History and Description
The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife is the most famous image in Kinoe no Komatsu, published in three volumes from 1814, during the Edo period. The book is a collection of shunga, a form of erotic art popularized by the ukiyo-e movement. The image, Hokusai's most famous shunga, depicts a woman, evidently an ama (a shell diver), enveloped in the arms of two octopuses. The larger of the two mollusks performs cunnilingus on her, while the smaller one, perhaps his son, assists on the left by fondling her mouth and nipple. In the text above the image the woman and the creatures express their mutual sexual pleasure from the encounter. The text reads:
LARGE OCTOPUS: My wish comes true at last, this day of days; finally I have you in my grasp! Your "bobo" is ripe and full, how wonderful! Superior to all others! To suck and suck and suck some more. After we do it masterfully, I'll guide you to the Dragon Palace of the Sea God and envelop you. "Zuu sufu sufu chyu chyu chyu tsu zuu fufufuuu..."
MAIDEN: You hateful octopus! Your sucking at the mouth of my womb makes me gasp for breath! Aah! yes... it's...there!!! With the sucker, the sucker!! Inside, squiggle, squiggle, oooh! Oooh, good, oooh good! There, there! Theeeeere! Goood! Whew! Aah! Good, good, aaaaaaaaaah! Not yet! Until now it was I that men called an octopus! An octopus! Ooh! Whew! How are you able...!? Ooh! "yoyoyooh, saa... hicha hicha gucha gucha, yuchyuu chyu guzu guzu suu suuu...."
LARGE OCTOPUS: All eight limbs to intertwine with!! How do you like it this way? Ah, look! The inside has swollen, moistened by the warm waters of lust. "Nura nura doku doku doku..."
MAIDEN: Yes, it tingles now; soon there will be no sensation at all left in my hips. Ooooooh! Boundaries and borders gone! I've vanished....!!!!!!
SMALL OCTOPUS: After daddy finishes, I too want to rub and rub my suckers at the ridge of your furry place until you disappear and then I'll suck some more. "chyu chyu.."
The work is untitled in the collection; it is generally known as Tako to ama in Japanese, translated variously into English. Richard Douglas Lane calls it Girl Diver and Octopi; Mathi Forrer calls it Pearl Diver and Two Octopi; and Danielle Talerico calls it Diver and Two Octopi. It measures 6½" × 8¾" (16.51 cm × 22.23 cm).
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