In the mid-1840s, ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) created a number of woodblock prints showing legendary tanuki (raccoon dogs) using their humorously large scrota in creative ways.
River fishing
Shelter from evening showers
Rokurokubi (long-necked monster) disguise
Net fishing
Making dashi (soup stock)
Weightlifting
Catfish mallet
Coming and going
Making mochi
Visiting Konpira, the guardian deity of seafaring
Boy's festival
Cause of chronic abdominal pain
Shichifukujin (the Seven Lucky Gods) disguise
Fortune-telling tent
Shop signs
River crossing
Towboat
Seine fishing
See more of Kuniyoshi's tanuki images at Kuniyoshi Project (1, 2).
Quinn
I used to live in Saitama-shi and one afternoon spent an afternoon at the Meguro Parasitological Museum. There they displayed a 19th century ukiyo-e very similar to the "coming and going" above. It featured a man with, I assume, filaria being helped by another man to carry the first's much enlarged scrotum in a sling hung over a pole.
[]I assume you are currently living on Honshu. I'd highly recommend checking out the museum next time you have the chance. There are some enormous whale-borne parasites you'd likely enjoy.
Charles
Fascinating. The carefully executed woodblock printing seems to anoint these images with an undeniable credibility and honesty. The medium is most certainly the message.
Now how bout some big DICKED WALRUSES???
[]Will
Ask and ye shall receive.
http://www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?p=45349914
[]Observer Extraordinaire
I can do 15 out of those 18.
[]Timothy
Haha, these are ridiculous. Illustrations from the 1840s in Japan sure differ from those of the States.
[]juss
Culture in general greatly differ between the east and the west. The east is actually more advanced, intellectually, practically, and philosophically/spiritually. After all, the sun rises in the east.
[]Wick
"The east is actually more advanced, intellectually, practically, and philosophically/spiritually."
This wins as the absolute biggest load of crap I've come across today. Congratulations!
[]grrrrrr
It's quite true. I agree on every account. Eastern philosophy practically predicted quantum physics.
[]master
la mia es mas grande
[]profesor
Imposible, a no ser que seas de Pamplona. Los pamplonicas tenemos según el record Guiness la media de testiculos más grande del mundo. Llegan a pesar 80 kg en algunos casos, también pescamos con ellos atunes.
[]HCT5
I believe Hayao Miyasaki's animated movie Pom Poko was inspired by these illustrations.
[]robot makes music
Pom Poko is a 3 hour foray into tanuki ball-sack weirdness. Holy crap it's fucking CRAZY. The fact that we were watching the chinese bootleg with appropriately engrished up subtitles did not help, but you'll notice that Disney hasn't licensed this Ghibli creation and probably never will. It was a wonderful movie but it would probably tank at the box office in America.
It wasn't Miyazaki, bit it was Studio Ghibli. The director is Isao Takahata.
[]we like pastries
Actually Pom Poko was part of a deal between Disney and Ghibli where Ghibli provides Disneey with ten animated movies and Disney airs/shows them unedited. It's just not well known because of it's hilarious subject matter that prudes can't handle well.
[]Cory
On the contrary, robot makes music, Disney did! In the English dub, they're called "magical racoon pouches".
[]sanjuro
Ouch! it hurts just to look at them. Kuniyoshi sure was inspired to pain that many!
(psst, I doubt the tanuki anime lasts 3 hours)
[]sanjuro
Revelating typo... "paint"
[]PoomDomain
I wonder if their reproductive organs hurt. Wait, is it even a reproductive organ for them?
[]jam
these are awesome.
[]Ben
I can't read all of the signatures, but most of them are by the same person. Just one guy crazy obsessed with raccoon privates?
[]Paul
Now I know the origin of "Viz" magazine's "Buster Gonad and His Unfeasible Large Testicles" comic strip.
[]JAC
Eso se llama ''tener pelotas''.
[]Darcie
This is sickly disturbing! Why would you want to look at a cartoon with nasty over grown genitalia.
[]rooka
obvious how much lighthearted and fun-having these people are into. like the simillarly funny raging boners i've seen in cartoons coming from this land, the tradition of art laughing loudest is a testament.
[]Dontcha Know?
These drawings are pretty hilariously, disturbing. I love it! =D
[]riddly
A bit more international than you think...."Viz" magazine (which had it's heyday in the 90's in the UK- and is still published) features a character called Buster Gonad who plays similar testicular tricks.......
[]Devin
Actually, that was most likely a spin-off on Japanese culture. The tanuki (raccoons featured in these artworks) arose from Japanese legends hundreds of years ago.
[]Russell
you can't contest their ball-tickling hilarity.
[]BarbJ
What a riot- Laughed my pants off!
[]Marissa
has anyone read tom robbin's villa incignito? the main character is a tanuki but they describe him as half badger half man... and yes with balls big enough to parachute with or something. weird, it's an amazing book though. a lot of odd shit like that
[]Murakami 0032
lol! hahaha! now i know where Isao Takahata (Director, the raccoon war)get his inspiration from.
pom poko is hilarious!
[]Kiki
This man is officially my favorite Japanese printmaker.
[]Kat
I am writing a blog about Tanuki's special powers in Japanese Ukiyo-e/Woodblock Prints:
http://sweb1.dmit.nait.ca/~katrina/DMIT208/tanukiyoe/
I'm planning to talk about Tanuki in Japanese folklore to shed some light on how these hilarious scenarios played out.
[]sitoopman
Japanese, the original furries... uegh
[]K2L
Truly the ballsiest work of art I've seen in ages.
[]