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| An early drawing from the 1960s or beginning of the 1970s by Namio Harakuwa for the magazine Kitan Club. (source: Kinbaku Today) |
Mr. Harakuwa (春川ナミオ) was born in 1947, shortly after the end of the Second World War in Osaka. His artist name was made up combining the name of film actress Harukawa Masumi with an anagram of the name Naomi. A Fool's Love (痴人の愛) is a 1924-1925 novel by Japanese author Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (谷崎 潤一郎) with Naomi as its sadistic heroine. [1] [2]
The artist began his career as an illustrator in the early days of SM magazines. Still in high school (ca 1962) Mr. Harakawa's earliest work found its way into the readers’ column of "Kitan Club" (奇譚クラブ), Japan’s postwar leading pulp magazine. Kitan Club is also known for serializing Shozo Numa's "Livestock Yapoo" (家畜人ヤプー), which began publishing in 1956. No doubt, Namio Harakuwa's work was influenced by the world of Yapoo.
"Harukawa’s drawings of male masochism have portrayed noble, voluptuously beautiful women and the men who would serve them."
- Taco Ché (Arts Factory)
From those early playful illustrations, over the years Mr. Harakuwa's work evolved in the style he is now remembered for, voluptuous women face-sitting their male slaves.
What made Naomi Harakuwa an unique artist is the fact that despite he drew literally hundreds or perhaps thousands of similar images, they only looked alike at first glance. His enthusiasm never waned and each one of his artworks is unique and special. Flipping through them is a journey of discovery. It's perhaps best illustrated by the images Twitter users select when express their condolences upon his death. No two people come up with the same image.
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| Perhaps I share some of my favourites on a later date. Today the image of mistress and slave relaxing at an onsen (hot spring) seems aproriate for it blends East and West. (Image: Biblio Curiosa on Twitter) |
In 1999 an unexpected envelope arrived at the offices of femdom video label Kitagawa. It was from Mr. Harakuwa under his own name. It was the start of a several decades of cooperation between artist and video label. One which went way beyond his illustrations with the red frame that were the covers for the movies Kitagawa produced and sold. [3] It also makes me wonder if those red frames were the reason some of his images were later "remastered" by adding a touch of red.
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| Random selection of covers drawn by Namio Harakuwa for femdom video label Kitagawa. |
At the time Mr. Harakuwa had already been working for over three decades and his talent was known to many within the world of femdom. After the turn of the century his artistic qualities slowly began to receive the mainstream recognition one of Japan's pre-eminent femdom illustrators deserves.
His art has earned praise from the likes of Oniroku Dan (団 鬼六) and Madonna. Mr. Dan was a leading S&M author, perhaps best known for his BDSM novel "Flower and Snake." In 2016 pop singer Madonna posted an image by Namio Harakuwa on her Instagram with the caption "Knowledge is Power 📚. This is Art! By Harukama Namio Japanese illustrator." At the time she was in a custody battle with her ex Guy Richie over their son Rocco. It's what the rest of the caption refers to.
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| "Knowledge is Power 📚. This is Art! By Harukama Namio Japanese illustrator. One of my favorites." (Madonna on Instagram) |
At least two books that I know of about his work were published. In 2012 "Garden of Domina: An Illustrated Story" was released with both Japanese and English text. "Ohara Kana creates a Garden of Paradise where she, her fellow lusty ladies, and their slaves discover the most exquisite ecstasies of the ass." "The Incredible Femdom Art of Namio Harakuwa" was released as an anthology and companion to the final exhibit during his life in 2019 at Tokyo's Vanilla Gallery. In his first solo exhibition outside Japan, works by Harukawa were exhibited at the Museum of Eroticism in Paris in 2013. A Japanese blog by the name of Namio Harakuwa Friendschip Club has a more exhaustive list of exhibitions and publications.
The day after his death, an admirer on Twitter suggested to have an exhibition to celebrate the work of Namio Harakuwa once the current crisis is over. I agree, but let's do it right and make sure the catalog is in as many languages as possible, a fitting tribute to the universal language Namio Harakuwa spoke through his pencil drawings.
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| "Like a prayer" Combining Namio Harakawu and Madonna, this seems like a fitting image. |
Mr. Harakuwa passed away on April 24. He was either 72 or 73 years old and had been battling cancer for some time. His death was confirmed by long-time friend and collaborator Yuko Kitagawa who paid tribute with an eulogy in Japanese. Unfortunately, Google Translate makes little sense, but by all means paste the URL in Chrome and try for yourself. London-based, femdom artist Sardax was among the first to pick up the news in the West. [4] On Twitter Sardax remembers Mr. Harakuwa as "a beacon of excellence."
Myself, I wish his family, loved ones and friends all the best in these difficult times. Rest in peace dear Sir. Your artistic and creative gift made the world more beautiful. Thank you. Someone so special can never be forgotten.
PS
For a long time I've wanted to write about Mr. Harakuwa and his work. I also wanted to do it right. The limited number of resources in English and the fact that Google Translate is far from perfect, especially when it comes to translating a character-based script into an alphabetic writing system made me postpone it again and again. In the end time waits for no-one. I still intend to write more in-dept about the life and work of Namio Harakuwa.
This eulogy is written using both sources in English and Japanese. Google Translate proved of limited use. Any errors are mine and mine alone. Those are not a sign of disrespect, they merely reflect my ignorance for which I deeply apologize.
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Notes:
The Romanization of Japanese names is based on the order of the source material, rather than the Japanese order (surname followed by given name) or what is customary in the West. Apologies for any possible confusion.
[1] Fascinated with the new Westernized culture which was taking root in Japan, salarymen Jōji falls for Naomi's exotic "Eurasian" looks and Western-sounding name and decides to groom her according to his desires. Forging her into a Western-style girl with Western ideas such as independence eventually backfires.
As his obsession with her grows stronger, he no longer is the dominator. Naomi's manipulation puts her in a position of power over him. "Slowly Jōji turns power over to Naomi, conceding to everything she desires. He buys a new house for them, and though they are married, Jōji sleeps in a separate bedroom, while Naomi entertains Western men in another room. The book ends with Naomi having complete control of Jōji's life, though he claims he is satisfied as long as his obsession with her is satiated."
[2] I'm wondering whether Naomi Asano, founder of the Yapoo video label, choose her first name also choose her given name based on the same novel.
[3] Cannot find the original link, so I'm doing this by heart. Apologies.
[4] I learned of Mr. Harakuwa's death through Femdom Resource.
[5] In a withering critique in the early 1990s, Saegusa Kazuko says, Tanizaki portrays women as toys, or as goddesses, but is unable to conceive of them as fellow subjects, and this dooms him to being a “man who cannot love,” “a writer who cannot write love novels”
Saegusa is referring to a famous line from Tanizaki’s 1929 novel Tade kuu mushi (Some prefer nettles) that says of the protagonist, “[he] did not know whether ‘woman’ was a god (kami) or a plaything (gangu), but he did know that from his position the reason he and his wife were never in accord was that she was neither”
See "This Perversion Called Love: Reading Tanizaki, Feminist Theory and Freud." by Margherita Long. You don't have to read the whole thing, just look for endnote one.
One can easily reverse the argument and wonder what women see when they look at their slaves. The most interesting explanation for the many mismatches in femdom relationships I've come across in a long time.
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| Two mistresses and one slave, pencil drawing by Namio Harakuwa. |
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