Original antique Japanese color woodblock Hokusai (1760-1849). Shunga (Erotic print). Date: c.1815-17.
Series: Fukujuso (' The Adonis Plant') a.k.a. 'Lovemaking at New Year's'. Oban yoko-e size: 15" x 10" inches.
Fine impression with gauffrage and use of metallic pigments, very good colors and condition.
Slight centerfold, very slightly trimmed, some minor wrinkling and soiling. A very small repair (hardly noticeable!).
Minor marks and flaws else in an excellent state for a print of this period and extreme rarity ! 

From Hokusai's most celebrated shunga series Fukujuso, this is plate 7 depicting the maladroit rape scene ! 
This print is from the earliest edition of this series with the text printed above the figures ! The Fukujuso series has been described in countless books, treatises, essays, magazines...etc.

The 'Fukujuso'-series is characterized by the enormous scale of the figures, their exceptionally bold placement on the page, and the contrast between the rounded nude forms and the terse crinkled lines of the garment.

Pl. 7: "Hokusai here offers us a welcome change of pace: turning from the world of passionate lovers to a scene of near-comedy - as a clownish sansuké, bath-house attendant, attempts to seduce a maiden he has long lusted for, as she emerges from the bath. Although in general rape scenes do not appeal to me, in this case one tends to sympathize with the clumsy, love-lorn servant - who holds a coin in his ear, as was the custom of purse-less lackeys". (excerpt from Vol.23 of Richard Lane and Yoshikazu Hayashi's treatise on Hokusai's oban series Fukujuso)

An extremely rare opportunity for the devoted collector to own one of Hokusai's shunga masterpieces !!