Japanese Kamasutra

My wife was looking at a website with Japanese Bento boxes and their accessories. On it, she found dishes and sake bottles that have frogs in numerous sex positions glazed into the porcelain. Each one had the Japanese name of the position (such as 'Yagura' and 'Takarabune'), but the photos on the website only showed a few positions and their names.

I got curious. I wanted to know the rest of the Japanese names for sex positions.

What I found was amazing. The names are often very poetic and sometimes difficult to reconcile with the actual position. For instance, 'Byakko Nishiki' or 'Dazzling Brocade' has the woman on her back with her legs raised up, bent at the knee, and spread apart. She holds the back of her thighs or knees to maintain the position, while the man plays with her pussy. Where is the brocade in this? Is it the woman's labia? Does the name come from her resembling a quilt rack?

Other positions have names that make perfect sense. Perhaps not the first thing to come to the Western mind, but you can at least see where the name came from. For example, 'Oshiguruma' or 'Pushcart' is the Western position called 'The Wheelbarrow'. The woman bends over from standing, putting her hands on the floor, and the man picks up her thighs and enters her. It looks like an erotic wheelbarrow race at the church picnic for the Temple of Aphrodite. Or an Oriental pushcart.

Some of your favorite positions have great new names. Good ol' Doggy-Style is 'Hiyodori-goe' or 'Riding down the Cliff'. 'Ajiro Honte' or 'Fish Trap' is the reliable Missionary position. All you Cowgirls are using the 'Shigure Chausu' or 'Drizzling Tea-grinding Mill', though many of you also use 'Authentic Tea-grinding Mill' (AKA 'Hon Chausu'), when you lean forward to tease your partner with your breasts. Try using these names with your partner, next time you're in bed together -- "Let's Ride down the Cliff tonight, honey."

I found some of these positions to new and full of possibilities. 'Inbound Boat' ('Irifune Honte') has the man kneel between the woman's spread legs, while she lays on her back. He pulls her hips up into his lap, enters her, and proceeds to go to town. Figuring out the leverage to be effective would be interesting, since the man can rise up on his knees, and watching the woman's body wiggling below would be fun. 'Assault on the Chessboard' ('Goban-zeme') is a standing position, where the woman bends over with her hands on the floor or a small ottoman, while the man penetrates her from behind.

Some seem physically impossible. One called 'The Anvil' ('Kinuta') involves the woman on her back with her hips and legs raised up. The man squats down, facing away from her head, sets his butt on her thighs, somehow inserts himself inside her, and they fuck. The angles seem all wrong, and it looks like entering the woman is impossible. If by some miracle the man got inside her, I'd think he'd have a serious chance of breaking his penis. 'Tachi Matsuba' or 'Perpendicular Pine Needles' could only work with a very, very, short woman and a very tall man. It has the standing man grab the ankles of the woman, lift her legs off the floor, dangle her upside-down, step one leg over her crotch, and then enter her. Another great opportunity to sprain the man's equipment. It kind of looks like a living 3-D St. Andrew's Cross, so the name is very appropriate.

Perhaps learning the Japanese names for these sex positions is too much work for Westerners, but these examples might inspire you to make up your own pet names for the sex positions you use most. I think I'm going to start calling Reverse Cowgirl 'Looking in the Rear-view Mirror'.

By the way, the two positions I mentioned in the first paragraph? 'Yagura' or 'Castle Tower' is standard Cowgirl, and 'Takarabune' ('Fortune ship') is Reverse Cowgirl.