Thanks for the Mammaries, Mariko

I linked Pink Film posters again this morning, until I got about 100 away from finishing, at which point I reached stills. Film stills present a special problem here since there is no text to help in identifying which film they came from, so I had to search file names on my old computer for them... I switched to identifying some of the new posters I've found since moving computers. That took up most of the rest of the day. Then in the evening, I FINISHED the poster Picasaweb/blog work! Whew! Next step will be finishing downloading and ID'ing of new posters, then copy them to the old computer where I can clean them better, then back here for uploading to the blog...

Mariko Morikawa in her first Tokyo Topless appearance

For the evening's boobish research, my mind wandered back to an old favorite: Mariko Morikawa (森川まりこ / 森川まり子). I typed her name into Google, and revisited a lot of old images and video clips, and also came across some I hadn't seen before. We'll look at a few here today, then maybe some tomorrow, and, Hell, if I have enough material, maybe spend a  whole week or more on Ms. Morikawa... As a founding member of the Japanese BBW genre, she is worthy of our attention and adulation...

Mariko has a lot of personal meaning for me, beyond her status as one of the first, and greatest of the Japanese BBW genre. I first encountered Mariko in a copy of the fine publication, D-Cup Japan which I picked up while in Japan, in Autumn of 1994. Most profiles say she was born in Chiba Prefecture on February 10, 1971, though the profile on the magazine shoot above says Fukushima on November 14, 1973. I doubt either one is truer than her name is, but consistency would be nice. I suspect they changed her birthdate later just to make her sound younger... Her measurements given above are 110-82-100. Most profiles give her as 124-66-96cm.

An early magazine appearance, before AV work

Before Mariko, Kimiko Matsuzaka's debut in 1989 was the most momentous event for me, a lifelong fan of Japanese adult entertainment with a penchant for the bigger ladies. Kimiko's career focused on her boobs, neglecting the fact that much of her charm was in her overall fleshiness, which was unique in the Japanese AV at the time. Mariko's stupendous bosom, and BBW-ish figure obviously signaled a new era in the appreciation of the larger lady in Japanese erotic entertainment.The magazine layout above, apparently from before she started her AV career, shows Mariko at a soapland called "Crystal... something", and specifically touts her "plumper" figure, which highly unusual for a Japanese girl of that day. This article gives her age as 20, which, accepting a 1971 birth, would make it 1991-- which I highly doubt. 1993 is more likely, though her 1994 debut videos give her age at that time as 23...

After Mariko became more popular, I remember seeing a cartoon of an exaggeratedly fat woman with Mariko's face cooing, "But I'm a G-cup." The meaning being, yeah, she's got big boobs, but so what?, she's fat. Obviously a criticism of Mariko and her acolytes. But, despite the natural resistance from the mainstream, I think it is from the point of Mariko's debut that we can really trace the beginning of appreciation for larger women in Japan.Again, by "larger", I mean chubby. Watching these videos reminded me how very short Mariko is, and this is part of her charm. She stands a mere 150 cm (4'11").

Early Tokyo Topless appearance, about 1998

Mariko again became a personal turning point in 1998 when I still did not have Internet. Internet talk was all the buzz, but I didn't see what advantage I could get from it yet, until one day when I sampled an online computer, typed in "Mariko Morikawa", and up popped images such as that above, from a sight called "Tokyo Topless". From that moment I was sold. I got my computer online FAST, and that was that. I uploaded about a hundred snapshots I had made from a couple of Mariko's VHS tapes, and I still see them floating around the 'Net occasionally... We'll continue our visit with Mariko for another few days...