Nudity in Japanese Visual Media: a Cross-Cultural Observation

Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 19, No. 6, 1990

Nudity in Japanese Visual Media: A Cross-Cultural Observation

James F. Downs, Ph.D ~

The depiction of nude human beings in Japanese print, film, and electronic media is reported. Modern practices are then related to traditional Japanese culture. The various contexts in which nudes are regularly presented are described and various types of nude presentations are classified. It is suggested that the nude body evokes different responses in Japanese culture and is not always intended to convey sexual or erotic meanings. Sentiment, particularly that evoked by the family and motherhood, and nonsexual humor, are other responses that nudity is intended to elicit. The Japanese situation is compared to presentation of nudity in the United States.

KEY WORDS: nudity; erotica; Japanese culture; law; pornography.

THE JAPANESE AND NUDITY

The Japanese attitude toward nudity is one that has confounded foreign- ers from the earliest days of Japanese-Western contact. This confusion has been compounded in recent years with the proliferation of print, film, and electronic media that convinced many Westerners that the Japanese are either unrestrained libertines or that the human body has, in Japanese culture, no

The material upon which this paper is based was collected during 1986-1987 while I was a Visiting Research Professor of Social Anthropology at the Institute for the Study of the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo Foreign Studies University. The data and conclusions in this paper are entirely mine for which neither the institute, the university, or Ministry of Education of Japan are responsible. ~304 New Mark Esplanade, Rockville, Maryland 20850. 583 0004-0002/90/1200-0583506.00/0 © 1990 Plenum PublishingCorporation 584 Downs affective impact at all. All too often the obvious cultural contrast leads to hurried conclusions based on minimal observation and extremely ethnocen- tric judgments (Abramson and Hayashi, 1984, provide a fairly recent example). 2 A frequently expressed view of Japanese culture is that the Japanese are indifferent to nudity and that the body does not convey erotic messages. My impression is that while the Japanese do react to nudity differently than do Americans, the situation is more complex than generally stated. While there are situations in which the sexual element of nudity is nonexistent or minimal, the nude serves many symbolic, including erotic, purposes in Japan. The apparent basis for this belief is the conviction that mixed bathing in public bathhouses (sento) is the norm. While this was true in the recent past, it is extremely rare today. There are some onsen (resort spas) where mixed (kon-yoku) bathing in indoor or outdoor baths (rotenburo) is permitted, but they are relatively remote and patronized largely by older people. Some resort hotels advertise mixed bathing in indoor "jungle baths" but in fact provide separate bathing facilities for women who do not want to share a bath with men. All mixed bathing facilities I have seen had at least a symbolic dividing wall projecting into the pool creating separate sections for those who prefer it that way. Further, a very strict code of etiquette is observed in mixed bathing: One avoids looking at people directly and both sexes carry a small towel with which they cover their genitals, at least sym- bolically. On the other hand, in mixed bathing situations I encountered, women who were seeking the woman's section appeared unconcerned about the presence of men and were not overtly concerned about the limitations the small towels placed on their ability to conceal breasts or genitals. This situation is new. Members of the occupation forces after World War II, including myself, recall discovering mixed bathing in many towns and rural areas throughout the country. One writer recounts visiting a rural inn being used by a high school class on a trip and finding the bath full of boys, girls, teachers, and chaperones, all completely naked save for their small towels (Seward, 1969). Saga (1987) described one village in which, until World War II, adults went naked during much of the year although small skirts or aprons might be worn by adolescent girls. In the same area nude bathing in the streams and ponds was universal. The area, women who dive for pearls, seaweed, and other ocean products, until very recently worked in the nude (Decker and Decker, 1978). Practicality rather than prudery led to the use of the wet suit in some areas (Plath and Hill, 1988). Early travelers in Japan mention seeing nude people working in the fields (Kaemfer, 1737). Bird (1880/1987) traveling in northern Japan in the late 1870s regularly mentions total and partial nudity in work and social situations. Disapproval by foreign- ers led the Meiji government to pass laws forbidding public nudity. One of the primary duties of the police in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was to enforce these laws (Waley, 1984; Dore, 1958). Past practices notwithstand- Nudity in Japanese Visual Media 585 ing, the Japanese today are a seemingly modest population. There is no nudist movement in Japan and only one person is listed by the International Feder- ation of Naturists as a correspondent. The nudity depicted in public media is referred to using a word of foreign origin nudo which is used to describe any picture of a partially clothed person, particularly a woman, and is dis- tinguished from harada, the Japanese word for naked or undressed. Nudo also refers to the fairly common strip shows in some night clubs. Advertisements in travel magazines suggest in a subtle manner that top- less bathing is possible at such popular Japanese tourist destinations as Sai- pan. Also, some new resorts which have mixed bathing facilities appear to be trying to attract younger people. Whether this is in fact the case and if so whether it can be related to the frequency of nudity in the media is be- yond the scope of this report. Even in Tokyo and other larger cities many people are still dependent on public baths and, while mixed bathing is forbidden, are completely at ease in single-sex group bathing situations. Many Japanese with whom I have spoken who now have a bath in their home recall the sento with nostalgia; a time when one relaxed in the hot water with friends to share neighborhood gossip and discuss business or the latest news.

