Hitomi Kobayashi

Hitomi Kobayashi (小林ひとみ, Kobayashi Hitomi) is an important early Japanese AV idol. One of the founding figures of the Japanese adult video, she has been called indispensable to any discussion of the AV. Mainichi Shimbun calls her "one of the icons of Japanese adult cinema history." Her unprecedented popularity in the mid-1980s, the early days of the Japanese AV, earned her the title "Queen of AV." According to an adult entertainment reporter for Shukan Shincho, "She laid the foundations for the golden age of adult video."

After making her debut as a non-pornographic photobook and "image video" model, Kobayashi entered the AV field in 1986. Because of her rapid popularity, Nikkatsu, Japan's leading producer of softcore pornography at the time, hired her to appear in theatrical films in 1987. After marriage and a semi-retirement beginning in 1989, Kobayashi fully returned to the AV industry in 1998. She announced her retirement in 2003 with a big-budget, though controversial, 2-volume farewell adult video.

Life and career

Early life

According to her official profile, Hitomi Kobayashi was born Yukari Ishii (石井ゆかり, Ishii Yukari) in Tokyo on September 2, 1965. However, in an interview in the Weekly Post (週刊ポスト) just before her retirement in 2003, she confessed to have actually been born in 1963. Her ambition since childhood was to be an actress. She attended acting school, and registered with a talent agency. Kobayashi was not particularly sexually precocious, claiming at the time of her AV debut, "I lost my virginity at 18, which is probably a bit late, and I wasn't very experienced with men."

This relative sexual conservatism extended into her AV career. The sex scenes in all but her final video were simulated. Even at the end of her AV career, Kobayashi's attitude towards sex remained modest. Interviewed at the time of her retirement, Kobayashi said, "I love sex. But, just because I'm an AV actress, it doesn't mean I'm brim-filled with experience. I've done orgy movies, and lesbian scenes and loads of abnormal stuff, but the world of videos isn't a real world. My normal life is really plain. I couldn't imagine having sex anywhere other than in bed and taking part in an orgy would be unthinkable. I'm happy enough with just the missionary position."

Kobayashi made her debut using the stage name Kaori Matsumoto (松本かおり, Matsumoto Kaori) in May of 1986 in a photobook and "image video" both titled Pounding: 19-year-old Kaori (ときめき・かおり19歳, Tokimeki: Kaori Jukyusai). However, in spite of these two releases, she believed her career was going nowhere.

AV debut

Not long after her debut in the non-pornographic media, Kobayashi was presented with a new opportunity. She says, "I got this offer to do a movie called Kinjirareta Kankei (Forbidden Relationship). I was told there were nude and love scenes, but nothing steamier than any ordinary movie." Shocked when she found out this was actually an adult video, she was at first reluctant. After a long discussion with her agent she finally agreed to perform in the video only if the sex was simulated. She changed her stage name to Hitomi Kobayashi for the video which was a surprise success, selling 50,000 copies. Her amazing popularity quickly made her the leading AV actress of the mid-1980s, and, not long after her debut, she had earned the title "AV Queen."

Japan's censorship laws prevent the display of the sexual organs, allowing Kobayashi to maintain her insistence on performing only simulated sex on camera throughout her AV career. Kobayashi considered her AV performances to be another form of acting and came up with various techniques for appearing to have actual sex. For example, she says, "I used to get the directors to tickle my feet and then tried not to laugh so it looked as though I was climaxing."

Her career was put in danger when an uncensored bootleg copy of one of her videos circulated. When it could be plainly seen that the "AV Queen" was not performing real sex, Kobayashi feared that her fans would abandon her. These fears proved to be groundless, however, and her popularity continued.

