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NOW YOU SEE THEM: ‘THE HAIR NUDE’
Japanese censorship laws are notorious for their obsession with pubic hair. Images of violence, torture, paedophilia and perversion can be found on the shelf next to the instant noodles at your local convenience store, or on the street in a vending machine, but all 'offensive' parts will be blacked over, blanked out or in the case of film, obscured by a flickering blundering blur.
Importers of films, books, videos have fought constant battles with customs officials; copies of Madonna's book Sex were impounded at Narita airport; an importer of Godard films sent them back rather than accept the 'recommended' cuts. And photographer Nobuyoshi Araki's books were confiscated from a gallery bookshop, with a salesperson facing legal action.
Since the early 1990s, however, there appears to have been a relaxing of the enforcement of these laws, particularly in the case of imported works, after an outcry that such censorship was damaging the integrity of the artworks involved. In 1991 artist Shinoyama Kishin released the first (of many) Hair Nude Coffee Table books Santa Fe (hugely popular but in doubtful taste) and the market was suddenly drowning in hair.
It seems that, unofficially anyway, the laws are being 'softened'. Although, as the February obscenity charges against a popular photographer and pornographic magazine indicate there are limits. Flooded with pornography as Japan is, only the mainstream media has been visibly affected. Recently a number of international airlines (including QANTAS) were moved to cancel their subscriptions to daily newspapers, as the sudden excess of 'eyecatching' nudes were drawing complaints from passengers.
In the long term, it will be interesting to see just what effect the relaxing of... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline