Shunga Sensei
春画先生
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A young woman becomes apprentice to a reclusive scholar of shunga; connoisseurship turns into a comedy of desire.
Yumiko Haruno works in a café and expects nothing interesting ever to happen to her. One of the regulars is Ichiro Haga, the leading scholar of shunga, the erotic prints of the Edo period, known in the neighbourhood as Professor Shunga. A widower living like a recluse, he teaches her to look at the prints properly, not only at the genitals but at everything else the artist drew, and she becomes his pupil and housekeeper, visiting twice a week.
He takes her to a shunga gathering in a dress that belonged to his late wife, Ito. Yumiko falls for him, and grows jealous of the dead woman. Over drinks, Haga's editor, Shunsuke Tsujimura, tells her the legend: Haga once loved a woman who left him; her sister, Ito, who kept turning him away at the door, fell in love with him, and when they met again years later they shut themselves in an inn for seven days. Stirred, Yumiko sleeps with Tsujimura. The next morning she learns that, at Haga's request, he secretly relayed the sound of it to Haga by phone. She walks out. Haga comes to the café and begs her to return, saying he cannot live without her, and she goes back.
On a trip to appraise prints, the three meet a woman with Ito's face: Ichiha, Ito's twin, the lover who once left Haga. Haga disappears with her. Days later he calls. To obtain a rare print, he needs Yumiko to spend a night with its owner, who has asked for her. She agrees, on condition that she and Haga then repeat the legendary seven days. The owner is Ichiha, who whips her while Haga listens from under the bed. When Ichiha calls him out, Yumiko understands what he wants, turns the whip and her words on him, and they make love in front of Ichiha. Tsujimura is delighted, since Haga's great book on shunga can now go on. Yumiko, awake to a self she did not know she had, continues in the study of shunga at Haga's side, and gets her seven days.
Starring
Seiyo Uchinoas Ichiro Haga
A widowed scholar of shunga, known locally as Professor Shunga, who takes Yumiko on as his pupil and housekeeper.
Ichiro Haga’s story
Haga has left his university post and lives like a hermit, writing his great book on shunga. His past is a legend: a lover who left him because he took notes on an idea while making love to her, and her sister, Ito, who kept turning him away and whom he married after seven days at an inn. He dresses Yumiko in Ito's dress, has Tsujimura relay by phone the sound of his night with Yumiko, and when she leaves, begs her to return. When Ichiha, Ito's twin and the lover who left him, reappears, he vanishes with her, then asks Yumiko to spend a night with the owner of a print he wants. Called out from under the bed, he is whipped by Yumiko, and they make love. His book can go on, with Yumiko at his side.
Kana Kitaas Yumiko Haruno
A café worker bored with her life, who learns to look at shunga and falls for the man who teaches her.
Yumiko Haruno’s story
Yumiko expects nothing interesting to happen until Haga teaches her to look at a print: past the genitals, at everything else the artist drew. As his pupil and housekeeper she grows jealous of his dead wife, Ito. Stirred by the legend of his seven days with Ito, she sleeps with his editor, Tsujimura, and walks out on learning Haga listened by phone, then goes back when he begs. Haga asks her to spend a night with the owner of a print, and she agrees, if she may have seven days with him. The owner is Ichiha, Ito's twin, who whips her while Haga listens from under the bed. When Ichiha calls him out, Yumiko sees what he wants, turns the whip on him, and they make love. She stays at his side, and has her seven days.
Tasuku Emotoas Shunsuke Tsujimura
Haga's easygoing, womanising editor, who sleeps with Yumiko and secretly relays it to Haga.
Yumi Adachias Ichiha and Ito Fujimura
Twin sisters: Ito, Haga's late wife, and Ichiha, the lover who once left him and returns to draw him and Yumiko deeper.
Why it matters
Shunga Sensei takes erotic art seriously and desire lightly. It was the first commercial Japanese film on national release to show shunga uncensored, under an R15+ rating. Beneath the comedy is a story about what a woman finds when she is taught to look: at pictures, at the men around her, at what she herself wants. It does not hide the uglier side of her education. Yumiko is passed between men and listened to without her knowledge, and the film leaves open how much of her awakening is her own and how much serves an older man's book. Where it arrives is an unembarrassed picture of dominance and submission as something adults can choose, and a heroine who ends up, strangely and on her own terms, holding the whip.