Theatrical career

By 1987, Kobayashi's popularity had already earned her the title "Queen of AV". Nikkatsu, which had been the leader of Japanese theatrical pornography since the inception of its Roman Porno series in 1971, was rapidly losing its audience to the AV industry. Though the studio had publicly condemned the AVs for years, in an attempt to lure some of Kobayashi's AV fans into the theater, Nikkatsu hired the AV Queen to star in her own series of films. The first of these, Hitomi Kobayashi's Secret Pleasure (小林ひとみ 奥戯快感　艶, Kobayashi Hitomi ougi kaikan: tsuya) was released in January of 1987. Thomas and Yuko Mihara Weisser, in their Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films, judge the film as "little more than a Playboy or Penthouse lingerie special."

Hitomi Kobayashi's Heavy Petting

Hitomi Kobayashi's Heavy Petting

The second, Hitomi Kobayashi's Heavy Petting (ハード・ペッティング, Hard Petting), released in March 1987, was part of Nikkatsu's new "Roman X" line, which was purportedly more "hardcore" than the standard Roman Porno. However, Japan's practice of censorship by fogging out genitals made this move into "hardcore" rather pointless, since, as Donald Richie put it in his pioneering essay on the Pink film, "none of the working parts are ever shown." Both of these first two films were judged little more than AVs on film, and were not popular with either AV fans or the critics, who preferred Nikkatsu's older Roman Porno style.

Hitomi Kobayashi's Young Girl Story

Hitomi Kobayashi's Young Girl Story

The third in this series, Hitomi Kobayashi's Young Girl Story (小林ひとみの令嬢物語, Kobayashi Hitomi no reijo monogatari) (released December 19, 1987), came closest to the old Nikkatsu style, in that it had some semblance of a plot, but by now it was too late for the studio. It would cease production of Roman Porno in 1988, and declare bankruptcy in 1993. At the height of her popularity, in 1987, Kobayashi married Toshifumi Yuzawa, who would later become the president of Kobayashi's talent agency. Kobayashi put her AV performances on hold for a few years beginning in 1989 to concentrate on family matters. During this period, she never officially retired, never completely ceased appearing in AVs, and worked occasionally as a stripper. In 1988 she had a major role in the mainstream Evil Dead Trap (死霊の罠, Shiryo no wana). All Movie Guide describes the film as a "sickening but riveting slasher," and author and film critic Patrick Galloway calls the film, "...nothing short of a multicultural terror tour de force, featuring gruesome, brilliantly rendered sound and imagery that will stay with you to your last dying gasp." Written by Takashi Ishii and directed by Toshiharu Ikeda, the film inspired two sequels. Japan Home Video, which financed the film, wished to showcase Kobayashi, their top AV star at the time, as the star of the film. Director Ikeda, unsure of Kobayashi's acting abilities, instead put Miyuki Ono in the lead role of Nami, and gave Kobabayashi the supporting role of Rei. The near adult-video style sex scenes that Kobayashi performs in the film have been criticized by horror film purists as the element that prevents the film from attaining genre classic status. Galloway, however, points out that Evil Dead Trap is not pure horror, but a genre-transcending film. About the sex scenes, Galloway comments, "Ikeda handles the steamy segments like a pro, coming as he did from Nikkatsu, where he honed his craft making the studio's signature roman porno (romantic pornography). In 1996 and 1997 Hitomi Kobayashi starred in two films for pioneering pink film director Satoru Kobayashi, director of Flesh Market (1962) the first pink film. In 1997 she played the somewhat autobiographical role of fictional AV actress Mizuki Mahoro in the 1997 V-cinema film Destroying Mosaic (モザイク崩し). Kobayashi's official return to the AV industry was in the November 1998 video Love Bond or Immoral Bonds.

Later career

Over ten years after her debut, Kobayashi was by now a "mature woman" model, and her videos began to reflect the new niche for mature models in AVs which began to appear in the mid-1990s. Her June 1999 release, Madame Throat ventured into the incest genre. Kobayashi played the role of a woman who engages in sex with her three stepsons.

