November 20, 2007 | Sex & Society

For the love of Mapplethorpe

Because cock is inherently good, a publisher in Japan is going to court to challenge a ban on genitalia that resulted in his collection of Robert Mapplethorpe images being seized by custom officials.

Initially, Takashi Asai translated and published the collection back in 1994 for a local audience. At the time, he relied on negatives of the images that slipped through customs without incident. It has since been sold on the web, and is available in the Japanese National Diet Library where every book published in Japan can be found.

However, after visiting the US in 1999 Asai returned to Japan with a copy of his book and it was seized on the spot. Even though pornography is readily available throughout the country, explicit images of cocks cannot be imported into Japan. 

"I really don't understand the government's decision to ban importing a book which had already been published for five years," he argued.

Although a lower court found the Mapplethorpe photographs obscene, Japan's top court has agreed to hear the case. Robert would be proud to know that, almost twenty years after his death, his works are still causing a stir.