Sex Museums Used to Be Big in Japan

Sounds Like a Great Place to Get Away

A “hihokan” or “treasure palaces" used to be big in Japanese culture, but their time has come and gone (sadly). Now all that remains of most of these sex museums are old, dusty penis statues. Photographer Florian Seidel took his camera inside two of the now abandoned sex museums, the Japanese Sex Museum in Yamaguchi and at the Hokkaido House of Hidden Treasures near Sapporo.

These sex museums saw a boom in the 1970s through most of the 1980s. Filled with theaters for both live shows and movies, mannequins in risque positions, interactive sex games, educational information, and for some reason, taxidermy, these small towns hoped to bring tourist in to visit some areas that people might call boring. As Florian Seidel puts it:

“The hihokan were very individual places that said a lot more about their owners than the Japanese society in general. Most of them were located in spa towns, and there is little to do after sundown, except for getting drunk singing karaoke. The Hokkaido House of Hidden Treasures in Jozankei Onsen, a spa town just 45 minutes outside of Sapporo, looked more like a rundown two-storey restaurant – probably because the top floor actually was a BBQ joint. It was a lot less classy than other museums – most of the upper floor was occupied by taxidermy animals doing it.”