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Prosecutors seek fine for ‘obscene’ work by Tokyo vagina artist

Megumi Igarashi
Megumi Igarashi

TOKYO (TR) – On Monday at the Tokyo District Court, prosecutors made clear an intention to seek a fine for an artist whose displays based on her genitals have been deemed objectionable, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Feb. 1).

Prosecutors are demanding that Megumi Igarashi, 43, be ordered to pay a fine of 800,000 yen over art pieces that replicate her vagina due to their “obscene” nature.

In July of 2014, Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested Igarashi for allegedly for mailing links for the download of 3D-image data of her genitals to donors of an art project.

Igarashi was arrested again in December of 2014 for displaying a plaster cast of her vagina in an exhibition at an adult shop in Bunkyo Ward between October of 2013 and July of the following year.

Included among the works in question were colored ornaments in the shape of genitalia.

“The shape is easy to clearly understand,” said the prosecutors. “Rather than an ornament it emphasizes the original.”

The defense for Igarashi, who goes by the pseudonym Rokudenashiko (or Good For Nothing Girl), maintained that her art is not obscene. “As well,” said the defense, “as to an obscene exhibit being a crime, that is a violation of the Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of expression.”

The decision in the case is expected to be made on May 9.