Her first video in the popular "documentary" genre of AVs was Extreme Privacy of September 1999. In December she released Nasty Female Teacher, another of her purely fictional videos. This video, filmed by a director using the pseudonym Hattori Hanzo, has Kobayashi playing the role of a female teacher at an all-male school.

The turn of the millennium found Kobayashi still at work, satisfying a "new generation of horny guys" in the omnibus video, KUKI DVD Buyer Boy 01. In the first of a three-video "Stimulant" series, she played a psychiatrist who administers "drastic treatment measures with wishy washy impotent patients" in Stimulant: Doctor Hitomi Kobayashi. Other post-come-back videos had her playing a spy, an angel, a seductive school teacher, and a housewife with a secret lesbian past.

Kobayashi teamed up with Japan's first hardcore pornographic actress, Kyoko Aizome, in the February 2001 theatrical release, Kyoko Aizome vs. Hitomi Kobayashi: Sexual Excitement Competition (愛染恭子ＶＳ小林ひとみ　発情くらべ). Aizome both starred in and directed the film, which was released by Nikkatsu's post-Roman porn distributor of theatrical pornography, Excess films. An adult video starring the two legendary actresses and also directed by Aizome followed in March. Entitled Lesbian Wives, the video had Kobayashi and Aizome playing the wives of two yakuza bosses who become engaged in a lesbian relationship. The same year, Kobayashi and her husband opened a nightclub in Roppongi.

Hitomi Kobayashi FINAL

File:Hitomi Kobayashi Final 1.jpg

Hitomi Kobayashi Final: Volume 1

In an industry in which the average career spans only a year and produces five to ten videos, by 2003, Kobayashi had worked in the AV field for over a decade and a half and appeared in about 70 films. The 39 AVs in which she had starred had sold over 600,000 copies, earning about 6 billion yen. Reflecting on her her Adult Video career at this time, Kobayashi commented, "I'm delighted to have led a career where I would be elevated to being called 'AV Queen,' as well as to have lasted in the business until I turned 40."

Wishing to retire on a high-note, Kobayashi and her manager/husband advertised for investors in one last, 2-volume, two-and-a-half-hour AV opus. Kobayashi sought 35 investors who would contribute 500,000 yen each, for the privilege of a dinner with Kobayashi, having their names listed in the video's credits, and an exclusive viewing of the video. The video was released in two volumes as Hitomi Kobayashi FINAL - Disc1 (December 19, 2003) and Disc2 (December 31, 2003). The first half of the work was subtitled Nostalgic, and contained highlights from videos made during the early part of her career. The second volume of the set, subtitled Love, was promoted as containing Kobayashi's first and last on-screen real sex scene.

File:Hitomi Kobayashi Final 2.jpg

Hitomi Kobayashi Final: Volume 2

Controversy followed in the wake of the release when some of the investors in the video reported they were promised dividends from their investment, but had received none. It was claimed that Kobayashi had got over 50 investors for the project, but that her husband had used the money to pay personal debt and for recreational activities unrelated to the film. Insufficient communication with the investors, the shutting down of the film's website, the company repeatedly changing its name, and changing reports on whether or not the film made a profit added to investor complaints. In 2004, Kobayashi was reported working as a hostess at her nightclub in Roppongi.

Filmography

Videos

Video title	Company	Director	Release date
Pounding: 19-year-old Kaori ときめき・かおり19歳 Tokimeki: Kaori Jukyusai debut video (non-pornographic)	Docks ダックス		May 1986
Prohibited Relations 禁じられた関係 Kinjirareta Kankei debut adult video	VIP		May 15, 1986
色情	VIP		July 5, 1986
瓶詰め地獄	Nikkatsu		July, 1986
お口に誘って	Shintoho		August 5, 1986
溺愛BLIDED LOVE	VIP		September 5, 1986
見られたいの	現映社		October 10, 1986
天使の唇	Shintoho		October 15, 1986
ミルキーデビル邪夢猫	Alice Japan		October 15, 1986
燃えつきるまで	VIP		November 15, 1986
夢で逢えたらアイドルクイーン	SHOWA		November 15, 1986
ミステリークイーン恋の異星人	シャリオ		December 1, 1986
さよならの前に	ホップ		December 10, 1986
ひとみ先生のｸﾗｲﾏｯｸｽは御一緒に	Shintoho		December 21, 1986
本番深くうめて	Five Star		January 1987
本番深くうめて2	Five Star		1987
みだらな瞳	Phoenix		January 10, 1987
性獣ﾄﾗｲｱﾝｸﾞﾙ～暴かれたﾊﾈﾑｰﾝ～	Alice Japan		January 10, 1987
夢犯恋人	JVD		February 15, 1987
悪女	Shintoho		February 15, 1987
下半身の女	スリーパーツ		March 1, 1987
Sexy Violence セクシーバイオレンス	Alice Japan		March 10, 1987
ロックビートは危険な囁き	SHOWA		1987
奥戯快感　艶	Nikkatsu		April 1, 1987
魔性	Shintoho		April 25, 1987
Midnight Call に乱れて	Nikkatsu		May 25, 1987
桃色情交	スリーパーツ		May, 1987
挑発／深くうめて3	Five Star		June, 1987
挑発／深くうめて3	Five Star		June, 1987
Zoom Up Special ズームアップ・スペシャル	Alice Japan	Kazuhito Kuramoto	September 25, 1987
The Bible ザ・バイブル	Alice Japan	Kazuhito Kuramoto	November 15, 1987
Sex Triangle vol.2 性獣トライアングル2	Alice Japan	Sho Sasaki	May 15, 1988
Zoom Up All Stars ZOOM UPオールスターズ	Alice Japan	Kazuhito Kuramoto	September 25, 1988
La Valse ラ・ヴァルス La valuse: watashi bokosaremashita	ＫＵＫＩ		February 15, 1990
Sucking Lady もろなめ夫人	Alice Japan	Yuhojin	October 15, 1993
Cock Sucking Lady いもしゃぶり夫人	Alice Japan	Yuhojin	December 24, 1993
Alice Memories Vol. 1 アリスメモリーズVol.1	Alice Japan		March 7, 1997
Immoral Bonds 背徳の絆	KUKI		November 26, 1996
Topaz トパーズ	KUKI		November 27, 1998
Video CD Special Vol 15 ビデオCDスペシャル15	KUKI		February 27, 1999
Immoral Baptism 背徳の洗礼	KUKI	Shusaku Mizutani	March 23, 1999
Immoral Bonds 背徳の絆	KUKI	Shusaku Mizutani	May 21, 1999
Madame Throat Deep Spot マダムスロート奥の淫	KUKI	Gasbel	June 28, 1999
Neo Video CD Special Vol.1 NEOビデオCDスペシャル01	KUKI		July 20, 1999
Big Tits Tank Angels 6 乳TANKの天使たち6	KUKI	Gregoru Shimizu	August 18, 1999
Madame Throat マダムスロート	KUKI		September 10, 1999
Molesting Sexy Teachers 女教師痴漢調教	KUKI	Makoto Taiga	September 22, 1999
