Revisit Nami Asada’s classic “apple nudes” from the 1970s with new photo book
April 12, 2024
/ Tadashi Anahori
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 ...
Present-day Japanese gravure idols travel back in time
December 27, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
As the year draws to a close, it's natural to look back on the past months and get a little nostalgic.
Present-day Japanese gravure idols dressed up and photographed in the style of vintage pinup models? Yes, please!
That's the basic concept behind a new photo book called Pin-Up Girls Selection, which is attempting to conjure up the image of "American porn from 100 years ago," according to the promo spiel.
There are nine participating models: Rin Takahashi, ENA, Hinano Ayakawa, Miku Oshima, Miyako Sono, Miyu Nakagawa, Aya Hazuki, Haruka Bando, and Saki Yanase.
Bando and Oshima are ...
2000s gravure and TV star Yinling makes comeback at age 47
July 5, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
There are blasts from the past, and then there are blasts from the past.
If you are long-term fan of gravure, then you will know of Yinling (Yan Yinling), a major force in the industry in the late 1990s and 2000s.
She moved to Japan at the age of 10 and enjoyed a successful career as a female wrester, race queen, singer, and gravure model, but got married in 2008 to a Japanese man and effectively retired from the industry, moving back to Taiwan in 2011.
Now aged 47 and the mother of three children, the Taiwanese-born model also known as Yinling of Joy is making a comeback with her first ...
Revisiting old Japanese porn VHS video covers from the 1980s and 1990s
May 23, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
Before we had streaming and downloadable formats, we had Blu-ray and DVD. And before that, back in some period lost to the mists of time -- namely, the 1980s and 1990s -- we have VHS video tapes.
The arrival of VHS marked the full birth of the Japanese adult video industry, hence the name.
The new format had incredible commercial potential for widespread distribution of content and meant hardcore porn was no longer a niche but an easily accessible, widely consumed form of porn (as opposed to the simulated sex in "pink" sexploitation, whose decline was hastened by AV).
VHS was the heyday of ...
NFTs of 2000s gravure photo shoots are now a thing?
March 30, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
The non-fungible tokens boom seems to have petered out internationally. Prices of NFTs skyrocketed but then plummeted over the course of 2022, and many believe the market is over (not coincidentally, the crypto markets has also experienced a crunch in 2022). The art and photography industries may soon move onto the next fad, if they haven't already.
In Japan, NFTs are still something of a thing, though, even if the haven't reached the heights of fame and fortune that they (briefly) attained in other countries.
In 2021, shibari artist Hajime Kinoko created an NFT rope bondage art ...
New model kit for making retro porn vending machine in miniature
April 6, 2022
/ Tadashi Anahori
They say that everything is small in Japan. Small cars. Small homes. Small food portions. Small people. Only kidding about that last one.
Sometimes it seems that there really are capsule toys and model kits for everything.
In the latest evidence of this, renowned plastic model kit maker Hasegawa is set to release another miniature "retro vending machine" this July. And the fifth iteration (FA13) of the series of kits, following versions for ramen and udon noodles, is a porn vending machine.
It's not explicitly stated as such, but the weirdly anonymous-looking design and the conspicuous, ...
We were already excited about the upcoming second season of the Netflix Japanese drama The Naked Director because of the pedigree of the first season, which lived up to its promise of the porn industry premise and then some with awesome nudity and sex scenes galore.
Then came news that the singer Mariya Nishiuchi had been cast as a porn star, offering the tantalizing prospect that she would make her nude debut in the series, which deals with the career of legendary adult video director and producer Toru Muranishi.
Now comes a trailer and we are delighted to see former AKB48 idol Yuka Masuda ...
Mariya Nishiuchi to play porn star in next season of The Naked Director
November 5, 2020
/ Tadashi Anahori
There's a lot of excitement swirling around since the announcement that the singer and model Mariya Nishiuchi would be appearing in the upcoming second season of the hit Netflix drama The Naked Director.
The drama charts the career of Japanese adult video impresario Toru Muranishi, whose ambitious productions revolutionized the industry in the 1980s and 1990s.
Nishiuchi will apparently play Mariko Itsuki (樹まり子), a busty stunner who notched up dozens of credits in porn releases in the late 1980s and early 1990s as well as several photo books.
Now the question is: How much will ...
1960s Japanese advertisement show Showa charms of sexy swimsuits
August 11, 2020
/ Tadashi Anahori
We are avoiding beaches and public pools right now, given the ongoing coronavirus infection rate, but that doesn't mean we aren't thinking about swimsuits.
Far from it, they are one of the highlights of any summer in Japan.
And to show just how far things have come, we wanted to share with you an image from 1966 (Showa 41), which we spotted shared on Twitter.
It's an advertisement for "beach-ready" ladies in their colorful swimsuits. "Which is your pattern?" the main copy asks.
All the women model different styles of swimwear, each aimed at a respective kind of personality (from the ...
Porn star Nanami Kawakami’s awesome sex scenes in The Naked Director
September 13, 2019
/ Tadashi Anahori
If a job needs doing, hire a professional.
And that's what the makers of the The Naked Director did.
For a drama series about the adult video pioneer Toru Muranishi, you need to include plenty of sex on camera.
We've already looked at the nude scenes in the Netflix series by the likes of newcomer Misato Morita, gravure idol Ruri Shinato, and former AKB48 Ami Tomite, among others. The makers even threw in a sex scene with a non-Japanese actress, Jade Albany Pietrantonio.
But for a truly realistic result, you need actual porn stars. And so the producers sensibly hired Nanami Kawakami ...