• Ideas
  • Sep 01, 2015

Playfully Pink And Gold: Interview with Rokudenashiko

Megumi Igarashi, aka Rokudenashiko, holding a plastic rendition of her original manga character, Manko-chan. Photo by Denise Tsui for ArtAsiaPacific.

Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi, who practices under the pseudonym “Rokudenashiko” (which loosely translates to “good-for-nothing child”), specializes in vagina-inspired artworks. Also a manga artist, Igarashi has immortalized her own vagina through a charming little character named “Manko-chan,” or “Miss Pussy” in English. Manko-chan sports a flowing pink mane of hair, which is in fact the labia, round eyes, an open mouth displaying a full set of teeth, and a golden clitoris on her forehead. Wanting to make the vagina “more casual and pop,” Igarashi’s artworks and manga have a subversive sense of humor, which apparently go over the heads of Japanese authorities.