Aya Sugimoto

Aya Sugimoto
is a Japanese TV personality, actress, dancer, author, gravure idol and singer born in Kyoto. She also had a J-pop career in the late 1980s to the early 1990s.
Career
Early life
Aya Sugimoto grew up in Kyoto under a "strict" upbringing, making her first foray into the world of entertainment when she began modeling at age 15. Encouraged by her management company, she decided to embark on a singing career.
Singer and author (1988–2003)
She released nine singles and six albums between 1988 and 1991, including the number 1 hits "Boys" and "Gorgeous". Her most recent album in 1995 (Femme Fatale) followed a hiatus following her marriage to music producer Toshinori Numata.
As writer of many of her own lyrics which included erotic themes, she decided to turn her attention to writing erotic novels, publishing works including The Rules of Supreme Pleasure, Immoral and the book-length 2004 essay, Orgasm Life.
In July 2003, Sugimoto went through a high-profile divorce from her husband of 11 years. Sugimoto claimed that there was not enough sex in her marriage, and the term "sexless divorce" became a catch-phrase among frustrated wives in Japan. Sugimoto said, "I didn't think it was such a big deal. I actually thought that it was a healthier reason for wanting out than a lot of other mud-dragging type of divorces."
Acting (2003–)
After the notoriety she gained from the publicity surrounding the divorce, Sugimoto was one of the outspoken guests on the Friday late-night TV Tokyo talk show, Yearnings of the Goddess.
As an actress, she then appeared in the role of Queen Beryl in the 2003-2004 TV series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, a live action adaptation of the 1990s anime series.
In 2004, she starred in director Takashi Ishii's remake of Oniroku Dan's S&M novel, Flower and Snake.
Working with bondage master Go Arisue, she reprised the role first played by Naomi Tani in director Masaru Konuma's version of the novel, Flower and Snake (1974). She spent approximately 75% of her screen time unclothed and participating in humiliating sexual acts but went on in the same year to be voted the second sexiest woman in Asia by Playboy magazine, beaten only by Zhang Ziyi.
In 2006 Sugimoto appeared alongside Japanese adult actress Sora Aoi in the midnight manga-inspired comedy-drama Shimokita Glory Days on TV Tokyo. The show also featured other adult actresses such as Yuma Asami in a story about a male college student moving to Tokyo and living in a shared house of women. Each of the twelve episodes were presented as 'lessons' which featured sexual themes and nudity. Sugimoto stated in an interview about the series that “society can’t consist only of ‘high-quality’ elements, and that's also true for visual eroticism as well.”
In September 2008, Sugimoto became the first Japanese model in PETA's international nude anti-fur campaign.
In November 2008 she performed a tango interpretation of the story of Sada Abe, a notorious prostitute who asphyxiated and castrated her lover. Titled Tango Nostalgia, the show was an extension of her performances on Nippon Television's Urinari Geinojin Shako Dansu-bu (ウリナリ芸能人社交ダンス部, a Japanese TV show similar to Dancing with the Stars in which she performed with comedian Kiyotaka Nanbara.
Sugimoto is currently a regular on the NTV variety show Majyotachi no 22ji, offering advice as a "love expert", alongside transgender entertainer Ai Haruna and model Tsubasa Masuwaka.
Discography
Albums
Aya (Panam, 1988) – mini album
Mizu no Naka no Chiisana Taiyou ("The Little Sun in the Water") (Panam, 1988)
Shakunetsu Densetsu ("Red Hot Legend") (Panam, 1989) – mini album
Body & Soul (Panam, 1990)
Japanese Dream (Panam, 1990)
Shiseikatsu ("Private Life") (BMG Victor, 1991)
Femme Fatale (Nippon Columbia, 1995)
Singles
"Boys" (Panam, 1988) – Cover version of the 1987 Italo disco song by Sabrina Salerno
"13nichi no Luna" ("Luna on the 13th") (Panam, 1988)
"Nichiyoubi wa Dame yo" ("Sunday is No Good") (Panam, 1989)
"B & S" (Panam, 1990)
"Usagi" ("Rabbit") (Panam, 1990)
"Gorgeous" (Panam, 1990)
"Kagayaitete..." ("Shine On") (BMG Victor, 1991)
"Ai ga Shiritai" (愛が知りたい – "I want to Know Love") (BMG Victor, 1992)
"Le Soir ~Eien no Wakare~" (BMG Victor, 1993)
Filmography
Film
1987: Shōnan Bakusōzoku: Bomber Bikers of Shonan (Shōnan Bakusōzoku), dir. Nobutaka Nishizawa and Daiki Yamada
1993: Megami ga kureta natsu, dir. Takeo Imai
1994: A New Love in Tokyo (Ai no shinsekai), dir. Banmei Takahashi
1998: Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna: Warriors of the Star of Light (Urutoraman Tiga & Urutoraman Daina: Hikari no hoshi no senshi tachi), dir. Kazuya Konaka
2002: Ultraman Cosmos 2: The Blue Planet (Urutoraman Kosumosu: Za Burū Puranetto), dir. Tsugumi Kitaura
2003: Jam Films 2, dir. Hidenori Inoue
2004: Flower and Snake, dir. Takashi Ishii
2004: Girlfriend: Someone Please Stop the World, dir. Ryuichi Hiroki
2005: Gokudô no onna-tachi: Jôen, dir. Hajime Hashimoto
2005: Hana to hebi 2: Pari/Shizuko, dir. Takashi Ishii
2006: LoveDeath, dir. Ryuhei Kitamura
2006: Trapped Ashes, dir. Sean S. Cunningham, John Gaeta, Monte Hellman, Ken Russell and Joe Dante
2006: Ghost Train (Otoshimono), dir. Takeshi Furusawa
2007: Taitei no Ken, dir. Yukihiko Tsutsumi
2008: Johnen: Sada no ai, dir. Rokuro Mochizuki
2009: BLOOD Buraddo, dir. Ten Shimoyama
2010: Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate (Kamen Raidā Daburu Fōebā: Ē tu Zetto/Unmei no Gaia Memori), dir. Koichi Sakamoto
2021: Beautiful Lure, dir. Hiroshi Akabane
2021: Musicophilia, dir. Masaaki Taniguchi
Television
2003: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon as Queen Beryl
2006: Jigoku Shōjo as Hone Onna
References
Sources
Ketchum, Jack. (2007). "Flower and Snake 2: A Dialogue" in Asian Cult Cinema, #54, pp. 57–62.
Aya Sugimoto is Nude for PETA Biography, Photos and video.
External links
Official Blog (Japanese)
Office Aya Official Site (Japanese)
Liberata - Aya Sugimoto's skincare & make-up brand (Japanese)
Japanese actresses
Japanese female dancers
Japanese dancers
Japanese television personalities
Japanese women pop singers
Japanese gravure idols
1968 births
Living people
People from Kyoto
Japanese people of German descent
Former Stardust Promotion artists
Singers from Kyoto Prefecture