Shunga is the 'generic name give to the erotic paintings, prints and illustrated books of Japan` as a whole. However this title is more specifically attached to an element of a movement which flourished between 1660-1860 known as the art of Ukiyo-e. These works created by the Ukiyo-e illustrated the alternative culture of the 'floating world' and shunga specifically depicted the 'sexual practices and conventions of (this) lively and uninhibited society'. These images were mass produced wood cut prints and as such 'were first and foremost, commercial products'; rather than objects of high art as their painted equivalents would have been. Indeed without the wood block there could have been no Ukiyo-e art as it is known today. The increasing urbanisation of Japan and the creation of demographically artificial cities coupled with advances in technology are all implicit in the growth of shunga. Edo (modern day Tokyo) had a population which was two thirds male which 'had clear implications for auto-eroticism and hence erotica'. Indeed Edo was even referred to as the 'city of bachelors' by 17^th century writer Ihara Saikaku. Increasing wealth amongst this urban population coupled with the strict social strata of Japanese society caused a situation whereby although individuals were better off, there social position had not changed and they began to seek outlets for their new found wealth. Barred from politics and Government these men turned their frustrated efforts to   the 'pursuit of pleasure which became an escape from harsh realities'. The initial market for these prints was the isolated men of urban areas who sought to lose themselves in a fantasy of the 'floating world', it was previously thought that these images were also used as sex education tools but this is seldom entertained now. These images were cheaply produced and widely available through print shops for private delectation.

The earliest Ukiyo-e illustrated book known was a work of shunga produced by Yoshiwara in Edo in 1660 which was then followed by a non-erotic illustrated book. After this the first woodcut prints without text were produced in the pattern of the painted makimono whereby they are produced in sets of twelve, to coincide with the months of the year, and mounted on a scroll or in an album for ease of handling. The combination of cheap methods of reproducing images and a plentiful supply of paper  enabled a boom in the production of shunga, so much so that an edict was issued in 1722 in an attempt to 'proscribe the shunga, lower public expenditure on life's frivolities and turn the citizens of Edo to a more sober life'. At this point some of the best artists seemed to lose interest in shunga almost abandoning it completely and large erotic albums became increasingly rare. It is not until the 1760s that shunga makes a significant reappearance again, coinciding with greater public freedom than had not previously been known and developments in full colour printing. Nishiki-e (full colour) was all the rage and Utamaro was considered to be the master exploiting every resource of wood cut technique. Hokusai (1760-1849) was considered to be the last great artist of the Ukiyo-e school and although more advanced shunga was produced after this time, metallic powder inks and gauffrage came into use briefly, it was considered inferior. As the later work has 'none of the poetry, tenderness or humn insight of earlier periods- they are magnificent, but ultimately empty displays of technical virtuosity'. The breaking of isolation in 1853 meant that a hither-to untouched Japan that had no contact with the Western world was replaced by a country eager to accept Western cultural values by the Meiji period (1862-1912). The Old Japan could not survive the arrival of the Americans and the collapse of Shogunate in the 1868 restoration of the Imperial Throne and as such shunga no longer seemed to have a meaningful role and was sub sequentially banned as was outlandish sexual practice. It was the Meiji period's rejection of Ukiyo-e 'as vulgar, plebeian and tasteless that allowed the first great Western collections to be made'.

The first shunga prints that arrived in Europe came as wrapping paper for other goods, such was their lowly status in Meiji period Japan. By 1870 Parisian dealers had begun to seek out the best examples of the prints as Japanese Art was 'treated as a completely new discovery'. At this time the 'cult of the East' was particularly strong driven by the new trade links and Japonisme and Chinamania was en vogue. The impact of Japanese prints on Western Art was dramatic as artists such as Whistler, manet, Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec all drew on 'their complete reliance on line and flat areas of colour (which) revealed a set of artistic values quite opposed to the traditions which dominated Western Art'. Auctions were held in London and Paris of Oriental Art and despite the fact that it did not realise sensational prices it fanned the public's interest. By 1888 dealer Siefried Bing had started a journal dedicated to Japanese art 'Le Japon artistique' and Zola had decorated his staircase so his visitors were struck by the 'furious fornications'. Etcher Felix Bracquemond became a vital champion of Japanese Art and 'if bracquemond was the zealot who sought to convert all of France to the art of the Orient- (then) Whistler played the same role in Britian'. The role of these two men in the rise of popularity of Japanese prints has been hotly debated as to whether they caused the craze (this is particularly relevant in terms of Whistler) or merely made the already fashionable more popular. Edmond de Goncourt was particularly taken stating 'a marvel of printing, with a softness, a harmony, which, I repeat, not one European print can rival'. Yet this fashion was short lived and by the 1890s it was on the way out. The influence of Japanese prints on Western art was very strong and a vital part of artistic development and for this reason alone they provide a point of interest for tracing the development of the Nabis, Realism and Pont-Aven. English collections of shunga were largely destroyed or anonymously donated to museums as Victorians discovered secret collections. More recently the change in legislation in Japan in recent years lifting the ban on the depiction of genitals in images, both photographic and imagined, has opened up the market more as shunga can be traded more openly and Japan has been seeking to change the reputation of shunga prints. As the Government has realised that indiscriminate exports had debased national culture they have been making efforts to buy back large amounts of work.