Woman Diver and Octopus

Ivory 76 x 55 x 34 mm, Shugetsu the First between 1764 and 1771?

A girl diver (ama), wearing nothing but a grass skirt is being ravished by an octopus. The creature's tentacles ensnares her legs and two of them curl about her breasts. She is making a token resistance but the arc of her neck, her hair tumbling down her back and the expression of pleasure on her face indicate her real feelings. Any ambiguity over the matter is dismissed when the piece is closely examined: it is possible by locking between the parted tentacles of the octopus, to see that the skirt by no means completely covers the girl, and that the embraces of the mollusc are far from displeasing.

Japanese art has always delighted in depicting women pearl divers being embraced by octopuses. Generally they are shown warding off the creature's blandishments but with this example the suggestion is that she is enjoying its attentions.

£ 290, Hindson auctions 1967.