Internal conflicts take precedence over big action, so the struggles faced by queer characters over their own gender and sexual identities fit perfectly into this setup. Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas is an excellent example of this as it features lush artwork, lyrical prose, and primarily focuses on the relationships between young male students. With its heavy focus on romance and drama, shōjo manga focus more on interpersonal relationships, drama, and emotions. (For more information, check out our "A Beginner's Guide to Manga"). Shōjo refers to manga developed specifically for female readers. Her work was very popular and directly influenced the development of both shōjo and yuri manga in the decades that followed. Japanese author Yoshiya Nobuko wrote novels about female same-sex love and relationships during the 1920s. However, this has not stopped queer writers and artists from producing queer works of art, nor has it stopped readers from consuming it. “Photography Will Be” runs, in its censored form, until September 28th.Although homosexuality in Japan was never criminalized to the extent it was in countries such as the USA or the United Kingdom, members of the LGBTQ+ community still face discrimination on a cultural and social level with very limited legal protection.
The most notorious cases are the obscenity trials for the films “Black Snow” by Tetsuji Takechi and “In the Realm of the Senses” by Nagisa Oshima.īut as the late Oshima defiantly said in court: “Nothing that is expressed is obscene. Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s artists would find themselves in the dock for depicting sex or nudity.
Isn’t this missing the woods for the trees?Ĭensorship and police crackdowns are nothing new. He was arrested, along with his gallerist and publisher.Īnd yet Japan has one of the largest porn and adult industries in the world, stores like Condomania prominently and proudly stand on Omotesando, and sex toy brands like Tenga are now known across the globe. Gay Singaporean photographer Leslie Kee, well used to shooting stars for major contracts, found himself in trouble with the police for showing male genitalia in a Tokyo gallery. However, even being established in your field does not guarantee protection. Igarashi was practically unknown at the time but has since rocketed to fame. The arrest of Megumi Igarashi (Rokudenshi-ko) in July sparked worldwide attention, not least because her “crime” was to turn her genitalia into digital data that could be distributed. 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.” “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”.