Last year was full of gravure comebacks big and small. One of the more minor ones that nonetheless made us happy was Mayumi Yamanaka, now a mother of two and a mature, sensual 32. In July 2025, she made a return to gravure after a few years away, appearing in a Weekly Playboy shoot and releasing a digital photo book. Mayumi has been in the industry for over two decades, having started as a junior idol when a teen. Her comeback proved once again that jukujo are the best. She's also got a 30-year-old sister, Tomoe, who ostensibly retired in 2020. That seems to have changed, though, since the ...

A Japanese TV show asked a man what he thought about gravure photo shoots. Nothing strange about this, perhaps, but the details are more unusual. This man may look like a regular white-collar worker but his younger sisters are anything but: they are gravure idols and he was shown images from their provocative shoots. The ladies in question are Tomoe Yamanaka (山中知恵) and Mayumi Yamanaka (山中真由美). The brother laughs uncomfortably. "Yeah, I have mixed feelings about that." To our shame, we did not know that Tomoe Yamanaka and Mayumi Yamanaka were sisters, though now ...