Kana Kita features in several nude and sex scenes in the film Picture of Spring (2023). She is seen rising nude from her futon in one alluring shot. In another, even better scene, Kita is shown riding her lover in bed, arching her head back in pleasure (unfortunately, the scene is dimly lit). Yet another scene -- the best -- really lingers on her pale skin and small yet beautiful breasts. Kana Kita (北香那) is a 26-year-old Japanese actress with a few credits on TV and film. Picture of Spring is, in many ways, her big break in the industry. The film also stars Yumi Adachi, ...

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We've said it before and we'll say it again: we think shunga, erotic woodblock prints, are one of the most impressive and significant parts of Japanese historical culture, and that the government should be singing its praises from the rooftops, instead of trying to hide them and keep people from seeing them under threat of prosecution. Fortunately, we are no longer alone. Shunga has achieved global success, not least in the form of a very successful art exhibition in Britain in 2013, which belatedly came to Japan in 2015 and attracted huge crowds. Money talks. Organizers now can point to ...

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The Internet allows us to have tentacle porn at our fingertips, but what about on our feet? In a further sign that shunga Japanese erotic woodblock prints are no longer the taboo they once were, now you can enjoy Hokusai's The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife (or more literally, The Octopus and the Female Diver, which is probably the most famous (and arguably original) iteration of tentacle sex, on your feet with these sneakers. A crowdfunding campaign has been launched in Japan to raise ¥500,000 to make these sneakers a product. So far, the organizers have attracted 33 patrons and half ...

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Now that's what we call tentacle sex. Some people really go that extra mile for their cosplay. Here is one example that's going to be hard to beat for a while. Cosplayer Namada spent half a day with photographer Kazan Yamamoto and the results are incredible, not least because Namada is beautiful and she was posing with a friend. That friend being a 18kg (nearly 40 lb) live octopus from Hokkaido. Regular readers to this blog will immediately spot that this is a reference to Hokusai's The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, perhaps the most famous example of shunga ...

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The opening of Japan's first major public exhibition of shunga erotic prints is quite a landmark event. We finally got to go recently. We went on a Saturday and the line to get in stretched out of the venue. They were there in their hordes: men, women, couples, foreign tourists (European, American and Asian). Lining up, some were excited, some seemed curious -- while others appeared intellectual and austere. Inside, however, everything changed. All the faces displayed the same awe and amazement; couples exchanged looks and words ("Wow, so big"). Couples gripped each other just that little ...

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The start of the shunga exhibition in Tokyo, the first major public event of historical erotic prints, has, not surprisingly, tested the boundaries of what is legally permitted and what is "morally" acceptable. While the September issue of venerable art magazine Bijutsu Techo featured shunga, as well as a dialogue between two women who really know about sex and censorship ("vagina artist" Rokudenashiko/Megumi Igarashi and former porn star turned manga-ka Nayuka Mine), not to mention some mildly sexy Edo-era-inspired photos of Mitsu Dan by Mika Ninagawa, it stopped short of printing the ...

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The first major exhibition in Tokyo or Japan of shunga has finally opened. Shunga Exhibition has started at the Eisei Bunko Museum in Bunkyo-ku. Celebrating the prints that were essentially Japan's first erotic art and pornography, as we reported earlier in the year this is a first for Japan because of the traditional interpretation of obscenity laws that prevent the public display of genitalia -- of which there is PLENTY of in shunga. So the exhibition first very successfully showed in London at the British Museum, before the organizers (including former prime minister Morihiro ...

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Yes, finally! Japan is getting its first ever shunga exhibition, opening in Tokyo this September. While legally you can't show genitalia in films, porn or even art (as Megumi Igarashi has found out to her misfortune), Japan has an immensely rich history of sexually explicit art and erotica. The important thing to remember about shunga (literally "spring paintings") is that they were created by some of the most famous and popular woodblock print artists, including Hokusai and Utamaro. Sure, they were more niche than the most iconic prints -- but they were still part of the ...

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These days every fetish has a name. Kemonomimi ("animal ears") is a type of moe anthropomorphism where girl and boy characters in manga and anime have animal-like accessories. Catgirls are probably the most famous but there are lots of others, since almost anything or anyone can become any kind of "animal" -- from dogs to wolves, rabbits and more. All this moe inspires its fair share of adult toys. Kemonomimi onaholes You may think that masturbator sleeves had nowhere else further to go, but then you'd be wrong. This is the Dekoboko Moo Moo Catgirl Onahole, a fairly typical ...

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At Waseda University they've made available another side to traditional Japanese art in the "Fart War Scroll Picture" (屁合戦絵巻 or He-gassen-emaki), a series of images telling the epic tale of breaking wind competitively in ancient Tokyo. Japanese humor can sometimes be very slapstick and we have trouble relating it to our western chums. Lavatorial jokes are pretty universal, though, and it seems that Edo era Japanese had a liking for this kind of comedy, if this scroll is anything to go by. Beyond this one that Waseda has made available online, there are more examples ...

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