crime

Photographer charged over nude photos at cemetery

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Nothing against indecency, but doing this on tombstones where other people's relatives is something else.

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If convicted, Shinoyama faces up to six months in prison or a fine of up to 300,000 yen.

Just Y300,000.-? This is more indecent than photographer's act who will make millions out of these photos.

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so what...najked lady in a cemetary with dead people...I am sure some dead guys will rise from this

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huh?

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So let me get this straight. It is ok for some jerk off salaryman to view naked photos of girls in school uniforms on a public train during rush hour, but not ok to take photos of naked adult girls for art in a graveyard.

Japan has the weirdest sense of right and wrong. I personally think the perv on the train is causing far more damage to the moral fiber, if any, of Japan by exposing children, women and the rest of us to his perversions. While the photographer seems to have taken consideration for not exposing the public while trying to get photos for artistic expression.

Maybe poor judgement on his part, but why isn't skebe Oyaji in court too?!?

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Headline can be read a different way: was the photographer nude when taking the photos or was he taking pictures of nude corpses?

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"...at a public cemetery." "...disrespect for a religious site..." What, no separation of church and state in Japan? Seriously though, when I'm dead, feel free to bring all the nekkid girls you want to my grave.

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This exposure is gonna sell a ton of his books. Free exposure is the best exposure. He should be grateful he was arrested.

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This guy is waaay overrated. Has also done exhibitions usinmg only early and middtenn models dressed like tarento's and kids etc. Basically just panders to pervy J stereotypes.

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Actually woman tied up on a tombstone is a famous old horror motif, which Shinoyama was apparently trying to recreate. There's a whole genre of these, including woman who is knocked out, abducted and awakens to find herself bound to a rotting corpse, etc. This type of gothic image belongs to a theme where the horror genre overlaps with SM, and appears to be mainly, but not exclusively, Japanese.

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Whatever the so-called artistic quality of this guy's work. Fact is that porn movies are being taped all over this town in all kind of public places all the time, but this one guy doing kinda tame nude shots is getting arrested?

What a joke.

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Shame on him!

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Perhaps a name other than 'No nude' is more apt for a collection featuring nude women.

Look, I'm all for art, and I think the obvious aim to contrast life and death in a rather controversial style is fine and dandy, but the guy should be charged, in my opinion. Not because of the content, but because he didn't seek permission to do it beforehand. Granted, he would likely have been refused, but still. Or if it were an issue of sensitivity, he could go to his own family tomb/grave and take the pics of the naked ladies there (again, if he got permission from the grounds).

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Come on JT, we clearly need pictures to make an informed judgment on this one!

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I do not think anyone living under the cemetery minded. I want to buy the book. The guy is a good artist.

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Looks like a dead issue to me

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I think if it was my relatives grave I would have issue with it. But if it was his family members' grave his call.

Enough with the right vs wrong posts about the Japan salary man porn manga readers, who are you too judge, chill out or go home.

Again JT, it's difficult to be objective without seeing a sample shot.

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At least show us one of these artistic works when you write an article on it!

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So let me get this straight. It is ok for some jerk off salaryman to view naked photos of girls in school uniforms on a public train during rush hour, but not ok to take photos of naked adult girls for art in a graveyard.

Japan has the weirdest sense of right and wrong. I personally think the perv on the train is causing far more damage to the moral fiber, if any, of Japan by exposing children, women and the rest of us to his perversions. While the photographer seems to have taken consideration for not exposing the public while trying to get photos for artistic expression.

Taking pictures of women on trains is a prosecutable offence, even if you just take a picture of their face. Japan has some of the strictest laws on taking photographs of people in the world.

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At least show us one of these artistic works when you write an article on it!

Here his former works can be found:

http://www.ajapanesebook.com/2009/03/shinoyama-kishin-nihon-no-bi-joyu-1979.html

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This is all for fame and grid. Was he declared as CELEBRITY in Japan?

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He'll get a suspended bust and camera taken away from him for six months...

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tkoind2 said: Japan has the weirdest sense of right and wrong.

