Naked sushi

[Benjamin Barrett]

An article in the Seattle Times today discusses "naked sushi" and the
protest accompanying it. Because I do some Japanese-English lexicography
work, I thought this was interesting as an equivalent for "nyotaimori"
(female body pile) and "nantaimori" (male body pile), though it appears that
American naked sushi always refers to the nyotai sort. Kenkyusha's newest
J-to-E release this year does not include either Japanese word and so misses
the English equivalents.

Searching the ADS archives, I found references to "body sushi", and on Lexis
Nexis a "naked sushi" reference to 1998. The latter is further interesting
because it uses what looks like to me as a Japanese-French-German mix:
"sushi ala Jungfrau (virgin)".

Benjamin Barrett

[snipped reference]

The Ottawa Citizen
October 9, 1998, Friday, FINAL EDITION
HEADLINE: Naked sushi platter called 'tasteless'
BYLINE: THE OTTAWA CITIZEN
DATELINE: BONN

BODY:
A German restaurant has been attacked as "tasteless" for serving sushi on
naked models lying on top of tables.

Brigitte Vollmer-Schubert, ombudsman for women's issues in the city of
Hanover, said she was appalled that the restaurant used naked women as huge
"platters" for the Japanese dish, dubbed "sushi ala Jungfrau (virgin)." But
the restaurant owner was quoted by Bild newspaper as saying the dish had
been a huge hit and the evening-long meal, costing up to $ 250 U.S. per
person, was booked out for weeks in advance.