You can now wear the birthplace of Japanese tentacle porn on your feet with Shunga Sneakers

Famous woodblock print from master painter Hokusai adapted to sneakers that leave the naughty bits to your vivid imagination.

One of the most iconic pieces of Japanese art is The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, also known as “19th-century anime tentacle porn” or “That painting of the woman getting it on with an octopus.”

Those base nicknames downplay the historical significance and complexity of the painting, however. For example, the woman in the painting is actually amorously entangled with two octopuses, but more importantly, The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife was created by master ukiyo-e woodblock print artist Hokusai, as part of his extensive dabbling in the shunga (erotic art) movement of Edo-period Japan, which helped popularize the collection of art among the common people.

Given its pedigree, some scholars would argue that The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife is fit to display in any museum of fine art, and now it can also be displayed on your feet.

Japanese fashion company YUANinc has recently unveiled its plans for a Shunga Sneaker line, and for the first model, they’re saluting Hokusai’s 1814 shunga masterpiece. The design splits the image down the middle, with the woman and smaller octopus on the right shoe and the larger sea creature on the left.

This division leaves out the larger octopus’ busy mouth and the woman’s pubic hairs, which then exist either in the observer’s imagination or in some invisible nether-space between your feet.

Some might say that this makes the sneakers more acceptable to wear in public, while others could make the case that the implied eroticism, as well as the way the octopus’ mouth and woman’s head will appear to vigorously bounce and thrash about as you take steps, makes for a steamy new way to appreciate the picture.

By the way, we should point out that while the painting is called The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife in English, the original Japanese title makes no mention of the woman being married.

The original Japanese title is Tako to Ama, which translates to “The Octopuses and the Diver” (ama being female divers who traditionally collected shellfish off Japan’s coasts). So while the painting does include such scandalous material as three-way interspecies sexual pleasure, it’s not necessarily showing an adulterous relationship.

▼ And so the painting not only foreshadows the tentacle sex which would become so strongly associated with anime, but also the problem of unfaithful English localizations making significant changes to the original Japanese plot.

As you might suspect, though, even in the painting’s home country of Japan, it’s still a bold choice for a footwear motif, and so the Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife sneakers aren’t being sold in regular retailers. Instead, they’re being offered through a crowdfunding campaign on Japanese website Campfire, with follow-ups featuring other shunga if this first model gets a strong enough response.

Reward tiers including a pair of the slip-on shoes start at 7,900 yen (US$70), and the campaign page can be found here.

Source, images: Campfire/YUANinc

Credit: