The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife


I was having a discussion the other day about an ema, that J and I procured in Kyoto last year. It was from a small shrine devoted to tako *octopus. The image is simple, a woman praying on her knees to a large googley-eyed tako.


The Baron commented on how apeshit Westerners would have gone had they seen this shrine back in the days of conquest and cultural misunderstanding. I could only imagine the Japanese being seen as even more pagan because they appear to be praying to sea creatures. Ahh... ignorance in history. Anyways, I was researching the first forms of tako/woman love, since an entire genre of anime *hentai has been born from it. I am going to blame Hokusai, who brought us the titular piece of today's post, The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife. I like how he cunningly doesn't mention if it is a nightmare or not... left open to perverted interpretation.

A simple artistic interpretation of maritime fantasy becomes a future generation's whap fodder. I was reading an interview with one of the "hentai legends" Toshio Maeda, who had this to say about tentacles:

At that time [pre-Urotsuki Doji], it was illegal to create a sensual scene in bed. I thought I should do something to avoid drawing such a normal sensual scene. So I just created a creature. [His tentacle] is not a [penis] as a pretext. I could say, as an excuse, this is not a [penis], this is just a part of the creature. You know, the creatures, they don't have a gender. A creature is a creature. So it is not obscene - not illegal.

I guess that makes sense, when you consider that even pubic hair is considered vulgar in most Japanese pornography. Funny how they could get away with a woman clutching an oozing tentacle. Ha ha! Gotta give the gentleman props for imagination! This has become a pretty common theme in contemporary art, not just manga and the like.

I will leave you with some real tentacle porn...


might have to watch this and educate myself more...click!