NOBUYOSHI ARAKI
TOKYO LUCKY HOLE
Published by Taschen in 2021
Book size 14x19.5 cm
704 pages
Hardcover
Language English, German, French
It all began in 1978 in an ordinary café near Kyoto. Word spread that the waitresses there wore no panties under their miniskirts and transparent tights. Similar establishments soon opened all over the country. Men lined up on the sidewalk, willing to pay three times the price for a coffee just to be served by young, pantless women. A few years later, the Japanese became passionate about panty-free massage parlors.
To stand out from the crowd and attract customers, competing brands are multiplying ancillary services, from masturbating customers through a hole in a coffin in which they bind, feigning death, to catering for commuter train fetishists. One destination in particular attracts them to Tokyo: the “Lucky Hole” club. Here, the principle is ridiculously simple: the customer stands on one side of a plywood barrier, a waitress on the other, and the wall is pierced by a hole big enough to pass a certain part of the male anatomy.
Nobuyoshi Araki's Lucky Hole immortalizes the rise of Japan's pornographic industry through more than 800 photos of the pleasure-seekers and purveyors who populated Tokyo's red-light district of Shinjuku, until the February 1985 decree for the control and improvement of the new entertainment industries led to the closure of most of the country's sexy addresses.
Mirrors on the walls, crumpled sheets, cages, orgies, bondage and moaning make up these final bacchanalian images, tinged with humor, precise poetry and perplexing observations.
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It all started in 1978 in an ordinary café near Kyoto. Rumor spread that the waitresses there did not wear panties under their miniskirts and transparent tights. Similar establishments soon opened all over the country. The men line up on the sidewalk, willing to pay three times the price for a coffee just to be served by young women without panties. A few years later, the Japanese became passionate about massage parlors without panties.
To stand out and attract customers, competing brands are offering a variety of additional services, from masturbating customers through a hole in a coffin in which they lie, feigning death, to catering for commuter train fetishists. One destination in particular attracts them in Tokyo: the "Lucky Hole" club. There, the principle is ridiculously simple: the customer stands on one side of a plywood barrier, a waitress on the other, and the wall is pierced with a hole large enough to pass through a certain part of the male anatomy.
Nobuyoshi Araki chose to call Lucky Hole this book intended to immortalize the rise of the Japanese pornographic industry through more than 800 photos of the purveyors and seekers of pleasure who populated the red light district of Shinjuku, in Tokyo, until the decree of February 1985 for the control and improvement of new entertainment industries caused the closure of a majority of the sexy addresses in the country.
Mirrors on the walls, crumpled sheets, cages, orgies, bondage and moans make up these last images of bacchanalia, tinged with humor, precise poetry and perplexed observations.