Japan's offbeat sex parlors waxed to art in exhibit of kink

Sex parlors in Japan are so over-the-top bonkers that they can be considered artworks in their own right.

Love hotel rooms are furnished with rotating beds and even slides (whoosh!), while “imekura” (a contraction of “image” and “club”) sex parlors are equipped with rooms that replicate an office or the interior of a train (demonstrating how Eros can pop up his head in the most mundane locations).

So there is something to cater for the most eccentric of fantasies of any man (mainly) with a kinky urge on this singular archipelago.

"I want to show the marvelous creativity achieved by Japanese people,” organizer Kyoichi Tsuzuki says of his art exhibition, “Kyoichi Tsuzuki Presents Erotopia Japan,” being held at the Atsukobarouh gallery in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward until Aug 7.

The show is an explosion of photos of Japanese erotic establishments certain to astonish visitors with their overwhelmingly elaborate schemes designed to satisfy all adult fantasies.

“They end up making more than extra efforts not to directly enhance sexual pleasure but to pursue fun," says Tsuzuki.

Photos of love hotels and artifacts from "hihokan" sex museums are featured at the show with Tsuzuki claiming that love hotels, sex museums and other sex-related establishments are a form of culture that has developed in Japan in a particularly unique way.

“There are things that are so interesting in a town near you," Tsuzuki says. "When you finally notice them, places you used to just pass by would look very different."

The exhibition runs until Aug. 7. Admission is 1,000 yen ($10).

(THE ASAHI SHIMBUN)