CENSORSHIP AND THE NUDE

Any discussion of the nude in Japan must first make clear the restric- tions of Japanese censorship. Put simply, full frontal nudity is illegal. Although the media are constantly devising means of avoiding or at least pushing the limits of this law, most pictures of unclothed people do not reveal pubic hair or genitals. The term nudo includes totally unclothed people posed to avoid revealing the genital areas, partially clothed in panties, for example, or pictures of people which have been obscured using various kinds of inkouts or plastic overlays or by rubbing abrasive paper over the offending areas. The latter is done too in the case of American men's magazines legally imported into the country. Magazines featuring photographs of women occasionally run a picture revealing at least some pubic hair. In some contexts sheer panties or panty hose (and in one case a tennis racket) that cover, but do not in fact conceal, escape censorship. (These examples were found in magazines sold to swingers seeking partners for spouse exchange or group sex which are found only in adult book stores. In general even these publications adhere to the censorship rules.) Or, models may be completely depilat- ed. This enables the magazine to reveal everything except the sexual organs themselves which are hidden by careful posing. In comic books (manga) the genital regions may simply be left out, erased, or obscured in shadow. In recent years the absolute nature of this prohibition appears to be becoming more relaxed. There are situations when complete and undisguised 586 Downs nudity appears to be permitted. One situation was in a foreign film being shown at the 1986 Tokyo film festival-the first time frontal nudity had been permitted on film. Also, a "coffee table" book dealing with hot spring spas, published in 1985, showed young women in full frontal poses. Since that time several other publications devoted to art photography have published occasional full frontal poses. In erotic films with explicit scenes the actors are either posed so that genital areas are obscured or various electronic devices are used to mask the forbidden areas. Even when the genitals are not visible, sexual intercourse by unclothed people is defined as obscene. However such scenes are deemed legal if the junction of their bodies is obscured or some piece of clothing is retained. With this background we proceed to examine the public presentation of the unclothed human body.

TYPES OF NUDE PRESENTATIONS

One major element of contrast between Japan and the United States, at least as perceived by Americans, is that nudity and erotica are much more widely available in Japan. However all nudity is not the same and in this section I discuss the role of the nude in Japanese art and attempt to develop a classification of these representations.

