Shirakura Yoshihiko (白倉敬彦)
Yoshihiko SHIRAKURA (1940 -) is a researcher and a writer on Ukiyoe (Japanese woodblock prints).
He was born in Hokkaido. A dropout from the Department of Literature at Waseda University. He is broadly involved in art planning and editing, including contemporary art producing. Executive Director of the International Ukiyo-e Society. With the "Ukiyoe Shunga o Yomu" (A reading of erotic Ukiyoe) published in 2000 as a beginning, he has written many books on Shunga (erotic Ukiyoe) and a red-light district of the early-modern period in collaboration with Yuko TANAKA. Although "Geisha to Asobi" (Geisha and professional entertainment) is a work of Yuko TANAKA, it describes that half was written by Yoshihiko SHIRAKURA.
In the "Ukiyoe Shunga o Yomu," he opposes Timon SCREECH's opinion by saying, 'Shunga is not pornography;' however, he was criticized that his definition of pornography was vague. In his next book, "Edo no Shunga" (Erotic Ukiyoe of the Edo period), he describes that he couldn't care less whether Shunga is pornography or not.
On September 9, 2007, he appeared on the TV program, "Tamori Club" ('It must have been eye-poppig for Ieyasu TOKUGAWA! Life of ordinary people was full of sexual energy! Edo people's bedroom rules').