fields, such as gender studies, to a historical context has also been widely debated in academia. Nevertheless, gender theory comprises a set of concepts that can largely be applied to different areas of study. This paper proposes an application of modern gender theories to the shunga genre.