The "most comprehensive" exhibition of "shunga" (Japanese erotic pictures) ever staged opened at the British Museum in London last week.
A total of 170 paintings, prints and book illustrations dating from 1600 to 1900 are being displayed until the beginning of next year.
Speaking to journalists, Timothy Clark, head of the museum's Japan section, has said that shunga became something of a taboo in Japan in the late 19th and 20th centuries and so far no exhibition entirely devoted to this art form has been arranged in its homeland.