The Nude in Art

The nude as such has not had a great role in Japanese art. Naked people have been involved in some action, working, bathing, dressing, sexual intercourse. Early erotic monochromal woodblock prints usually depicted lovers without clothing, but the nudity was clearly incidental to the activity (Evans and Evans, 1949; Grosbois, 1964). After the Restoration and the in- troduction of Western ideas during the Meiji period (1868-1912) many Japanese artists began and have continued to experiment with Western paint- ing styles including the nude. Nudes by modern artists are occasionally found in galleries and museums but the genre has clearly not seized the Japanese imagination as a subject for the brush. On the other hand, sculptors have turned to the nude with some en- thusiasm; public buildings, some parks, and many railroad stations are adorned with life and larger than life-size statues of individuals and groups of both sexes. Generally the subject is a young woman or women who can be described as sturdy. A few such works I have seen have indicated pubic hair but generally the pubic area is smooth. Male statues depict the genitals. Sculpture in Japan before the intrusion of Western cultures was limited to Nudity in Japanese Visual Media 58"/ religious subjects. A single famous statuette of Kannon, located at Enoshi- ma, depicts the goddess in the nude displaying her sexual organs. But this exception is perhaps better seen as a fertility symbol rather than a study of the human form. There are a few examples of nude ceramic dolls produced in the city of Hakata, posed so as to expose the genitals (Kronhausen and Kronhausen, 1968). The camera has become the primary medium of expression in nude studies at least in recent years. Photographs of nude people range from those clearly intended as art studies to the outright pornographic, the majority to be found in public media falling in the "pin-up" category. There are, however, several categories of nudes we can now examine. These are probably not ex- haustive and in most cases not mutually exclusive. They are based on my own assumptions about the motivation of the publisher, artist, or producer supported by the reaction of Japanese with whom I was in contact. I have tried to avoid reference to my own or any other viewer's response to a nude representation because this would require investigation of individual and idi- osyncratic interpretations.

The Sentimental or Romantic Nude

Nudity in some contexts is clearly intended to elicit sentiment, particularly sentiment related to motherhood or the family. An example appearing on neighborhood bulletin boards throughout Tokyo promoting a child health campaign displayed a picture of a young mother holding her child. Both mother and child were nude. A second example of this class of nude was an institutional advertisement for a large corporation aired regularly on television for several weeks showing a man, woman, and child family group standing in front of a dramatic sunset; all three in the nude with their pubic areas hidden in shadow. Many advertisers rely on sentimental nudity to pro- mote their product or firm, particularly if they are related to home or family. Scenes of parents and children in the bath appear frequently in television and magazine advertising. It should be noted that censorship does not apply to the genitalia of prepubertal children. A nursing mother is a theme that appears regularly in advertising, both in magazines and on television. The final scene of the film "Tampopo," recently available in the United States, is a good example of this type of presentation. Given the theme of the film, the prolonged nursing scene can only be interpreted as symbolic of food, tenderness, and nurture. The opening scene of the same director's film Maru No Onna ("Taxing Woman"), which depicts an aged and infirm man being breast-fed by a nurse, seems once again to emphasize nurture rather than eroticism. In discussing these films with Americans my impression is that 588 Downs for many people these scenes were puzzling and more disturbing than outright erotic. (It should be noted that Benedict, 1946/1986, reported that breast-feeding was admitted to produce a degree of sexual excitement and gratification which suggests that it would be unwise to totally rule out the erotic element in such scenes.)

Social or Convivial Nudity

Bathing is, in Japan, an activity that transcends mere hygiene. Soak- ing in hot water, indoors or out, is in itself considered a pleasure; a pleasure that can be, and often is, shared with others. The bath is without question the most common setting for nudes, irrespective of the intended affective response. Individuals or groups bathing, particularly in onsen baths, are featured in all forms of advertising: television, magazine, poster, or newspaper. An extremely popular television program aired in the mornings visits the various sento in Tokyo to interview the patrons. These interviews include scenes in the dressing rooms and in the baths themselves. Not infrequently the com- mentator strips and joins his male subjects in a soak. The reporter regularly enters the women's section to talk to bathers who most frequently remain submerged to the neck but who on ocassion sit casually on the side of the bath with a small towel in their laps. During the fall of 1986 one of Japan's most popular prime-time television programs reviewed the facilities of several onsen each week. The format called for prolonged scenes of program staff members in the bath. Genital exposure was avoided by observing normal bath etiquette (a small towel) or by careful camera work. Bath scenes regularly appear in feature films without any obvious intent at sensationalism. For example, a brother and sister discussing a family problem continue their con- versation in a bath, speaking over the wall between the men's and women's sections. Although the bathers, in whatever media, are often attractive and nubile young women, the bath is perhaps the least frequently used setting for erotic and salacious situations. It is, on the other hand, often the setting for nudity as a subject of humor. One television series set in a Tokyo sento invariably ends with a person entering the bath of the other sex, generating a truly slapstick scene.

