Octopus Ogles Lady Pearl Diver in Amusing Shunga Show

The French writer Edmond de Goncourt made an unusual purchase in 1863: “some albums of Japanese obscenities” which delighted, amused and charmed him.

These were not truly obscene, Goncourt said, because they disappeared “into fantasy.” On the evidence of a new exhibition at the British Museum, London, that seems to be a fair judgment.