Naomi Tani

Japanese actress. Born: 20 October 1948 in Hakata Ward, Fukuoka, Japan. Best known during the mid 1960s to the late 1970s for the series of porn films she starred in, along with what were known as 'pink films' in Japan at this time – theatrical releases of any genre where softcore images of flesh were on show. She took her screen name "Tani" from the novelist Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, and "Naomi" from the central character in his important early work "A Fool's Love". "Tani", or "valley", is also a Japanese slang word for the cleavage between the breasts. Consequently, she may have had a variety of puns in mind when later in 1984, during retirement from the industry, she opened a restaurant called "Ohtani" (Big Breasts or Big Tani) in Kumamoto, Kyushu, Japan, which she still owns. Later, adding a video store near Hakata in 1996 called "Yours Naomi", specialising in erotic cinema, especially Nikkatsu Corporation's "Roman Porno" films. In 1979, she celebrated her retirement from film by issuing her one and only music release; a vocal album entitled "悶えの部屋" (1979) (Modae no Heya, or Agony Room) – a reference to her previous career as Nikkatsu Corporation's "Queen Of S&M".