Revisit Nami Asada’s classic “apple nudes” from the 1970s with new photo book

We love taking a trip not so much down memory lane as Japanese sex history lane, back to the early days of hair nudes (full-frontal shoots) and classic porn from the Showa era.

We previously took a nostalgic look at Japanese gravure idols from the 1970s and ’80s that included the comely Nami Asada (麻田奈美).

Nami Asada made a real stir in the 1970s with her nude photo shoots that showcased her stunning F-cup breasts to the full.

The “apple nudes,” where she used an apple prop to cover her most intimate parts, first appeared in 1973 in several issues of Heibon Punch magazine. They were taken by photographer Yoichi Aoyagi.

It was quite a way to make a gravure debut and helped push the magazine to sales of a million. She then had a fairly short, five-year career where she tried to capitalize on her nude shoots with appearance in TV commercials and as a singer.

If you’re in need of an “apple nude” fix, you can now get it with the release this month of new photo book, Nami Asada Memories of Apple Vol. 5, which also includes previously unpublished photo of Nami Asada as a 65-year-old woman in 2019 so you can compare how she looks with her early twenties.

It’s actually the fifth and final such compendium photo book of Nami Asada’s carer, after four others that are now rare. The fifth book takes the series up to the model’s final shoot in 1977. Alongside its publication Shogakukan, the earlier books have now been released digitally too.

In addition to this “revival” series, Asada’s famous shoots were previously collected and reprinted in at least three photo books in the early 2000s, so such “revival” publications tend to come around in cycles.

We love these old nude photo books with their muted colors and fun locations (beach! snow! Mount Fujii!).

We also love Nami’s body, which is unashamedly curvy and has a crazy tan line around her breasts.

Her butt is a bit flat, though, or at least the photos don’t flatter it (no pun intended).

Though everyone remembers her photo book as the “apple pictures,” she actually posed with various fruits and objects hiding her crotch, including a bottle, glass, pineapple, flowers, book, and guitar.

And people also seem to forget that she also technically did full-frontal shots without any fruit or anything preserving her modesty, long before the days of the hair nude genre made it fashionable (and lucrative).

If you don’t fancy splashing out on an expensive photo book, you can browse Nami Asada’s shoots at Tokyo Cafe.