Exhibition banner for Forms of Love, showing a detail from a shunga painting on a red ground

Forms of Love – Legendary Shunga Scroll Chigo Sōshi on Display

Now showing19 September 2026 – 17 January 2027¥1,500

The museum's first shunga show debuts the 14th-century Chigo Sōshi scroll, with Hokusai's Nami Chidori and love-themed works by Uemura Shōen. Ages 18+ only.

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On now All of November 2026

Hokusai made Nami Chidori in his seventies and cut everything that usually sets a shunga scene: no room, no surroundings, just two bodies filling the frame. The colour is brushed in by hand over printed outlines, and mica dust makes the backgrounds shine. All 12 sheets hang together in the final section.

You start with no shunga. The first section is love stories, including a Muromachi screen of 54 Genji fan paintings out for the first time in 27 years. Then comes the reason for the show: the Chigo Sōshi, an early 14th-century scroll kept for centuries at Daigo-ji and never shown publicly before. Different stretches are unrolled during the run.

Bijutsu Techo's opening report points to the craft that's easy to miss: drawn kimono linings, exact hair and hands, and colour that survived because these works were rarely brought out. Entry is 18+, photo ID may be checked, ¥1,500 (¥1,400 online). The second floor is no photography, and an online ticket offers 9:15 early entry.

Editor's pick

Hokusai cut everything from Nami Chidori except two bodies filling the frame; all 12 sheets hang together, hand-coloured and glinting with mica. The draw is the 14th-century Chigo Sōshi scroll, never shown publicly before. Adults only.

Look for

Hokusai's Nami Chidori, all 12 sheets
Two bodies fill every frame with nothing around them, hand-coloured over printed outlines against backgrounds that glint with mica.
The Chigo Sōshi scroll
An early 14th-century handscroll of monks and temple acolytes, text and pictures in five chapters, with a modern Japanese translation alongside.
The Genji fan screen
A Muromachi-period pair of screens pasted with 54 fan-shaped scenes from The Tale of Genji, back on view after 27 years.
Tani Bunchō's Koshibagaki Sōshi copy, 1828
A scandal set at Arashiyama's own Nonomiya Shrine: a priestess preparing for Ise has an affair with the warrior guarding her.
Tsukioka Settei's Shunga
Courtiers, samurai and townspeople all appear, shown publicly for the first time; look at the kimono linings, hair and hands.