### Shunga and Sexual Expression: Social Background and Debate in the 1970s

### Shunga and Sexual Expression: Social Background and Debate in the 1970s

In the 1970s, Japan experienced rapid postwar economic growth, urbanization, and the development of a consumer society, and while people's lives became more affluent, social norms and moral values were still strongly influenced by the prewar period. Regulations surrounding sexual expression were particularly strict, and indecent documents and images were repeatedly exposed by the police and courts, with shunga and pornography being subject to judgment as to whether or not they were indecent each time.

Shunga, which was discussed in the conversation, is a type of ukiyoe that has been popular among the general public since the Edo period (1603-1868) and depicts a part of life and natural human activities by depicting sexual acts. However, in the postwar era, Japanese courts often regarded them as problematic for their "explicit depiction of genitalia" and often made them the subject of criminal cases. In response, some foreign countries, such as Australia, said, "It is incomprehensible to punish expression that depicts natural activities as they are," and Japanese sex restrictions were sometimes described as "uncivilized.

The 1970s was also a time when the women's lib movement and sexual liberation theory permeated society. Discussions on the institution of marriage and the concept of chastity, as well as the liberalization of contraception and divorce, were actively held, and there was a growing momentum to redefine sex as an area of individual rights and freedom. In the midst of this trend, there was an emphasis on the opinions that shunga should be recognized as a form of cultural expression and that it was unreasonable to make it a crime to depict sex as a part of nature.

This argument leads to an attitude that accepts sex not as a dualism such as "liberating/not liberating," but as something that is "just there. In Japan, where society was modernizing but was still cautious about openly discussing sex, the debate over shunga was a symbolic case of the struggle between sexual expression and culture, morality and freedom.

In short, the Shunga controversy of this period was not merely a discussion of obscenity restrictions, but also a reflection of how Japanese society positioned sexuality and how to reconcile culture and freedom in the midst of modernization.

--In this sense, the "Shunga and Sexual Expression" debate was a true testament to the intersection of social stagnation and new values in the 1970s.