Former top porn star Tsubomi now earns money by selling used underwear

To remember the former porn star Tsubomi is to go back to what now seems like a veritable golden age of adult video, a more innocent time of JAV before the restrictive new legislation came in and the coercion scandals that have blackened the industry.

Tsubomi was a Lolita-style performer who made her debut in 2006 at the age of 18. She had already appeared in 1,000 releases by 2012.

We actually assumed she had retired in the 2010s, but it seems she did not officially leave the industry until late 2022, making her career one of the longest in recent memory.

Known as Tsubomin to her fans, Tsubomi is today a 38-year-old jukujo. How is she making her living since her retirement? As regular readers know, we are fascinated by the careers and life paths that gravure, music, and JAV idols pursue after they leave their main profession. Retired Japanese porn stars, in particular, face personal and professional challenges due to prejudices.

Tsubomi now works as a cosplayer under the name Tanpopo. One of her income streams is selling her underwear. Of course, the underwear isn’t fresh but nominally worn by her (at least once and for a few moments), so you get the chance to own (and sniff and more!) the panties that a former porn star has worn close to the most intimate parts of her body.

Tanpopo/Tsubomi has been flogging her panties and bra to punters via a DMM/Fanza online auction organized by COS×Project. Some of her items were selling for as much as ¥35,000.

She also earns money by selling merchandise and photo sessions at Comiket, such as the recent edition of the event earlier this month in Tokyo. She had a joint booth with the cosplayer Sayoyon.

Tsubomi remains popular in other parts of Asia and she recently held a fan event in Taiwan, again with Sayoyon (who seems fluent in Chinese, judging by her social media posts).

Used underwear is a huge fetish in Japan, even if quite a lot of the products are fake. While most wares are supposedly sourced from “amateurs” (i.e., regular women), a few cosplayers and idols earn money from selling their clothing, though doing so requires a lot of micro-management for relatively modest fees.