#shunga

Yippiee Im so happy with how this piece turned out :D I spent yesterday's whole afternoon researching Shunga art so the style would look acurate :33

In case anyone else is interested in Shunga, I found this gallery full of cool references!

(If you go through them, you may find which ones I used as reference to draw the katanas)

The text above them is poem 22 from Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase. It reads:

All night long, Yearning for his mate, Does the stag Fail to close his eyes, Belling until the dawn?

The idea to include the poem comes 100% from The Blood-Soaked Road to Paradise on ao3, so go read it for more awesome stag poetry >:)

The kanji at the bottom means "moon" -and more importantly- "Monday", which is what Dilluns means. So i thought it would look cool next to my signature xdd

As for the bg, I included tons of leaves to represent Konoha as a symbol for Madara and Hashirama's "alliance"/relationship :P

The painted flowers are pink sakura blossoms, which have a ton of meanings, but I meant them as symbols of 'the fleeting nature of life' (and the inevitable tragic end :")). They were also symbols of masculinity! So it's totally also about gay sex.

(I lowkey fuked up cuz thats definitely not what sakura tree branches look like xdd, but honestly, people who liked Shunga prolly didnt gaf about the flowers in the bg)

Aaand that's it for the bg elements 🤓🤓🤓

I think Madara's pose looks a little bit confusing, but honestly, hard to understand positions are a very prominent feature of Shunga, so I just rolled with it xDD

Matt gave me the idea of Hashirama commissioning a shit ton of Shunga of him and Madara, and that being the way the village confirms the rumor that they've been having an affair, and I totally fucking adore it x33

Crowley tries to get Aziraphale's attention surreptitiously, but the angel seems distracted as he departs the match.

Finally, Crowley approaches Aziraphale while he eats his post-match chanko-nabe and they dine together. Aziraphale explains that he's also on assignment, sent to wrestle his way to the top, demonstrating faith and devotion.

Aziraphale shares with Crowley the scrolls he's been collecting while on assignment. Local folk tales, Shinto rituals, and sumo techniques and rules.

Crowley challenges Aziraphale to a match to find out what the angel is really capable of.

Crowley loses. The angel cake is too powerful.

After losing the match, Crowley remarks on the wonders that all the shiko have been doing for that ass.

This is when Crowley learns that Kinoshin-zeki likes to eat out after every match. To regain his strength, of course.

When Aziraphale shows off his collection of shunga books, another demon overhears their subsequent wrestling. Eric quickly runs off to get backup to help the demon Crowley defeat the messenger of light.

The two devise a battle of miracles. They really put on a show for whoever happened to be watching.

Their respective sides satisfied, the two enjoy a final stroll before departing Japan for their next assignments.

にほんでに

てんしとへびは

しばられた

Link to a catalogue of all the individual posts which have the original prints and their artist credits. I encourage you to go look at the originals, they are so fascinating!

I hope that's enough of a story for you all because that's probably all I'll get around to. If it inspires you to make it into a real fic, I'd love to see it!

Edit: lol i wrote it after all!

Rated M, locked, 8,841 words