Weird,yes. But everybody has a weird sense of right and wrong about these things if you analyze it. Some are you used to and some you aren't. For the Japanese I am sure their ways make sense mostly because they never stopped to really analyze it.

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IMHO I could careless who filmed or took pictures of what in public. As long as they respect other adults, and children that don't want to see or be around things like that. It's a form of art and I like the erotic pics of a woman nude in a park or wherever that is fine. But the cemetery is crossing the line, have respect for the dead, and could you imagine if you were to go pay your respects and find a woman spread eagle on your loved one's tomb?

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NOT a nice place to take pictures in nude really, maybe the dead ones will rise up and say" Hey!I'm gonna whip your butt! we are at rest in peace here".

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@smithinjapan: 'No Nude' is actually a clever title i think.. No in Nihongo is a possessive.. think of the English word 'of' and so in Nihongo the title can be seen as Of Nude.. as if speaking of or considering nude.. in English the word No means to not allow.. and the images in the book are clearly images of nudity in places where it is not allowed.. so to me this title is very clever (^_^) Regarding the image in the graveyard.. well.. that is a bit more of a violation of respect.. disrespecting the hallowed ground and quite possibly insulting the family of the buried dead there. Of all of the images taken in the book, only the graveyard image caused the concern.

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Honestly I think it would be a crime to send an artist to prison for taking nude photos.

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Perhaps "Beauty is Fleeting" is a better title?

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I understand that this can be shocking and disrespectful. Because a cemetery is a place of serenity and peace, reflection and prayer. It is mainly disrespectful towards the families of the deceased.

After all why not creating a fake cemetery in a studio, if he really meant so much to these photos in such a context!

"I humbly accept the case as a lesson, and I will pursue my challenges to new forms of expression" Shinoyama said, but what is done is done now!And I doubt that he had planned other shootings in a cemetery !

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I understand that this can be shocking and disrespectful. Because a cemetery is a place of serenity and peace, reflection and prayer.

Anyone who's attended a cherry blossom party at a bochi (cemetary) knows this statement is pure nonsense.

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It is offensive to me that some people are so offended by nudity. I don't know how to strike a balance with that. But I cannot help but feel that those offended by nudity are acting like children, and should be treated as such and educated and told to shut up and to learn to deal with it just like all the other things in the world that might set off your monkey emotions.

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@MistWizard: it is not 'nudity' that is being considered offensive in this article.. if that were so, then the whole book would have been part of the complaint - but it is not. The only photo that caused the trouble is the graveyard image and the complaint is about APPROPRIATENESS. It is simply disrespectful to drape naked people over someone elses grave-site. Respect is a function of the higher brain, not the animal part.. the animal part just looks and sees the naked girls, grunts and gets aroused.. it is not really capable of much deeper thought than that. The higher brain that DOES consider consequences, that humans EVOLVED with out of need to co-exist in the crowded societies that we now live in, THAT is the part of the brain that has issues with this.. again not the nudity - the disrespect for the sanctity of the graves and completely on a non-religious level, the private property of the families.

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@RomeoRamenll: Maybe he should have said "Because a cemetery is intended as a place of serenity and peace, reflection and prayer." ? Regardless of what disrespectful acts that drunken party-goers may sometimes commit. The cherry blossom parties you mention are really just one more good example of people acting inappropriately.

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Honestly I think it would be a crime to send an artist to prison for taking nude photos.

agreed, though I daresay he's done the right thing in showing remorse and apologizing for his actions - he won't do any time. the publicity surrounding the arrest will also likely result in advancing his fan-base, both here and around the world.

that said, considering other all the heinous acts that we've been reading about recently, this seems like (yet another) huge waste of judicial time and resources.

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Mikanojo, so if she were clothed and draped over someone's gravesite, it would be appropriate? The difference is nude or not, and so, some people have a problem with nudity. You see, if, my father had a headstone instead of being ashes on the wind, I would love to have this guy have naked models drapped over it. I think it would please my father highly.

