User:Bearhugsrbest/sandbox
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The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife (蛸と海女, Tako to ama, literally Octopus and shell diver) is an erotic woodcut by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. Done in the ukiyo-e style, the print was first published in 1814 in a three-volume collection entitled Kinoe no Komatsu. The work epitomized the shunga, or erotic, style, and influenced many artists and art forms. The print depicts a woman engaged in seemingly consensual intercourse with a pair of octopus; one is seen giving he cunnilingus, while the other caresses her breast and kisses her. Some scholars have asserted that the piece takes it subject matter inspiration from a Japanese legend in which a pearl diver steals from a sea god, and is pursued by ocean life, including octopuses.
This eroticism would have been more accepted in the east than the west, and has inspired a number of pieces and movements. Hokusai’s work pioneered the realistic depictions of the human form in Japanese erotica. The print began the genre later known as tentacle porn, which became a large part of Japanese hentai pornographic movement after depictions of male genitalia were banned in the country. Works derived from the print have sparked debate over pornography, art, and obscenity in Australia, and even Pablo Picasso drew inspiration from the work on a number of occasions. The film Tampopo also drew its inspiration in large part from the print. It has proven to be one of Hokusai’s most influential pieces.