Gravure model (and calligrapher) Sara Oshino makes comeback
September 25, 2025
/ Tadashi Anahori
We love to rediscovering idols and models we thought had disappeared into the mists of gravure legend. We were initially confused by the return of Sara Oshino, though, since she now writes her name with different characters (おしの沙羅 instead of the more conventional 忍野さら), and weren't sure if it was the same person. This is probably for contractual reasons with a change in agency but a new name also helps boost publicity.
In this case, it further reflects a new part of Sara's appeal -- that's she's now a calligraphy artist as well as a model -- hence the rather fancy given ...
36-year-old hottie Ayame Misaki to release new photo book
September 22, 2025
/ Tadashi Anahori
Ayame Misaki is probably this blog's favorite Japanese model and actress, so we are delighted to hear that she will release another print photo book. Eu te amo comes out via Kodansha on November 27, 2025. "I love you" indeed.
It was shot by photographer Yasuhisa Kikuchi on location in Miyakojima, an island in Okinawa, and amply showcases her sensual curves and shapely derrière.
Here are some highlights from the upcoming release, which was recently previewed in an issue of gravure magazine Weekly Friday.
Now aged 36 and aging like a fine red wine, the divorced actress was a ...
Interview with teen streetwalker in Kabukicho, Shinjuku
September 15, 2025
/ Tadashi Anahori
Friday has published an interview with a teenager who is a tachinbo streetwalker in Okubo Park to pay for her host club addiction.
"I've become addicted to host clubs and now I'm working in Kabukicho," the teenager confesses, saying she has sex with three men a day for ¥20,000 a pop.
"My day and night cycle is reversed. I sleep until the afternoon and head to Kabukicho in the evening. I stand in front of a hotel until dawn, waiting for a man to approach me."
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested 35 women in their 20s to 40s on suspicion of violating the Anti-Prostitution Act ...
Sayaka Isoyama delights with new gravure foray at 41
August 29, 2025
/ Tadashi Anahori
Some female celebrities are vampires. They must be, otherwise how else do the likes of Ayaka Haruse, Kyoko Fukada, and Asami Kumakiri seem never to age even as they enter their forties?
One of Japan's top jukujo hotties is Sayaka Isoyama, known for her curvy charms and simple personality.
Though her gravure peak is long behind her and she makes her living primarily now as a TV celebrity and actress, the 41-year-old is releasing a new photo book in October to mark 25 years of working in the entertainment industry. It was shot on location in Cairns, Australia.
As a promotion, she appears ...
Ami Tokito’s gravure comeback at 37 proves the power of glasses and bikinis
August 6, 2025
/ Tadashi Anahori
Right now, gravure feels a bit like a battle between the nearly 40-year-olds, all vying to outdo each other.
Or it could be that for all the sweet charms of fresh-faced young newbies like Hina Kikuchi, Cocoro Toyoshima, Aika Sawaguchi, Ina Enohara, and Yuzuha Hongo, these older models and idols just make better stories. (And to be frank, as we get older, we can't help finding these similarly aged women the hottest.)
We recently had Yuka Iguchi showing us her age-defying beach body and bust.
Former AKB48 idol Mai Oshima is also 37 and looks amazing.
Mayumi Yamanaka is a bit younger but a ...
Winners of the Grademy Award announced
February 12, 2025
/ Tadashi Anahori
Celebrating the fortieth anniversary of top gravure magazine Weekly Friday, the Grademy Award was announced last autumn and votes collected online to find what was billed as Asia's top gradol.
Almost all of the 232 candidates were Japanese, though, so the "Asian" claim was slightly disingenuous. But quibbles aside, the public votes have been counted and the results -- and awards -- finally announced online earlier last week.
The top prize -- billed as Most Valuable Gradol -- went to leading gravure idol Ina Enohara.
Best Newcomer (also billed as Best Gradol Debut) was shared by ...
1990s star Reiko Kato makes gravure comeback after 26 years
December 19, 2024
/ Tadashi Anahori
We love a good comeback story at Tokyo Kinky. And we especially love comebacks that defy mainstream expectations about women and beauty.
Why shouldn't older women still be sex symbols? A year ago, we wrote about Fumie Nakajima's image DVDs that prove a woman can still look great in her mid-fifties.
Now here's another 55-year-old Japanese woman who returned to our lives.
Reiko Kato was something of a legend in the later 1980s and early 1990s. She has answered our Christmas wishes and come back to gravure with her first such shoot in 26 years.
Kato's past photo book and shoots -- often ...
Former cram school teacher Rui Shido strips off for debut photo book
December 3, 2024
/ Tadashi Anahori
The internet recently went bonkers over the arrival of former Morning Musume idol Maki Goto's nipples, not least because she is almost 40 and it might be her last hurrah.
But a younger star, 25-year-old Rui Shido (紫藤るい), has set a precedent for doing nudity early on her career with her new photo shoot, which appears in Weekly Friday.
The gravure idol used to be known as Yuuri Rukawa, under which name she worked as a junior idol from the age of eight.
She is also a former cram school teacher, though her shoot reveals assets that surely would have distracted her students, ...
Vote for your favorite gravure idol in the Grademy Award
November 20, 2024
/ Tadashi Anahori
Who's your favorite gravure idol? Who do you like to see grace the covers of the tabloid magazines every month?
These are the questions constantly running through our minds on an almost daily basis -- and we're clearly not alone.
If you want to let the world know which lady you love best, you can now do so via a contest run by gravure magazine Weekly Friday.
The Grademy Award seeks to find Asia's top gradol. Celebrating the fortieth anniversary of Friday, voting is now open online via the dedicated website.
Friday is taking a broad definition of gradol -- basically anyone who does ...
Highlights from Rina Koike’s comeback photo book
June 20, 2024
/ Tadashi Anahori
Back in May, we reported on gravure veteran Rina Koike's photo book marking her 30th birthday and two decades in the industry.
Having begun her career as a child actor and junior idol, Rina Koike is someone who seems to have been around throughout all the many, many years we have done this blog.
Things had been quiet for her in recent years (so much so that we assumed she had retired) but she has switched agencies and her new photo book (and reaching that milestone) has led to a flurry of attention.
More preview pics from the her upcoming photo book, crave, have appeared in the gravure ...