Eri Ishida is responsible for one of the most famous "hair nude" full-frontal nude photo books. Of course, there were many women who made the genre so wildly successful two decades ago, but a lot have faded into the ether. Along with Rie Miyazawa's classic "Santa Fe," though, Ishida's joyful contributions have lingered firmly in the popular consciousness. Eri Ishida is, of course, no longer a spring chicken but she is still working in the entertainment industry. In fact, she is releasing a new photo book in December -- and it's a hair nude one! Yes, Eri Ishida is going to her roots ...

The "hair nude" is a curious Japanese-English phrase. It refers not just to naked flesh; it's naked flesh with genital hair. What is "shocking" here is the display of pubic hair, the line by which art and entertainment is usually fettered in Japan. It is fine to have plenty of nudity in films and publications, but to avoid the century-old ambiguous obscenity laws, people censored or did not show actual pubic hair. The hair nude set out to deliberately show this was something to be challenged, legally and artistically. While the likes of Nobuyoshi Araki had already made erotic photography ...