The Giant Harigata – Utagawa School, c.1840s
 
In this bold and imaginative shunga diptych, a colossal woman reclines in pleasure as a team of miniature uniformed, military men assist her in an erotic ritual: helping to insert a massive harigata (dildo) using pulleys, teamwork, and deliberate coordination.  Far from a battle or struggle, this scene is a humorous and fantastical celebration of shared erotic effort and indulgence in exaggerated scale and fantasy.
 
Measures 22.1 cm x 18.1 cm.  Condition is decent+ with some wear, soiling, creasing at top corners, couple of wormage holes and pinholes.  Please see and judge from the photos provided.  
 
The woman’s relaxed, receptive posture and the men's focused activity suggest collusion, not conflict—a surreal visual joke on the logistics of satisfying immense desire.  The work embraces the absurd with a kind of gleeful reverence for both the female body and communal erotic labor.
 
Attributed to the Utagawa school, likely from the circle of Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III), this piece belongs to a rare and notorious 1840s shunga series that includes similarly oversized and grotesque erotic scenes.  Produced in defiance of Tenpō-era censorship, these prints use exaggeration and playful surrealism to explore themes of pleasure, fantasy, and societal tension.
It is referenced in academic works such as:
Timon Screech’s Sex and Laughter in Edo Japan, which discusses shunga’s comedic extremes and gender play.
Japanese Erotic Fantasies by Uhlenbeck and Winkel, where themes of size, tools, and ritualistic sex acts are placed in cultural context.
 
Today, this print is a favorite among collectors and scholars for its bold erotic imagination, technical humor, and iconic status within the grotesque shunga genre.