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By far the most popular and recognized artist in Japan, Araki has garnered recognition worldwide as an erotic artist. Wild and charismatic, Araki is constantly in trouble with the Japanese censors as a result of his raw, and playful images of sex and women. Ironically, much of Araki's work is not allowed to be shown or printed in Japan.
Original Airdate: Saturday, Oct. 19/02 @ 11:30pm and 2:30am** (program addition)
Repeats: Sunday, Oct. 20/02 @ 12:00am** *(program change)
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Araki
In my years working on the show I’ve had a chance to interview many prominent visual artists.
While most of these experiences have been positive and even enriching, I don’t think it’s unfair to say
that most of these successful artists have massive egos, and that many of them can be described as divas.
Upon meeting Araki I realized he wasn’t really a diva – no, Araki is much more like a rock star.
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He is a tiny man yet he is larger than life, easily taking over any room with his booming voice, magnetic presence
and distinct sense of style. His hair is always arranged like a feline’s ears (he is obsessed with cats), and
he usually wears a garment with one of his personal logos painted on it. Everything he says is at once playful and provocative – “ As soon as I came out of my mother’s vagina, I turned around and took a picture”, “ I love that censorship exists because I love being a bad boy”, etc., etc. Somehow though, all this doesn’t seem as calculated as it sounds. Sure, Araki knows how to market himself, but at the same time you can’t help but feel that you are in the presence of a man who has a huge lust for life.
Araki became famous in the West because he was the first to photograph Japan’s kinky underbelly. His pictures
of sex workers and their clients are sometimes sordid, but also completely non-judgmental. In fact, the pictures
often portray a sense of fun, and lighthearted erotic play that is usually missing from documentary
studies of the sex industry. In fact, the pictures often show Araki himself joining in on the fun – naked and
unashamed. When these pictures were published on this side of the ocean, they changed people’s notions of
Japan radically. That’s certainly what happened to me when I innocently picked up “Tokyo Lucky Hole” (ok, maybe
not so innocently - it is after all a pretty provocative title and cover picture) about 5 years ago.
But there is a lot more to Araki. He doesn’t just juxtapose his pictures of flowers with images of women and vaginas, he also captures cityscapes, toy dinosaurs, pieces of the sky - the world at large. It seems Araki is turned on by everything. He is known to be a compulsive photographer.
We met up with Araki in his favorite bar in Tokyo’s seediest neighborhood. We were told that Araki’s usual
routine was to drink until he was slurring his words and then wander through the city. Because we didn’t
have much time with him, and we were told he would definitely not be shooting, we decided to show up with
two of our Japanese translator’s girlfriends. We figured that Araki would take one look at our beautiful
companions and would be instantly compelled to take out his pocket camera on the spot. It would give us a chance
to capture the artist at work and maybe even go gallivanting with him after a few drinks. It didn’t work that way
though. Araki didn’t give the girls we sat beside him a second glance but proceeded to make advances at our very
shy translator. He then stood up and left immediately, as if he was off to some wild and exciting place. Oh well.
It was wonderful to that Araki’s lust for life and women was still intact.
Pedro Orrego
Producer SexTV-The Series
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