In the morning bed, two bodies are joined while still lying down. A bodily arrangement supported by a kind of laziness, requiring not even the effort of sitting up. Sokui (Japanese: 側位; English: side position, spooning position) is the umbrella term for intercourse positions in which both partners lie on their sides. It divides into face-to-face side (both side-lying and facing) and rear-entry side (the receiving partner facing away, English spooning). Both partners’ weight is distributed onto the bedding, making it easy to maintain for long periods and low in physical strain. With independent records in the Kāmasūtra, the Heian-period Ishinpō, and postwar sex manuals, it ranks as one of the world’s classical positions.

Overview

In side position both partners lie sideways on the bedding to couple. Both weights are borne by the bedding, minimising the load on the limbs. Depth and amplitude of motion are inferior to missionary, but the coupling can be sustained for long periods, so manuals often recommend it as the “position for fatigue,” the “position for mid-to-late pregnancy,” and the “position for the elderly.”

The two main types are face-to-face side and rear-entry side. In face-to-face side the partners face while side-lying, the receiving partner wrapping the upper leg around the inserting partner’s hips, combining crossing gaze with bodily contact and keeping the intimacy of missionary while reducing the load. In rear-entry side (English spooning), the receiving partner faces away and the inserting partner presses close behind, the two bodies matching like nested spoons.

Etymology

Sokui adapts the medical and anatomical “lateral recumbent position” into the intercourse context, introduced as an independent category in Meiji-Taishō sex-education texts. English uses side position generally, with spooning position widely current for the rear-entry side. The Sanskrit Kāmasūtra describes a group of pārśva (“side”) positions, and Chinese bedchamber manuals recorded “fish side by side” (yu bimu) as a position close to side. Matsubakuzushi is broadly classed as a half-side-lying variant, distinguished from full face-to-face side by the receiving partner taking a half-side posture (a lateral rotation of under 90 degrees).

History

The Kāmasūtra (c. 4th-5th century CE) describes, as a position akin to side, the receiving partner “laid on one side” (pārśvasaṃpuṭa), tilting to one side while gripping the inserting partner with both legs. The Chinese “fish side by side” is the classical name for the face-to-face side of two facing while side-lying, cited in the Heian Ishinpō (984).

In Edo shunga, side compositions appear less frequently than the three major positions (missionary, cowgirl, rear-entry), since the bodies arranged along a horizontal axis lacked dynamic force on the page and suited the artists’ taste poorly. Edo erotic books record several side-family names whose mapping to modern terms is uncertain.

From the Meiji period, “side position” was established as an academic term through translated manuals and sex education. Van de Velde’s Ideal Marriage (1928) recommended side as a “low-strain position,” stressing its value for postpartum, pregnant, and elderly sex life; Comfort’s The Joy of Sex (1972) gave side an independent chapter as the “position you can couple in while awake in bed.” In AV and adult manga, side appears far less than the three major positions, partly because the bodies arranged along a horizontal axis do not flatter the vertical frame. In adult manga depicting the daily life of couples (married-woman and romance lines), side is chosen for waking and pre-sleep coupling scenes.

Variants

Face-to-face side: the partners face while side-lying, the receiving partner’s upper leg wrapped around the inserting partner’s hips, or held by the upper limb. Crossing gaze and bodily contact both hold, the lips at close distance, a variant that keeps the intimacy of missionary while reducing strain.

Rear-entry side (spooning): the receiving partner faces away, the inserting partner pressed close behind, the bodies nested like spoons, the inserting partner’s hips against the receiving partner’s buttocks, high in psychological closeness, the representative position recommended for pregnant and postpartum sex life.

90-degree-cross side: the inserting partner supine, the receiving partner side-lying at 90 degrees across the inserting partner’s hips, the legs interlocked below, giving the junction a distinctive angle, appearing as a special position in AV staging.

Matsubakuzushi family: the receiving partner half-side, one leg shouldered, broadly a side variant but treated as an independent position under its Forty-Eight-Hands name.

Reception and expression

Despite its low frequency in AV and adult manga, side’s use in real sex life is presumably fairly high. Manual discourse places it as “the position couples choose day to day” and “the position for the moment sleepiness and desire coexist,” chosen where physical comfort outranks visual force. Its psychological sign-value converges on “everyday,” “intimacy,” or “duration.” Spooning functions as a sign of the intimacy of a long-term relationship through pre-sleep and waking coupling; face-to-face side, keeping crossing gaze and lips while minimising fatigue, is chosen for scenes expressing “lovemaking that lasts the night.”

In adult manga, side is placed in the life-texture daily erotica of the married-woman line and the long-relationship erotica of the romance line. In AV, within a production grammar premised on vigorous motion and bold composition, side is mostly used as a “rest” or “relay” between scenes, rarely placed as the main position. In netorare works, the side composition staging the couple’s daily life is effectively used in contrast with later missionary and cowgirl scenes: the contrast between recalling “when the two of us slept in side position” and the present of “the wife coupling with another man in missionary” is a classic grammar for visualising the loss of the relationship.

Related terms

• Cowgirl (kijoui)
• Rear-entry (back position)
• Missionary (seijoui)
• Lying rear-entry (ne-back)
• Matsubakuzushi
• Seated position (seiza-i)
• Kāmasūtra