Japanese Venuses: Ten Types of Female Nude by Ishikawa Toraji

Tinkle of the bell (1934)

These sumptuous nudes were the work of Ishikawa Toraji (1975-1964).  They are from a set of ten nude prints called Ten types of female nude published in 1934, when he was nearly sixty.  They combine the aesthetics and woodblock printing technique of the classical period with a more European approach to anatomy.  Here, a ripe young woman teases her dog with a bell.

Dance (1934)

Nine out of ten of the pictures feature women in domestic environments but this one is rather different as it features a dancer or, actually, a stripper.  It is clear from the way the figure is lit that she is on stage.

Blue parrot (1934)

In this one there is a mixture of a traditional screen with nineteen thirties furniture and the exotica of a tiger skin.

At the bath (1934)

The prints, although far from explicit, were sensuous enough that the series was banned by the Japanese authorities.  Here a young lady dries herself in a traditional bath, probably in a hot spring resort (onsen)

Morning (1934)

In complete contrast here we have a woman in a very modern bathroom.  These bathroom pictures are reminiscent of those done by French nineteenth century artists who were, in turn, very influenced by Japanese prints.

Reading (1934)

Several of the women in this series have European, short, hair styles and these girls were known as moga (modern girl) in Japan at the time.  Toraji visited both the US and Europe (he studied in France) from 1902 until 1903 so would have been exposed to a lot of western art, which had only started to be seen in Japan in the eighteen eighties.

Bored (1934)

Another reading girl and another animal, in this case a cat, in this one.  The naturalistic physical shape of the women in this set of prints is obviously influenced by contemporary European representations of the nude and is far from the Japanese idealised form of earlier years.

Black cat (1934)

Another cat here, in this tactile-looking print.  Toraji became very involved in the development of art education in Japan.  In 1943 he became head of the Pacific Art School

Relaxing (1934)

A pair of very modern black stockings and more contemporary furniture feature in this print.  She is reminiscent of one of Toulouse Lautrec's prostitutes. These pictures emerged during the shin hanga (new prints) period of Japanese art from about 1915 until 1940.  It was driven, to a large extent, by foreign interest in Japanese prints and there were big exhibitions of shin hanga prints in Toledo in 1930 and 1936.  After this, deteriorating relationships with the western powers saw this external market die away.

Springtime of life (1934)

Finally, we have a young lady admiring herself in the mirror.  So, a splendid set of prints melding traditional Japanese woodcut technique with a European infused aesthetic.

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Non-centrefold Venus of the Month 13: Derna Wylde, September1976

Although we had a Penthouse Non-Centrefold of the Month for August and, moreover, she was from the previous month in the same year, we have decided not to get stressed about this and just post whoever we want!  It's more important that we try to catch up over the next few months, having got hopelessly behind.  We would like, by March, to have got to the situation where we are posting girls from the appropriate month in the appropriate month!  Well, at least, that's what S from Vancouver tells us we have to do!

This young lady is one we remember from when the September 1976 issue of Penthouse came out.  We didn't have this issue but we remember someone bringing it into school.  It was the UK edition, of course, but the pictorials that month were the same, although the US edition was out a month later than the US one.  Most of our classmates preferred the voluptuous charms of Dawn Shaw, that month's centrefold (who, indeed, was lovely) but at the time we preferred the other two girls in that issue Derna Wylde and Sienna Welles.

Derna, Penthouse maintained (although by this point what they said about their models was usually a complete fabrication) was half Chinese and half American Indian (none of this Native American stuff back then).  Whether she really was or whether it was just because it was shot out in the American West, with the inclusion of a random Indian, we don't know.

Anyway, here is Derna wandering out of the woods in her cowboy boots and with her guitar.  It's these sorts of scene-setting pictures that made pictorials from this period so superior to what we get today.  It's really like the process of imagining what a pretty girl looks like naked.  There is no fun to be had in guessing if she is naked from the start!

Time for a quick strum and to unveil those lovely legs.  We remember the dreaded midi skirt from the seventies.  First introduced in 1970 (or rather reintroduced) the mid seventies version of the most unflattering skirt length in history was full, like Derna's example here.  At least the forties incarnation (the previous period it was in fashion) was cut tight to the hips and legs.

Here we get our first proper look at Derna with one of those bust squeezing shots that Penthouse loved so much.   We're not quite sure where the bucket came from, it wasn't on her backpack!

Getting the girls to touch their pussies had been a feature of the magazine for about a year so here Derna checks on her impressive bush.  One advantage of a midi skirt being, of course, that you don't need to wear knickers.

Underneath her red top Derna reveals our favourite garment on a woman: the white cotton vest.  Her perky bust produces a very pleasing effect here!

In this effective up-the-skirt photograph we can see that Derna does, indeed, seem to have some oriental blood although, of course, the ancestors of Native Americans came from Asia anyway.

In this one she has her hair up which is something that Agent Triple P appreciates on a young lady, especially if there are random wispy bits escaping from the formal arrangement.

Derna, as you can see from this picture, has very long hair indeed.  As to her other visible hair in this one she has straight pubic hair.  Triple P only has experience of three naked Chinese women and they all had straight pubic hair but whether this is a defining characteristic of oriental women we don't know.  Derna's labia are prominent enough to rise above her bush, anyway.

Now she is perfectly attired,  for Triple P anyway, in just her vest.  A wet vest at that!

This is the photograph which we particularly remember from when we first saw this pictorial over thirty-five years ago!  Completely splendid!

