Feminist artist Megumi Igarashi has been indicted with distributing “obscene” data following her rest earlier this month. WARNING: CONTAINS ARTFUL VAGINAS.
A Japanese artist famous for making objects shaped like her vagina was charged for distributing "obscene" data on Wednesday, the Japan Times reported.
Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi, who calls herself Rokude Nashiko, shows a small mascot shaped like a vagina "Manko-chan" at a news conference in Tokyo on July 24, 2014.
AFP / Getty Images YOSHIKAZU TSUNO
Lawyers for Megumi Igarashi – also known as Rokudenashiko — said that the charges relate to her arrest earlier this month, after she raised funds online to pay for a canoe shaped like her genitals.
She also allegedly displayed an "obscene" exhibit in a Tokyo sex shop, and distributed CD-ROMs containing computer code allowing users to 3D-print a canoe in the shape of her vagina, the Japan Times said.
An image from Megumi Igarashi's website.
http://6d745.com
Igarashi, who has been detained since her arrest on Dec. 4., pleaded not guilty to the charges.
"My works are all meant to induce friendly laughter because they involve cutely decorating sexual organs. The works are not obscene," she said in a statement to the court, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
"We don't agree with the prosecutors' contention at all," her lawyer Takeshi Sumi said. "We will continue pleading not guilty on behalf of Igarashi, who argues her works are not anything obscene."
