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 ...
Rizap is a chain of gyms in Japan that specializes in quick-fix training services that promise to slim you down in short periods of time.
It often advertises its services with before-and-after shots of celebrities' bodies.
Previous examples include AKB48's Minami Minegishi looking a little overweight and then athletic and toned.
Other examples of brand ambassadors include 56-year-old Eri Ishida and post-scandal Yukipoyo.
The latest is gravure model Mai Nishida. Once a regular feature in gravure magazines, Nishida is now 35 years old and has disappeared from our lives.
And so it was a ...
Rina Koike has been part of our lives (and this blog) for so long, we almost forgot she was still doing gravure!
Having made her debut two decades ago as an actress -- she appeared in a Sailor Moon adaptation way back in 2004 -- and now reaching the ripe old age of 30, Koike will release her first photo book in eight years to celebrate the milestone.
It was shot in Vietnam and features shots of the doe-eyed model in the Southeast Asia country's famous outdoor markets. The best, most alluring shots, though, are indoors and more intimate, as these preview pics show.
The as-yet ...
We like a good comeback story here at Tokyo Kinky and especially love to welcome back ladies we haven't seen in a while (hello, Aya Ueto!).
Rina Aizawa has focused on her acting in recent years, including plenty of roles in TV dramas -- including some that involve (non-nude) sex scenes.
And so it is a delight to hear that she will release her first photo book in 12 years. She is publicizing her return with a shoot in the current issue of Weekly Playboy.
To be accurate, she hasn't been away from gravure all these years. She did a Weekly Playboy cover shoot in summer 2022, for instance, ...
Earlier this year, we wrote about the surprise yet very, very welcome return to gravure of two major stars now in their late thirties: Aya Ueto and Haruka Ayase.
Indeed, as the likes of Yoko Kumada amply demonstrate, you can continue a career in gravure into your forties.
While the industry is dominated by ladies in their twenties or late teens, we like to see veterans and survivors in there, and love a good comeback story.
But even we were surprised by the return of Erika Yamakawa to gravure after a 20-year break.
Now aged 42 and the mother of two children, the model made her gravure ...
In mid-January, we wrote about the pleasant surprise that was actress and model Haruka Ayase's return to gravure.
Well, this seems to be a bit of a trend right now: actresses and models who were huge in the 2000s and 2010s are going back to their gravure roots.
Aya Ueto has done a cover shoot for the February 27 issue of Flash, which is now on sale. Though she made her debut as an actress in the year 2000, Ueto worked in gravure before she became a big mainstream star, including as a junior idol.
Ueto now has three children, having giving birth to her most recent one last year, and while ...
Haruka Ayase is one of the most famous models and actors in Japan.
Before she made the transition into mainstream acting and modeling, and seemed to appear in almost every TV commercial or brand campaign, Ayase was briefly a gravure idol. She's got the looks for it: a cute, girl-next-door face, slim body, and (by most Japanese standards) large breasts.
This shoot in which she stands alluringly against a window, her body on display except for skimpy swimwear, is one of our all-time favorite gravure pics.
She even once shot some sort of video in a bath, and you can find nude grainy ...
The actor Kyoko Fukada is now 40 years old but just as hot as ever, as her cover shoot for weekly magazine Friday amply demonstrates.
Known for her curvy beach body that she was happy to show off even as she entered her thirties, Kyoko Fukada was long a favorite of gravure magazines and this marks her first such shoot like this in some time.
Though usually the kind of celebrity you would expect to see with a smile on her face, Fukada was diagnosed with adjustment disorder in 2021 and took a break from work for several months. She's now firmly back in the public eye and enjoying quite a ...
In the fast and furious world of gravure, it feels like every month, if not every week, brings a newcomer. Many debut, then quickly disappear. A lucky few endure and build careers.
But every month also seems to bring a gravure comeback of sorts. In mid-April, for instance, we celebrated the return of former AKB48 Haruna Kojima to gravure after years of focusing on fashion retail.
And so we are very pleased to welcome back Rika Adachi, who has recently done a stunning cover shoot for an issue of Weekly Playboy (April 24) with a sunny bikini theme that has us yearning for the summer to kick ...
Ai Shinozaki made a gravure comeback initially in late 2021 and then again in early 2022, and the resulting semi-nude photo book was one of the highlights of the year.
Now aged 30, the famously busty (bakunyu) babe is a very welcome re-entry in our orbit. (In fact, she had been absent so long we presumed she had retired from gravure and entertainment.)
Her 2022 photo book was about as nude as it's possible to be without actually showing tits or ass (besides hints of her butt and plenty of side boob).
She's not resting on her laurels, it seems. Her latest shoot continues her gravure ...