The summer of 1976 was very hot in Britain and at the end of the summer term at school some of us would sit near the fence that divided us from girls' school next door and try to encourage them to do cartwheels.  A couple of the naughtier girls (yes, C, we mean you) knew exactly what they were doing and cavorted to great effect.  A naked demonstration such as this, however, would have been too much for our system, we suspect!  We got excited enough just seeing their knickers and firm young thighs! Needless to stay, the school soon introduced a distance limit from the fence, beyond which we weren't allowed to go, to keep us from speaking (and watching!) the girls next door!  Spoil sports!

Finally naked, Derna puts her splendid body into a wonderfully sculptural  shape in the water.

This pictorial, was shot by Mindas, who was only credited with one other Penthouse pictorial, May 1976's Three's Company which we will be posting on The Seduction of Venus very soon.  Whether Mindas was the name of a particular photographer or an alias for one of Penthouse's regulars we don't know.

These final four pictures are photographed in a very different style from the others in the pictorial.  It's not clear if these were shot indoors or whether outdoors as all you can see is the ethnic blanket.  If he (or she!) was not working under an alias then it's shame that Penthouse didn't use him more as he produced some striking images in this pictorial.

Very much more soft-focus than the exterior shots they also have a strong, warm colour cast to them.

The only thing we would have liked to have seen from Derna is a smile!  She looks quite gloomy throughout the pictorial!  Still, one to bring back memories!

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Japanese diving Venus: Awabi fisher by Hiroaki Takahashi

Awabi Fisher (c. 1936)

This print by Hiroaki Takahashi was published by Fusui Shobo who, like others in this short Shin Hanga period, was inspired by the classic Ukiyoe artists of classical times. This picture also owes a lot to Goyo in its restrained use of patterened colour with a bold female nude.

Hiroaki, who also used the name "Shotei", was born in Tokyo in 1871. He first studied classical Japanese painting at the age of nine. He started producing prints for the publisher Watanabe in 1907 but unlike Goyo was much more prolific: producing some 500 prints for Watanabe before the disastrous Kanto earthquake of 1923 and another 250 afterwards. He also produced another 200 prints for Shobido Tanaka. This is a rather atypical print for Hiroaki who tended to concentrate on landscapes such as the one below.

River boats in the evening (c.1930) by Hiroaki Takahashi

The girls who dived for Awabi (abalone) had a reputation in Japan for great sensuality and the artist has captured the effect of long, wet hair on bare shoulders in an almost tactile way.

These diving girls (Ama) were the exception in Japanese art to the non-depiction of nudes and many of the classical artists depicted Awabi or pearl divers.

This earlier picture, by Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900), depicts Awabi divers in action and was published in 1886.

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Japanese Venus: Woman after the bath by Goyo Hashiguchi

Woman after the bath (1920)

If there is one artist who has been more influential than any other on Agent Triple P's pen and ink figure work it is Goyo Hashiguchi (1880-1921). His restrained use of colour as a way to give his delicate line figures a solid presence on the paper are a model for subtle printmaking and demonstrate the extraordinary lengths he went to to produce the highest quality image.

Goyo (real name Hashiguchi Kiyoshi) was the son of a samurai from Kagoshima. His father taught him traditional Kano painting but eventually Goyo went to Tokyo where he studied Western art and graduated top of the class at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1905.

After graduating he was really more of a scholar than a practising artist although he did some book illustration. In 1911 he got his first big break: to design a ukiyo-e style poster for the Mitsukoshi department store.

Bathing (1915)

He came to the attention of publisher Watanabe Shozaburo who was looking for artists with European training to produce what he called shin hanga (new prints). These were modern prints but produced in a traditional style aimed at the valuable new Western market. Watanabe had also adoped the fairly new tradition from the west of limited edition numbered prints which could realise higher prices than the traditional non-limited edition. Watanbe realised that Goyo, with his Western style training, could be a valuable addition to his team. Goyo did produce one print, a masterpiece named Bathing (1915), for Watanabe but he was a perfectionist and felt that Watanabe's standard of printmaking wasn't high enough and never worked with him again. Also, having been trained in the Western method Goyo may have appreciated more independence than Watanabe's set up gave him; he was not the only artist to leave the publisher's stable.

Nevertheless, his experience with Watanabe had got him interested in printmaking and he went on to supervise the production of a 12 volume book of reproductions of classical Japanese ukiyo-e prints which increased his knowledge of the printmaking process. From 1918 until his death at the age of 41 he produced 13 more prints, mainly of women (bijing-a).

Woman at a hot spring hotel (1921)

Goyo suffered from ill health most of his life (he had beri beri) and died of meningitis. Nevertheless he managed to supervise his last print, Woman at a hot spring hotel (1921) from his death bed. His total output was only 14 prints ( four landscapes, one picture of ducks and nine of beautiful women) during his lifetime although after his death his brother and nephew worked to produce more prints from his sketches. As a result of his low output and small print runs (often less than 80 copies) his prints fetch fabulous sums these days.

Woman washing her face (1920)

Nudes had never really been a feature of Japanese art and even the most erotic Shunga art, produced by masters such as Utamaro or Hokusai (with the exception, which we will explore another time, of fisher girls), featured women who are invariably dressed. Goyo, however had learnt to draw from life and his pictures can be regarded as the first successful nudes in Japanese art; perfectly pulling together the European and classical Japanese traditions.

Woman washing her hair (1920)

In our final picture Goyo has sensuously depicted the woman's long hair; something that would only usually be seen by a member of her family, as hair was always worn up in several buns at this time. It adds an intimate and slightly voyeuristic quality to this beautifully composed print.

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