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Japanese Cops Have Arrested the Woman Who Made a Kayak Shaped Like Her Vagina — Again

Artist Megumi Igarashi faces two years in jail and up to a $20,000 fine if found guilty of violating Japan's strict obscenity laws against public display of genitalia.
Photo by Rokude Nashiko/Facebook

A woman who 3-D printed her vagina and rendered it into a giant yellow Kayak, has been arrested — again — by Japanese police for allegedly trying to show people her "Pussy Boat."

Artist Megumi Igarashi, who calls herself Rokudenashi-ko, a slang term that translates loosely to good-for-nothing child in Japanese, made waves last July when she attempted to crowd-source funds to construct a boat molded on her own genitalia and was subsequently arrested for the campaign.

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The project garnered international attention after the July arrest, with thousands signing a petition calling for authorities to release Igarashi and calling for the government to review its strict censorship rules on the public display of crotches across the country.

Why is Japan so upset about a 3-D printed Vagina? Read more here.

The media spotlight and a legal appeal led to Igarashi's release a few days later, but on Wednesday, Tokyo police nabbed the artist again for attempting to send a link, "that shows her plan to create a boat using three-dimensional obscene data to a large number of people," a spokeswoman for the police told AFP.

Igarashi reportedly "tried to have those people who were willing to finance her plan download the obscene 3-D data" in October 2013, the spokeswoman said.

The artist maintains that her vagina is not "obscene" at all, but she could still face two years in prison and be fined up to 2.5 million yen (roughly $20,000), if a court thinks the mold of it is.

The case has sparked accusations of discriminatory censorship in a country that possesses an infamously dynamic pornography culture and industry. Under Japanese obscenity laws, the depiction of sex organs either in images or recreations is banned, and, as such, genitalia is usually pixellated in videos and photos.

This may be the most dangerous — and most costly — photo in Japan. Read more here.

Follow Liz Fields on Twitter: @lianzifields