まくらトーク💭🏩🧸🛌

Welcome back to Makura Talk! Since it’s been so long since I’ve last posted on this account, I wanted to reintroduce myself and my goals with this account🫡 My name is Koharu and I created this account in 2021 with the goal to destigmatize conversations around sex, reproductive health, pleasure, consent, etc, through observing Japanese art history (especially of the erotic), and it’s various ways it has represented women’s bodies to this day. I have always felt that not enough dialogue around topics of sexual violence prevention or sex education has been happening in the Japanese art field (or within Japanese culture in general...) all the while, Japanese male artists so often continue to depict exploitative images of women and themes such as r*pe for the sake of art: As an art historian and feminist theorist, my research has been focusing on these patterns in Japanese art history, on how especially Japanese women's and girl’s bodies (often seen in hyper-eroticized, childlike, or grotesque manners) were so often used as metaphors for nationalism, modernization, post-war anxiety, sites for colonial aggression, war victimhood mindset, or just simply a site in which art’s boundaries was challenged by cis male artists.

My aim in observing these artworks is not to criticize and dismiss them entirely but rather observe them while practicing feminist theory, and questioning if and how these representations of women, girls, and/or the erotic could continue to feed into continued violence on our bodies. Like don’t get me wrong, I am obsessed w erotic art works and am inspired constantly by works like these! Which is also why I created this platform to focus also on the positive aspects of embracing the erotic and erotic arts, as another feminist theoretical tool, for healing from violence and reclaiming power within our bodies🤍

I want this page to serve as an archival & community engagement tool, introducing new women artists long ignored in Japanese art history, and creating dialogues around sex education, reproductive rights, healing from trauma, and sexual violence prevention with a fun twist of enjoying visual arts! Thank you for being here💗xo
Image: Fukui Kuni