Photographers like Kishin Shinoyama who have stuck to depicting women, especially celebrities, fully nude have usually be able to escape the censor.īut if you are a female artist or gay male, it’s a different matter. full-frontal, non-censored photography - a few years ago, there were no issues preventing the major release of books featuring the likes of Rie Miyazawa and other famous actresses au naturel. When there was a vogue for “hair nude” photo books - i.e. The latter has eased recently for scenes that are obviously comedic in tone.įreedom of expression in art is not protected in Japan, despite the immense flourishing of creativity in all fields and concomitant strength of cultural industries like cinema and publishing. This is why pornography is pixellated and why typically even mainstream films have scenes with full-frontal nudity similarly obscured. In Japan, the depiction of genitalia is ostensibly taboo, as dictated by the conventional interpretation of a law introduced when Japan was westernizing and attempting to imitate the “morality” of Europe and America. Instead of concealing this intervention made by the public authorities, I wanted to make it visible.”
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“These photos express the subtle, delicate sense of distance when one person touches another. Takano, no doubt aware that you should only pick the fights you can win, agreed to the museum’s idea. The museum has not complied with the police but instead proposed to cover up the “offensive” exhibits with a kind of veil. Takano, who is openly gay, is taking part in the group show, “Photography Will Be”, which includes 150 photography and film exhibits by nine major Japanese photographers. Local police in Nagoya have demanded that the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art remove 12 artworks by Ryudai Takano that depicted male genitalia.Īs first reported by Art Info, the action came after members of the public claimed some of Takano’s artworks were “obscene”.