The Humorous Nude

The presentation of the nude in humorous contexts suggests that the common belief about the neutrality of the body in Japanese culture is er- roneous. It also provides some evidence that the frequently heard statement Nudity in Japanese Visual Media 589 that the Japanese have no concept of privacy is, at least, overstated. The nude as a subject of humor is found in all media and almost invariably re- lates to a person being surprised in the bath or elsewhere while naked or to people, almost always men or boys, trying to see a nude woman when she feels she is not observed. Occasional scenes of high school girls peeking at male students do occur, particularly in manga and television comedies. Another humorous incident frequently seen in television serials is a person, most often a woman, but occasionally a man, losing his or her clothing or having it torn off by accident. One dramatic serial, for example, virtually every afternoon, had a scene in the women's dressing room of a department store in which one of the young women would have her brassiere ripped off in a scuffle. The onsen review program mentioned earlier broadcast as its final segment a number of outtakes from previous programs. Most scenes depicted one of the staff in the bath accidentally exposing his or her genitals. At the moment of exposure a pink heart was projected over the offending area. The purpose was not to show the genitalia but to present the performer in an embarrassing position. The final outtake showed the entire staff leaping in the air and cheering. In the process one of the young women, whose breasts were broadcast at least three times on every program, accidentally exposed them in this context and was overwhelmed by embarrassment while the staff roared with laughter. The Peeping Tom episodes common in cartoons, manga, television drama, and comedies suggest strongly that the Japanese do reserve to themselves a degree of personal privacy and that attempts to invade that privacy are often considered humorous, inasmuch as a nude person in the presence of a clothed person is at a social disadvantage. Other examples of humorous nudity include a very popular commercial on television in which three totally nude men, concealing their genitals with plastic basins commonly used in a Japanese bath, invade an office and sing an advertising jingle. In yet another television commercial a man and woman in blackface tap-danced, not revealing until the last seconds of the segment that the woman's costume above the waist was painted on. On a variety show a 30-min comedy routine was performed by three men, two of them humorously berating the third, who performed entirely naked save for the ubiquitous towel covering his genitals. A common scene in dramas is the sudden appearance before guests of a family's younger son totally naked, to the embarrassment of the family, particularly elder sisters. In these scenes the boy's genitals are not censored.

Nudity and Information

When a picture is intended to convey information, depict news events, or educate, nudity appears to become incidental. Articles in women's maga- 590 Downs zines, for example, which dealt with modern childbirth methods were not constrained to obscure the genitals. Nor did a story in a weekly magazine reporting a surgical operation on a man's penis. Permissiveness in this context may be a relatively recent development. A news report of a raid on a nopan ba (no pants bar; where the waitresses wear only flimsy aprons and high-heeled shoes; also called no pan kissa), aired at 6 PM on national television, made no effort to avoid photographing the nearly nude young women. The clothing of the staff was not, it should be noted, the cause of the raid. During a late-night talk show dealing with AIDS the host interviewed, along with a number of physicians, nurses, and public health experts, two prostitutes who demonstrated, in the nude, observing the conventions of censorship, methods of inducing orgasm without risk. One would be naive to argue that there was no element of sensationalism in this presentation. But the subject and the juxtaposition of the women with nationally known experts and the demeanor of the host certainly defused that aspect of the show. A few weeks later the same show visited a lingerie shop that provides instruction on how to wear high-style underwear. The show was devoted to the shop-owner providing instruction on how to wear a brassiere, using a model who was nude from the waist up. The model was, or appeared to be, a customer who had agreed to take part in the program.