Extreme Privacy 極私性	KUKI	Gasbel	VHS:September 25, 1999 VCD:March 10, 2000
Neo Video CD Special Vol.5 NEOビデオCDスペシャル05	KUKI		November 20, 1999
KUKI Best Actresses Vol. 11 KUKI人気女優BEST VOL.11	KUKI	Toru Daikanyama	December 10, 1999
Nasty Female Teacher	KUKI	Hanzo Hatori	December 20, 1999
Big Tits Tank Angels 7 乳TANKの天使たち7	KUKI	JANGO	February 18, 2000
KUKI DVD Buyer Boy 01 KUKI DVD買うボーイ 01	KUKI		March 4, 2000
Stimulant: Doctor Hitomi Kobayashi 刺激療法	KUKI	Gasbel	March 22, 2000
KUKI Best Collection Vol.4	KUKI		April 14, 2000
KUKI DVD Buyer Boy 03 KUKI DVD買うボーイ 03	KUKI		May 2, 2000
Stimulant: Doctor Hitomi Kobayashi(3) 刺激療法女医	KUKI		May 26, 2000
Perfect Sniper パーフェクト・スナイパー	KUKI	Gasbel	VHS:June 29, 2000 DVD:July 21, 2000
CRUSH	KUKI	Gasbel	VHS:September 29, 2000 DVD:September 29, 2000
ATLAS MEGA-MIX vol.#2 アトラスMEGA-MIX II	Atlas21		November 17, 2000
Immoral Bonds 背徳の絆	KUKI		November 17, 2000
Hitomi Kobayashi Special: '98-'00 Complete Work 小林ひとみスペシャル	KUKI	JANGO	VHS:November 17, 2000 February 23, 2001
Big Tits Tank Angels 8 乳TANKの天使たち 8	KUKI	JANGO	January 18, 2001
Costume Play Royale コスプレ　ロワイヤル	KUKI	JANGO	February 16, 2001
KUKI Best Collection VOL.4 KUKI Best COLLECTIONS VOL.4	KUKI	JANGO	February 23, 2001
Lesbian Wives 極妻レズ	Alice Japan	Kyoko Aizome	VHS:March 16, 2001 DVD:September 21, 2001
Lesbian Love Juice レズビアン 女汁	Alice Japan	Eitaro Haga	VHS:April 13, 2001 DVD:December 7, 2001
School Teacher 女教師歔く	MAX-A	Eitaro Haga	July 31, 2001
BEST 4 Hours - Hitomi Kobayashi BEST 4時間　小林ひとみ	Atlas21		December 27, 2001
Alice Japan 2002 アリスJAPAN2002	Alice Japan		December 27, 2001
Abnormal Privacy - Slave Secretary 37	Collect		June 14, 2002
Alice Japan 2002 アリスJAPAN2002	Alice Japan		December 27, 2002
Mother In-Law	SOD		November 2003
Hitomi Kobayashi - BOX 小林ひとみ　BOX FINAL disc 1&2 & Picture Booklet	VIP	Eitaro Haga	December 19, 2003
Hitomi Kobayashi FINAL - Disc1: Nostalgic 小林ひとみFINAL　上巻	VIP	Eitaro Haga	December 19, 2003
Hitomi Kobayashi FINAL - Disc2: Love 小林ひとみFINAL　下巻	VIP	Eitaro Haga	December 19, 2003
Best of the AV QUEEN ベスト・オブ・ザ・AVクィーン	Atlas21		April 23, 2004
Uncut 4 Hours / Hitomi Kobayashi ノーカット4時間！！小林ひとみ	Alice Japan		July 16, 2004
The 80's Greatest Idols	TMA		August 13, 2004
Slave Secretary ＥＸ 3 奴隷秘書ＥＸ３	CineMagic	Hirofumi Miyazaki Tatsuo Hibino	June 23, 2006