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@MistWizard, actually no sir.. you are incorrect. The issue is NOT about the fact even that the models were nude on the grave-site.. as much as it is inappropriate that they be ON the grave-site at all.. to sit or stand or pose on top of someone elses grave is already an inappropriate act to most of us, the fact that they were naked only makes it MORE insensitive to the families of the departed. So often you look only from your direction, but you need to try seeing through different eyes.. the eyes of the family of the dead who now have seen their ancestor's grave-site defiled by nude models, and that image published in a book of nude photos.. You personally said that you have no problem with that.. but please try to consider that OTHER PEOPLE have feelings just as important as your own, and in the matter of their own family they are well within their rights to have their ancestor's grave-site at LEAST respected enough to be left alone! This is another example of thinking with the wrong part of the brain.. in order to co-exist safely and productively in society, we all must frequently take the needs and feelings of others into consideration BEFORE we act on our own whims. It made a titillating photo, artistically juxtaposing the naked warm living bodies with the cold stone that revers the dead beneath it.. but at what cost to the honor and respect of the family? It is not enough just to look from your direction sir; all of us need to keep perspective.

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Mikanojo, he was arrested for both public indecency (nudity) and disrespect of a religious site. But I think its safe to say that he would not have been charged with the second if not for the first. As pointed out, religious sites get disrespected all the time. It all revolved around the nudity.

I do think the guy should have gotten permission from the family first though. Arrest seems a little over the top. I think a civil suit by the family for damages would be far more appropriate in this case.

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@MistWizard: Shinoyama~san was charged with public indecency and disrespect for a religious site for allegedly snapping the nude photographs in October 2008 'at Tokyo’s Aoyama cemetery' ~ if you read the rest of the article it also mentions that the cemetery was 'one of a dozen public locations in Tokyo where two models posed nude' ~ if the emphasis was on the nudity in public, as only you are claiming, then why was Shinoyama~san NOT charged with 11 more counts of public indecency? He was not charged, because as i said, the real issue here is NOT the public nudity as much as it was about using the grave-site as setting.

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@MistWizard: and to be more correct sir, public indecency is NOT only nudity; the charge of public indecency covers many acts of inappropriate public behavior, of which nudity/exposure is only 1 aspect. You personally wish to argue abt nudity because as i said you choose to look only from your direction sir. there is a MUCH bigger issue here than a bit of skin being flashed for a camera.

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I'm surprised that "disrespect for a religious site" is actually against the law in Japan. If it is, I'm guilty many times over, because I disrepect all of the money-grubbing, amulet-hawking, bereaved family-exploiting religious sites in Japan, and all of the hypocrites running them. An honest pornographer is far more respectable.

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@Alan... here is another way that you MIGHT look at things.. the graveyard itself is a public property, maintained by the city and therefore a public site that EVERYONE has a need to respect in order for it to remain clean and safe and accessible.. AND, each grave plot is purchased land, PRIVATELY owned by the families of the departed, just as you might own property sir. Regardless of your faith of lack of it, when the photographer used someone else's PRIVATE property for his photoshoot without permission, he infringed upon the rights of the property owners. From a purely cultural perspective, considering the level of reverence that Nihon holds for it ancestors.. does it honestly surprise you that respect for the rights of others, AND respect for their faith, is a law?

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Mikanojo: Then he should have been charged with trespass, not with disrepect for a religious site. The Japanese state has no business demanding respect for any religion. My surprise that disrespect for a religious site is illegal relates to Article 20 of the Japanese constitution, which states that no religious organization shall receive any privileges from the state.

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@Alan: No registered faith receives any special privileges, but it should not LOSE any rights that any other public or private group is granted under the law. This is not a matter of any special privileges, as i already explained it is a matter of property, and trespass is a lesser charge that certainly COULD have been issued against Shinoyama~san. If someone simply walked on your property unwanted, that could be seen as trespass; if that unwanted trespasser proceeded to desecrate your property with indecent acts, would that not also be a separate crime?

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@Alan again: In this situation, we should also consider that the cemetery itself is a PUBLIC property, and so Shinoyama~san and his models were not trespassing to be there. But while they were there, Shinoyama~san instigated an indecent act, namely disrespect of a religious site (the grave-site) by using it as a prop for erotic photography.

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