The Erotic Odes

A Pillow Book

by Chris Mosdell

A bilingual edition translated by Shuntaro Tanikawa and Rie Terada. A collection of 48 (the number of sexual positions in the Japanese shijuhatte) odes (Meditations on Ms Inferno, Aphrodisiaxe, The Democracy of Touch, The Female Furnace) adjoined to a series of shunga (erotic Edo Period Japanese woodcut prints) graphically enhanced and coloured. Also included are commissioned pieces by the avant garde calligraphist Juichi Yoshikawa. A deluxe bedside edition. Original shunga from the private collection of Shuntaro Tanikawa’s father, the philosopher Tetsuzo Tanikawa.

First published by Libroport, Tokyo, 1997.
Republished by Seigensha Publishing, 2008.

“An intercourse of word and image, this publication is an orgiastic bicultural coup, a rare work of art.”
— Taylor Mignon, The Japan Times

Drunk on the Divine
You and your licentious elixir
I drank it in one gulp
Got any more?
— Chris Mosdell

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