Japan court OKs Mapplethorpe nude photos

[kskiska]

Source: AP

TOKYO—Japan's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a collection of erotic photographs by the late Robert Mapplethorpe does not violate obscenity laws, a decision that should allow the sale of the book for the first time in eight years.

The decision overturned a 2003 Tokyo High Court ruling that the book "Mapplethorpe" was indecent, court spokesman Takashi Ando said. It was believed to be the first time the top court has overruled a lower court ruling on obscenity.

(snip)

In Tuesday's ruling, Justice Kohei Nasu said the book of black-and-white portraits "compiles works from the artistic point of view, and is not obscene as a whole," the national Yomiuri newspaper reported.

(snip)

Asai called the ruling "groundbreaking" and said it "could change the obscenity
standard" used for banning foreign films that show nudity and censoring photographs in books.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/celebrities/ci_8303412

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(sigh) What would Rudy do?

[madrchsod]

1. maybe they looked at japanese erotic art

and decided that it was silly to ban his

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/kamasutra/Japanese-Erotic-Art.html
Erotic Art of Japan

it`s 12 and the kids should be asleep

[nebula]

2. How could something like this even be an issue over there?

Japan is like the porn capital of the world.

[Chovexani]

3. Uh, no, that would still be us

Japan has some incredibly bizarre rules as to what does and does not constitute obscenity.

This has led to things like hardcore yaoi anime with invisible penii.

[sakabatou]

4. Or things that look like penii

[comtec]

5. Hentai!

The attack of the horny tentacles!

[sakabatou]

9. w00t!

[octobit]

7. Japanese Pornography

Though the rules are starting to change, Japanese pornography tends to be censored in the form of blurring of the genital regions. Other than that, Japanese pornography can be as hardcore as it wants to be. I think the issue here is not the content of the work, but rather ruling that it is ok to show the image uncensored as it is a work of art.

In addition, the views on Japanese pornography that Americans hold may be slightly skewed. In terms of consumption of Japanese anime, it account for ~5% of the anime that the japanese consume, and 17% of the anime that Americans consume. Japan makes some freaky stuff, but the Americans are more into it than the Japanese.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. Well, if you count manga as a subclass of anime

then the Japanese consumption rate goes up considerably.

[crikkett]

6. sex in japan: not just for anime anymore

[hatrack]

8. Reminds me of one of my all-time favorite Onion headlines . . .

Congress Grants Mapplethorpe "All The Money He Wants"

'I want to see more of these hot, hot cocks!', raves Sen. Jesse Helms, R-NC