Both legs are opened straight to the sides into the line of the character “one,” making a figure like chrysanthemum petals seen from directly above. Edo print-artists laid the old name of a famous sword over that bold opening. Makou-kikuichimonji (Japanese: 真向い菊一文字) is one of the face-to-face spread-leg derivatives in the forty-eight hands, in which the receiving partner lies supine, opens both legs straight out to the sides in a line, and the inserting partner enters from directly in front. An extreme application of the spread-leg position in Edo albums, demanding the flexibility to open the legs to nearly 180 degrees, the name fuses chrysanthemum-petal imagery with “ichimonji” (the straight horizontal line of the character 一).

Overview

In makou-kikuichimonji the receiving partner lies supine and externally rotates both legs at the hip to open them wide to the sides, the legs forming a near-straight line. The inserting partner sets in from the front between the legs and couples face to face. The near-full spread describing the figure of the character 一 (“one”) gives the name. Where kannon-biraki generalised as the common name for the wide-spread position, makou-kikuichimonji is the proper name within the forty-eight-hands system for the same extreme spread, the two kinematically very close, in effect the same position named in different contexts. Makou (“facing”) is an Edo album term for a face-to-face form, making explicit that the position is frontal rather than rear-entry or side-lying.

The name “kikuichimonji” is also a celebrated old sword-name: blades called “Kikuichimonji” survive among the work of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school (Norimune and others), known as the swordsmiths-in-attendance to the retired Emperor Go-Toba, a high-prestige signature fusing Go-Toba’s chrysanthemum crest with the character 一. The position name is held possibly to borrow from this sword signature, a naming structure transferring martial vocabulary to a sexual position, akin to the sumo-derived “kata-sukashi” (modern matsubakuzushi), a representative case of the forty-eight-hands feature of “borrowing from the martial arts.”

Etymology

Makou (also mamukai) carries the sense of facing or frontal, used in forty-eight-hands names to make explicit a face-to-face form. Kiku (chrysanthemum) is a principal flower of Japanese tradition, used for the imperial crest, family crests, dress patterns, and poetry; its radiating petals invite analogy with opened legs. Ichimonji names a form extended straight like the character 一, used in sword signatures, warrior crests, dress patterns, and dance, connoting an unhesitating straight gesture. “Kikuichimonji” combines these, a figure holding both the radiating chrysanthemum and the straight line; as a sword signature it names the high-prestige blades of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school. The forty-eight-hands name likens the receiving partner’s legs opened straight to the sides to chrysanthemum petals opening on either side with the line extending below, a typical case of literary naming fusing martial and floral imagery, showing the high decorative refinement of early-modern album naming.

History

The name appears intermittently in late-Edo albums, belonging to the application group of the codified later period. Extreme spread-leg positions in the albums belong to the lineage of “positions to be shown,” prioritising pictorial impact over the functionality of coupling: opening the legs to nearly 180 degrees was more a visual device intending compositional shock than a reflection of prevalence in actual practice. In the albums of Kunisada, Toyokuni, and Hokusai, extreme spread-leg compositions recur, though those signed specifically “kikuichimonji” or “makou-kikuichimonji” are limited, most transmitted as unnamed spread-leg subjects, the correspondence of proper name to image not strict and varying by edition. In Utamaro the spread-leg subject couples with the idealised depiction of the female body; in Hokusai it is folded into geometric composition as the organisation of decorative line.

In modern AV and adult media the wide-spread position is generally called kannon-biraki, a term derived from the double-leaf door of Buddhist altars, settled as a vernacular for the posture in the late 20th century. Makou-kikuichimonji and kannon-biraki denote kinematically the same position but differ in cultural source: the former in the literary and martial naming of Edo albums, the latter a vernacular transfer of Buddhist-architectural vocabulary, their coexistence showing the cultural layering of position naming from early-modern to modern times.

Form

The receiving partner lies supine and externally rotates both legs at the hip to open them wide to the sides; a full 180-degree spread requires flexibility training such as ballet or yoga, and in practice an opening of 120 to 150 degrees is usual. The inserting partner sets in from the front between the legs and couples kneeling or with the hips set. After coupling, the motion is the inserting partner’s fore-aft hip movement as in face-to-face missionary; the extreme spread gives the hip motion large freedom and makes deep entry easy, and the inserting partner’s pubis contacts the receiving partner’s clitoris, so clitoral stimulation arises naturally during coupling. Long holds depend heavily on the receiving partner’s flexibility, with high stretch load on the adductors and hamstrings, and album subjects picture it as a “decisive moment” rather than a position for prolonged coupling. Variants include the legs carried by the inserting partner, the legs extended horizontally on the bedding, and the legs carried on the shoulders.

Reception

The makou-kikuichimonji name typifies the high decorative naming sense of Edo albums, layering a sword signature, floral imagery, and the figure of a position into one word. Weaving the sword signature, the chrysanthemum, and the geometry of the straight line into the name of a sexual act reflects that the albums functioned not as a mere medium of visual stimulus but as a multi-layered system of literary, decorative, and performative meaning. In modern taxonomy makou-kikuichimonji is almost never treated as independent, grasped within the framework of kannon-biraki, M-spread, and missionary applications, but the name is cited in cultural histories as a representative case of the decorative, literary character of forty-eight-hands naming. The extreme spread-leg form developed as a subject prioritising pictorial shock over practical use; both the Edo makou-kikuichimonji and the modern kannon-biraki finish-cut belong to the lineage of “positions to be shown,” and the pursuit of visual shock in sexual representation is a cultural orientation continuous from early-modern to modern times, the shift of name from makou-kikuichimonji to kannon-biraki one of its representative cases.

Related Terms

• Forty-eight hands
• Kannon-biraki
• M-spread (m-kaikyaku)
• Missionary (seijoui)
• Matsubakuzushi
• Shunga