The Horny Monkey And A Nose Pick: Humorous Japanese Postcards by Kokkei Shinbun Sha – 1907-1909

 

The postcard above is over an ‘Amorous Monkey (Iroke zaru)’ attempting to undress a Japanese woman against her will. It’s an unusual tableaux. But then a lot about Japanese portrayals of sex is unfamiliar to all but the most adventurous Westerner (this Japanese sex guide and rope bondage (both NSFW) are cases in point).

Kokkei shinbun sha published the predatory monkey and many other ukiyo-e (woodblock) style postcards in Japan between 1907 and 1909 in Ehagaki sekai, a supplement to the Japanese satirical magazine Kokkei shinbun.

Subjects covered range from landscapes and fashionable youngsters to vulgar or subversive images, some with erotic undertones. In keeping with the content of Kokkei shinbun, many of the postcards are humorous or satirical. Most include a caption and small design in the upper right corner of the verso where the stamp would be placed. The image, caption, and design on the verso are meant to be read together in order to understand fully the meaning of the postcard.

Please check out our big collection of vintage design postcards in the shop.

Kokkei shinbun magazine

 

Kokkei shinbun (“Humor newspaper”) was a monthly satirical magazine founded by journalist Miyatake Gaikotsu in January 1901 in Tokyo. In May 1907, Miyatake began to publish Ehagaki sekai (“World of picture postcards”) under the publisher name Kokkei shinbun sha as a supplement to Kokkei shinbun. Each of the 26 issues of Ehagaki sekai contained 30 color postcards illustrated by various artists printed on a single uncut sheet folded to include 4 cards per page, with 2 cards on the cover. Under pressure from the Japanese government, Miyatake ceased publication of both Kokkei shinbun and Ehagaki sekai in June 1909.

You can buy this card and more Ehagaki postcards in the shop.

 

The Postcard Collector: Miyatake Gaikotsu

 

Gaikotsu was born Miyatake Kameshiro in Kagawa prefecture in 1867. His assumed surname means skeleton or skull. He launched his first satirical magazine at the age of 20. In 1889, an article parodying the Emperor earned him a fine and the first of four prison sentences. Undeterred, Gaikotsu started the Kokkei Shinbun in 1901. It was a popular success, but his lampoons of police chiefs, dishonest businessmen and corrupt journalists attracted numerous fines and threats: at length, Gaikotsu voluntarily shut the paper down in 1909, ending it with a ‘Suicide Issue.’

 

Besides commissioning postcards, Gaikotsu also collected them: he compiled more than two hundred albums of cards, many of them grouped thematically. There are, for example, albums devoted to women’s hairstyles, to illustrations of fruit, of clouds, and ‘curious things.’ There are albums of specially handmade postcards, of foreign postcards, of commemorative postcards. Even in the privacy of his collection, there is evidence of Gaikotsu’s satirical temperament in one album’s title: ‘Military Men – those who have destroyed Japan.’

 

“During the 1910’s, japanese porno-kitch was at it’s zenith. the artist and satirist Gaikotsu (Skeleton) Miyakatake filled his famous Kokkei Shinbun (Comic Newspaper) with a wealth of sexual innuendo… There were phallo-vuvlar symbols and all kinds of hints at sexual pastimes and phenomena- the most daring probably being the maid with with the japanese flag wrapped around her waist and carrying a sign saying “Today we are closed for a holiday”. The hint at monthly indisposition was suggested by having the red sun placed directly over her genital area. It can hardly have endeared Miyatake to the authorities; it pointed to a certain dissent in attitude, if not fact.”

– Fran Lioyd, Consuming Bodies: Sex and Contemporary Japanese Art

 

Please check out our big collection of vintage design postcards in the shop.

Via:MFA Boston’s Art, The Nonist, Newberry, Douban.