Anecdotes about Akiyuki Nosaka - "Nude Show" at Sakuradamon (early 1970s)

Anecdotes about Akiyuki Nosaka - "Nude Show" at Sakuradamon (early 1970s)

In the early 1970s, Japan was reverberating with the afterglow of its rapid economic growth, but at the same time, the country was still reeling from pollution, the student movement, and the Vietnam War. Authoritarianism was gaining momentum in the political and social spheres, while at the same time, on the popular culture side, there was a growing movement for freedom and liberation of expression. In the entertainment and literary worlds as well, expressions of eroticism and violence were flourishing, and there was an ongoing struggle against censorship and restrictions. Against this backdrop, writer and singer Akiyuki Nosaka's "Sakuradamon no Nude Show" anecdote sharply highlights the social contradictions of the time through humor.

Nosaka said, "It was like a nude show" when he saw riot police changing clothes all at once at a swimming pool in Sakuradamon (in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department). For citizens, nudity as entertainment could be charged with displaying obscene material, while that of the police, a powerful institution, is considered a natural public service. Faced with this paradox, Nosaka recalls that he thought, "Isn't this a crime of displaying obscene material?" but kept quiet, saying, "Since I was dealing with the police, it might be considered obstruction of public service. Behind the lighthearted tone of this narrative, which evoked laughter, was the irony of society's double standards.

At the time, entertainment expression was expanding to include pink movies, strip theaters, and other forms of free sexual expression, but at the same time, there were a series of restrictions and exposures by the police and government agencies. Nosaka's metaphor satirically reflects this struggle between "sex and power. If an ordinary citizen were to do the same thing, he or she would be punished, but if a person in power did it, it would be considered a "legitimate act. By replacing this contradiction with the laughter of a "nude show," Nosaka vividly depicted the relationship between freedom of expression and power.

At first glance, Akiyuki Nosaka's anecdote may appear to be nothing more than a joke, but behind it is superimposed the social atmosphere of the 1970s, that is, the heightened cultural demand for freedom and the composition of power trying to suppress it. His words should be remembered as "laughing resistance," reflecting social contradictions through humor.