Sensation and Erotica

Television, films, magazines, and manga are the most common context for nude representations clearly intended to be sensational or erotic. A very popular late-night talk program, "The Wide Show," regularly runs film clips of nude dancers or scenes from erotic films. An extremely popular prime- time variety show presented in one segment a young woman dressed in a high school girl's uniform who stripped to her panties to pose for the studio and the viewing audience. Another show, which features people with odd skills or who are physically unusual (e.g., 8-ft tall twins from Scandinavia or a man who catches arrows in flight), presented two European women with enormous breasts, wearing only minuscule G-strings. The sequence lasted approx- imately 10 min and included taking measurements and the declaration of the "winner." The episode was closed with a film clip of the visitors in an outdoor bath with two young Japanese women, also nude, who compared en- dowments. (At the end of the season viewers were asked to vote for their favorite performers. The two hugely endowed ladies came in in second, after the 8-ft tall Scandinavian twins.) Afternoon television drama almost invariably includes erotic scenes in which the participants are, in keeping with the rules of censorship, partially Nudity in Japanese Visual Media 591 clothed. Feature films shown in theaters and rented in video shops also include nude scenes. The term "nude scene" itself should be explained. Gener- ally scenes including nude women last much longer than similar scenes in American films. Not infrequently an actress may wear nothing but panties during an entire film. There are many soft-core films produced, devoted entirely to erotic performances. These can be divided into two classes: those that are deliberately soft-core with the participants clothed or posed in a way to avoid censorship and those that were originally filmed as hard-core and subsequently legalized by obscuring the forbidden organs electronically. Photo magazines intended for young male or female audiences publish pictures of invitingly posed young women and pictures of sexual intercourse with obscuring dots in the requisite places. The several slick paper weekly illustrated magazines always feature nude pictures of dancers, massage-parlor employees, and celebrities or "news" features about nudist activities in foreign countries. Although not all manga are devoted to erotica, many include erotic scenes or episodes and several are devoted exclusively to erotic material. In all these nudity is regular, observing the normal restraints on complete and undisguised nakedness. The artists who produce these magazines dis- play enormous ingenuity in obscuring and disguising the sexual organs of the characters without in any way obscuring their actions. Here, as in all other contexts, it is clearly the organ not the act that is forbidden.

