Attack of the Giant Vaginas – Utagawa School, c.1840s

This unforgettable and widely cited shunga woodblock print picture depicts a surreal and grotesquely comic reversal of sexual power, where terrified men are attacked by enormous, anthropomorphized female genitalia.
 
Attributed to the Utagawa school—possibly from the circle of Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)—this print is believed to date from the 1840s, a period marked by censorship and underground satire during the Tenpō Reforms.
 
Measures 22.1 cm x 18.1 cm.  Condition is decent+/good with some wear, soiling, creasing at top corners, two wormage holes around the flailing men.  Please see and judge from the photos provided.  
 
The work has drawn academic attention for its bold parody and cultural commentary.  It is discussed in Timon Screech’s Sex and Laughter in Edo Japan, where the scene is presented as a prime example of the humorous, transgressive edge of Edo-period erotic art.  It is also referenced in the landmark exhibition book Japanese Erotic Fantasies, edited by Uhlenbeck and Winkel, which explores the psychological and symbolic dimensions of such fantastical imagery.
 
Now considered one of the most notorious shunga prints ever produced, this piece is both outrageous and intellectually rich—blending sexual satire, social critique, and the fearless visual imagination of the late Edo period.