Selected theatrical releases

• The Petting (ザ・ペッティング, Za Pettingu) (8/1986)
• Hitomi Kobayashi's Secret Pleasure (小林ひとみ 奥戯快感　艶, Kobayashi Hitomi ougi kaikan: tsuya) (1/6/1987)
• Hitomi Kobayashi's Heavy Petting (ハード・ペッティング, Hard Petting) (3/28/1987)
• Hitomi Kobayashi vs. 高杉レイ Double Petting) (小林ひとみＶＳ高杉レイ　ダブルペッティング) (7/18/1987)
• Hitomi Kobayashi's Young Girl Story (小林ひとみの令嬢物語, Kobayashi Hitomi no reijo monogatari) (12/19/1987)
• Sure-Fire Death 4: We Will Avenge You (Hissatsu 4: Urami harashimasu) (1987)
• Evil Dead Trap (死霊の罠, Shiryo no wana) (5/14/1988)
• Guys Who Never Learn II (1988)
• Kyoko Aizome vs. Hitomi Kobayashi: Sexual Excitement Competition (愛染恭子ＶＳ小林ひとみ　発情くらべ) (2/2/2001)

Selected print appearances

Goro

• January 8, 1987
• April 23, 1987

• June 11, 1987
• June, 1987 "Big Goro"

Heibon Punch (平凡パンチ)

• March 17, 1986 (as Kaori Matsumoto)
• August 25, 1986 (4 pages)
• October 6, 1986 (2 pages)
• December 29, 1986 (4 pages)
• February 19, 1987 (5 pages)
• April 16, 1987 (5 pages)

• July 16, 1987 (4 pages)
• August 27, 1987 (6 pages)
• October 10, 1987 (6 pages)
• December 31, 1987 (5 pages)
• March 24, 1988
• April 28, 1988 (4 pages)

Momoco

• January 31, 1987 (5 pages)

Sukora (スコラ)

• October 23, 1986 (5 pages)
• January 1, 1987 (6 pages)
• February 12 1987 (7 pages)
• March 12, 1987 (2 pages)
• May 14, 1987 (6 pages)

• August 13, 1987 (5 pages)
• October 22, 1987 (7 pages)
• January 28, 1988 (5 pages)
• January 1, 1991

Weekly Playboy (週刊プレイボーイ)

• August 12, 1986 (1 page)
• November 18, 1986 (5 pages)
• February 10, 1987 (Pinup)
• March 24, 1987 (6 pages)
• May 12, 1987 (4 pages)

• July 14, 1987 (Pinup)
• August 4, 1987
• October 20, 1987 (1 page)
• January 12, 1988 (3 pages)
• June 2, 1992

Sources

• Adachi, Noriyuki (1992). アダルトな人びと (Adaruto na Hitobito/"Adult" People (in Japanese). Tokyo: Kodansha. pp. pp.83, 96–97. ISBN 4-06-205546-5. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
• "Discography (Hitomi Kobayashi)" (in Japanese). AV Classics On Demand. Retrieved 2007-06-01. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
• "Hitomi (Hitomi Kobayashi)". AV Idol Directory. Retrieved 2007-03-04. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
• "HITOMI KOBAYASHI". at The Complete Index to World Film. Retrieved 2007-03-04. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
• "小林ひとみ[[Category:Articles containing Japanese-language text]][[Category:Articles containing Japanese-language text]] (Kobayashi Hitomi)" (in Japanese). Filmography at Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-03-04. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
• "小林 ひとみ[[Category:Articles containing Japanese-language text]][[Category:Articles containing Japanese-language text]] - Kobayashi Hitomi" (in Japanese). Profile at 'Web I-dic' (Idol Dictionary). Retrieved 2007-03-04. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help); URL–wikilink conflict (help)
• "小林ひとみ[[Category:Articles containing Japanese-language text]][[Category:Articles containing Japanese-language text]] (Kobayashi Hitomi - Moodyz profile and filmography)" (in Japanese). Moodyz. Retrieved 2008-03-20. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
• "Legs open way to 6 billion yen career". Mainichi Shimbun. December 13, 2003. Archived from the original on 2006-01-07. Retrieved 2007-10-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• "Porno queen seeks investors' plug as she goes out with a bang". Mainichi Shimbun. July 18, 2003. Archived from the original on 2006-01-07. Retrieved 2007-05-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• "Porn star blows wads pumping out final flop". Mainichi Shimbun. March 25, 2004. Archived from the original on 2006-01-07. Retrieved 2007-05-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Weisser, Thomas (1998). Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films. Miami: Vital Books : Asian Cult Cinema Publications. pp. p.221-222. ISBN 1-889288-52-7. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)