Japan is a country where the Kanamara penis festival (held yesterday) is fine but the depiction of the female genitalia is not.
The two arrests of Rokudenashiko (Megumi Igarashi) have caused a furore around the world -- to be accurate, mostly around the world, not in Japan. The overseas press is much more interested in the tale of Igarashi and her arrests for distributing "obscene" materials.
Igarashi calls herself a "vagina artist". Her artist name means “Good-For-Nothing Girl” and she has proved up to the image, not least in the eyes of the vice squad.
Her "art of the ...
Artist Rokudenashiko (or Rokudenashi-ko), popularly known as the "vagina artist", has been charged following her arrest earlier this month.
While writer Minori Watanabe was recently released for displaying the model of female genitalia in her adult shop in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, Rokudenashiko (Megumi Igarashi), who was arrested at the same time, has now been indicted by the police after 21 (!) days being held without charge.
This means her case will go to trial, which is always a long process here. Whether she is found guilty or innocent (Japan has a 99% conviction rate!), at the very ...
If you went out at Halloween in Tokyo you might have seen some very scantily clad ladies.
Likewise, a trip to Akihabara often means the chance to see idols performing on the street with a lot on display. Flasher idol Asuka Sawamoto famously got herself arrested in 2008 when she did a series of performances in Akiba where she let hordes of men photograph her underwear. (She went on to a career in porn.)
But what about just "risque" fashion. How far is this legal?
A fashion website asked a lawyer about how far you go with see-through underwear in Japan.
Exposing yourself in ...
Rokudenashiko (or Rokudenashi-ko), the "vagina artist" arrested in the summer for distributing 3D data of her pussy, has been taken into police custody again, promising to reignite what became an international sensation about female rights and censorship.
This time her "crime", says Tokyo Reporter, was another vagina selfie artwork, though sculptural this time rather than photographic.
Megumi Igarashi -- Rokudenashiko's real name -- was arrested with a writer called Minori Watanabe.
Rokudenashiko, an artist name meaning "Good-For-Nothing Girl", has previous made a series of ...
Japan's current cause célèbre has ended in a victory for art, personal liberty and eroticism with the release of self-proclaimed "vagina" artist vagina artist Rokudenashi-ko/Megumi Igarashi from police custody. She was arrested earlier this week for using Campfire to raise funds for a project involving making a 3D printing of her own genitals.
“I have always stuck to my artistic principles,” she said. She wants to to revolutionize Japanese society's taboos on depicting and talking about female genitals. Now she's famous for getting arrested, perhaps she has a better chance!
It ...
Artist and manga-ka Megumi Igarashi is not afraid to shock, in spite of her innocent smiles. After all, this is a young woman whose artist name is Rokudenashi-ko (Good-for-nothing girl) and who calls herself a "deko-man" (decorated pussy) artist, a "pussy columnist" and who is a member of the "Japan Genitalia Art Association".
She held a solo show in May in Shinjuku that was a quite a talking point online, not least for its colorful pictures of vaginas with faces. She also claims to have made the world's first 3D "pussy boat" (or is it a kayak?).
And this is where the trouble ...
Wow, this is big. We have been worried about police crackdowns for a while, especially with the upcoming Olympics likely to become an excuse for exerting state power.
Could this be the tip of the iceberg?
Police have raided one of Tokyo's top BDSM clubs, KUNKUN. The Ueno club is pretty big (we've been there) and also fairly new (it opened in mid-2012). It is the base of one of Japan's best-known shibari (kinbaku) rope bondage art masters, Hajime Kinoko (Hideto Hiramatsu).
Of course, there is a thin line between being bondage club where a show may take place and being a "happening" ...
Police in Nishi-Biwajima in Aichi Prefecture have arrested three people for public indecency.
The leader was company employee Hiroki Muramatsu (51) from Saitama, who was shooting two models in the buff. They were Eri Nishiyama (22) from Nakano in Tokyo, and an unnamed 19-year-old minor.
Muramatsu had apparently been doing a shoot at a studio in Kita-Nagoya City around noon on Marh 23rd, which including getting both the ladies completely naked. Muramatsu is a veteran -- apparently he does such naked shoots every weekend in Nagoya and Tokyo.
He recruits models online. Nishiyama ...
Famed fashion photographer Leslie Kee (41) has been arrested by Tokyo police for the sale of "obscene" imagery at a Roppongi Gallery.
Kee, Singaporean by birth but based in Tokyo, is one of three arrested for selling photo books with pictures of male genitalia. The trio are suspected of selling seven books to two customers.
The photo books are from Kee's new male nude series, "Super Goh" and "Super Miki", taken over the course of a year. However, the police got wind of non-mosaic "porn" being sold at hiromi yoshii roppongi gallery and swooped in on the dangerous cock-festered ...
If you love watching Japanese porn you will notice straightaway one very strange thing: pixelation. There's not a private part in sight -- they're all fuzzed and blurred out by the censors.
Why the need for mosaics? Is it some strange kinky thing that men like? Well, maybe it is NOW, since a whole generation of Japanese men have grown up obsessed with porn and sex featuring pixels rather than penises.
The real reason for it, though, is a 1907 obscenity law that remains unchanged to this day. (Taro and Tadashi, however, hate mosaic and always get under-the-counter porn that is ...
