Vagina artist Rokudenashiko found guilty of obscenity

So-called “vagina artist” Rokudenashiko has been found guilty and convicted of a charge of obscenity, and ordered to pay a fee of ¥400,000 (around $3,700).

Rokudenashiko (“good-for-nothing girl”), whose real name is Megumi Igarashi and whose first manga book has just been released in English, was first arrested in July 2014 for distributing data that enabled recipients to make 3D prints of her vagina.

She was arrested again in December of that year for making a plaster mold of a kayak based on her genitals, which was displayed at an adult shop.

Her defence argues that her work is art, not obscenity, and that the very legal definition of obscenity in Japan is ridiculous. This is a nation while giant phalluses are proudly paraded in ancient fertility festivals, after all, and where even publicly exhibiting shunga erotic prints is no longer taboo (though printing them in a magazine is). However, the ambiguous legal code surrounding obscenity is the reason pornography in Japan has pixellated genitalia.

This is a partial victory for her, since she was cleared by Tokyo District Court of one charge of displaying “obscene” materials. Her penalty is also only half what the prosecutors (male, of course) had demanded.

The original data in question was used by Rokudenashiko to make a “manko kayak”. The judge said that the data, though “flat and inorganic”, portrayed the shape of a vagina and could “sexually arouse viewers”. In other words, it was obscene pornography.

The artist, who recently announced her engagement to a non-Japanese musician, has appealed the judgment. The case has become a cause célèbre, especially overseas where Rokudenashiko is championed as a fighter for feminism.