JAPAN AND AMERICA; COMPARISON AND CONCLUSIONS

This brief survey of the presentation of the nude in Japanese visual media provides some contrasts between America and Japan. The most dramatic contrast is not, in this instance, what is illustrated. The human body is essentially the same in either country. An examination of American media reveals that actually more explicit illustrations of nudity are available than is the case in Japan. Full frontal nudity and the completely exposed vagina and, less frequently, the penis can be found in magazines for sale on newsstands and magazine racks in drug stores, groceries, etc. Photographs of this nature are not legally available in Japan, even in adult book stores. On the other hand, in America pictures of this type are found in only a few publications not infrequently sold from "behind the counter." Public pres- sure has caused one major retail outlet ("7-11") to refuse to sell these magazines at all. Although most video rental outlets have "adult" sections not open to minors, the largest chain of stores in the Washington, DC area does not stock any adult material. On television, nakedness is relegated to late night hours or cable television. And, as is the case with feature films, nudity and partial nudity occur in what are most often brief scenes and always related 592 Downs to sexual themes. An exception and an illustration of the American approach is the recent rash of nudist-oriented programs, clearly scheduled to increase ratings. Two daytime shows (Geraldo Rivera and Sally Jessy Raphael) have visited nudist clubs or interviewed nudists and two dramatic/comedy series ("Designing Women" and "L.A. Law") have featured nudist episodes. In these cases, while it was obvious that people were nude the camera seldom strayed below the neck or the upper back. Although the nudist theme would be unusual and perhaps not understood in Japan, similar scenes would not have avoided breasts or full posterior nudity or frontal nudity within the limits of censorship. In American general audience magazines, nudity is relatively rare. A recent ad in women's magazines featuring a nude model was deemed unusual enough to generate discussions on radio talk shows in the East and Midwest. In contrast, in Japan, nude photographs and drawings are accessible at any one of the thousands of newsstands and bookstores in Japan, displayed openly, and nudes are apt to be found in publications of all types. In film and electronic media, nude scenes appear regularly, sometimes with erotic or sensational intent and sometimes without. And such scenes last much longer than they do in the United States. Woman's magazines often run "My Nude" features which publish photographs submitted by readers describing her reasons for wanting her nude picture published. Perhaps a major contrast between American and Japanese media is the treatment of the breast. In America, with the exception of a very small number of "men's" magazines, which specialize in complete nudity, the complete female breast is seldom illustrated and when it is there is often public com- ment and some degree of criticism. Or if, for example, the entire breast is shown, its owner may not be completely revealed. Nudity in general audience magazines is rare, or only suggested. In American films the female breast, while increasingly common, is most usually shown in only a fleeting frag- ment of film. The Japanese, in contrast, are not reluctant to allow a partially clad woman to appear for long periods. Although censorship is strict and violators are prosecuted it is clear that the public does not object to what many Americans see as a flood of nudity. One hundred and fifty manga are published weekly, as are at least a half dozen weekly magazines all of which are doing well as are dozens of small magazines for young men. Despite some small protest groups whose mem- bership is in part American, the public appears to have an insatiable appe- tite, or at least very high tolerance, if not for nudity, then for publications containing nudity. American reactions to this situation in Japan are interesting. Although most Americans are familiar with Playboy, Penthouse, and similar magazines, which publish full frontal nudes and regularly show the exposed vagina, and at least know of magazines, such as Playgirl, which feature frontal male nudity, they all appear to be intrigued by the Japanese approach. Some Nudity in Japanese Visual Media 593 of course profess to be shocked not so much by the content as by the context, that is, the frequency of nudity and the times and places at which it occurs (e.g., afternoon or prime-time television, general circulation magazines, and manga). As an aside Americans also express shock or disdain for the Japanese tolerance for public drunkenness which is much higher than in the United States. In both cases the criticisms are often couched not in terms of morality but of "good taste." Others, as might be imagined, are delighted by what they consider a more open and natural approach to the subject. Both groups are in agreement that the rules of censorship in Japan are bewilderingly contradictory, permitting widespread depiction of nude and erotic material but for the most part rigidly forbidding depictions of sexual organs and pubic hair. The Japanese, as noted earlier, tolerate the widespread occurrence of nudity in film, electronic, and print media but at least some are conscious (perhaps self-conscious is a better term) of foreign reactions. Some would impose more rigid censorship. Others argue that Japanese censorship laws are old-fashioned and not in keeping with the standards of other countries and thus would relax them. And, American X-rated videos as well as uncen- sored copies of Playboy and Penthouse are eagerly sought after and are prized souvenirs of a visit to the United States. Taken as whole, the Japanese see nudity in several, not simply sexual/erotic, contexts. They are in a sense more accepting of the realities of human existence and although they are in their personal lives quite modest they do not feel threatened by the availability of nude illustrations as such. Nor do they, it appears, consider nudity (or the great amount of violence appearing in many manga and films) a threat to their individual moral standards. Nu- dity may be instructional, erotic, sentimental, or humorous but not threaten- ing to the social fabric.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am indebted to Martin Malin and Nancy Dickenson for their com- ments and counsel. I am also indebted to my friend and sponsor, Shigeru Iijima.

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