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As Japan's first encyclopedia of sex, Kōshoku kinmō zui drew on the long history of East Asian sex education to deliver not only a technical guide to activities in the bedroom but also pointers on how to manage intimate relationships, and a wealth of other information pertaining to various aspects of Kōshoku (eros, lust, sex). Illustrated and probably also written by Floating World artist Yoshida Hanbei (act. late 17th century), the book overcame the limitations of earlier publications, such as guides to the pleasure quarters, health manuals and purely erotic books, to present a comprehensive view of sexual life. This article examines the wider social context of peace and prosperity that supported Hanbei's ambitious effort to encompass the range of sexual experience in a single volume, then traces the characteristics of previous works related to sex, and provides a detailed survey of the contents of Hanbei's book. The discussion offers Kōshoku kinmō zui as important evidence for understanding sexual experience in Japan during the first part of the Edo period.

Edo period erotic art, which we now call shunga, was known in earlier times as warai-e (laughing pictures) or warai-hon (laughing books). War ai meant that the books were to show the emotions of enjoyment and happiness, and it also had the hidden meaning of the vulva. These warai-e also were meant to be humorous. Suzuki Harunobu's famous print series Enshoku Mane'emon showed the adventures of a tiny \"Bean-man\" spying on the carnal affairs of individuals around the country, and usually showing the funny side of such encounters from the perspective of the voyeur. This humor was revealed both in the images and in the text. Ōyogari no koe, printed in 1822 by Utei Enba II and Utagawa Toyokuni I, was a work that integrated text and image masterfully in the form of comic, erotic short stories. However, among the images there is the unpleasant scene of a corpse being raped. This violent scene can be traced back to the kabuki play Kokoro no nazo toketa iro ito (1810) by Tsuruya Nanboku IV and Sakurada Jisuke II, which in turn was based on an actual incident in Edo. In the latter part of the Edo period, the humor of warai-e gradually lessened, and the article analysis this particular image as pivotal in this development of non-consensual sexual relations, by showing the complete lack of communication between the man and the dead woman.