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Lesbian Harem

1987 film

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ6530248 ↗
Source-derived summary

Lesbian Harem (レスビアンハーレム) is a 1987 Japanese pink film directed by Tomoaki Hosoyama.

Synopsis

Two lesbian lovers (Reika Kano and Kyōko Hashimoto) escape the city to commit a lovers-suicide deep in the forest. There they are captured by the queen (Chiemi Akimoto) of a lesbian colony who uses the two lovers for her own sex games. The couple organizes a revolt against the queen.

Cast

Reika Kano (叶麗華) as Iori

Yuriko Kyōtoku (京徳ゆりこ) as Yui

Kumi Uesugi (上杉久美) as M.P.

Noriko Kikuchi (菊池のり子) as Michiko

Kyōko Hashimoto (橋本杏子) as An

Chiemi Akimoto (秋本ちえみ) as Queen

Itsumi Shikata (志方いつみ) as Shima

Mirai Akiyama (秋山未来) as Lady-in-Waiting

Tomomi Matsuda (松田知美) as M.P.

Background

Tomoaki Hosoyama filmed Lesbian Harem for Shintōhō Eiga and it was released theatrically in Japan by that studio on April 18, 1987. U.S. low-budget exploitation films had become popular in Japan with the advent of home video. Director Hosoyama made Lesbian Harem on a similarly low budget, and designed the film as a tribute to these films, and particularly as an homage to John Waters' Desperate Living (1977).

In their Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films, Thomas and Yuko Mihara Weisser give Lesbian Harem three out of four stars. Noting that Lesbian Harem is an important film on its own, they point out that in many ways this early Hosoyama film also anticipates his later hit, Weather Girl (1993). Hosoyama's attitude towards lesbianism, in particular, is shared between these films, and in direct opposition to the way it was depicted in most contemporary pink films dealing with the subject.

Editorial summary

“Lesbian Harem” enters the record as 1987 film. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Lesbian, Harem and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1987, 1977, 1993—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1987-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Lesbian, Harem and film.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Lesbian Harem” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Lesbian, Harem and film provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6530248. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1987, 1977 and 1993.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Lesbian Harem”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Lesbian Harem primary sources, Lesbian Harem archive and Lesbian research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lesbian Harem”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Lesbian Harem” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.