IN A country where first meetings are often stiffly formal, the namecards of Megumi Igarashi, an artist, suggest a subversive sense of humour. They are pink, and take the shape of a vagina. Plenty of people in Japan, however, seem to be missing the joke, for she is currently fighting obscenity charges in a digital rerun of Britain’s trial of the publishers of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” in 1960.

Ms Igarashi (pictured) sculpts and illustrates her genitals to mock what she calls outdated taboos. The authorities proved her point by arresting her last year after she e-mailed 3D data of a kayak in the shape of her vagina to supporters. Ten police officers confiscated her belongings and marched her away in handcuffs. She was interrogated for 23 days.

The arrest triggered a debate about women’s rights. Japan is full of sexualised imagery. Popular magazines depict incest, underage sex and gang rape. An annual festival near Tokyo features giant wooden phalluses and penis-shaped hats and candy. Possession of child porn was made illegal only this year. Yet museums may not exhibit masterpieces of erotic art from the Edo period.

Ms Igarashi’s work is controversial not because it is sexual but because it offends the norm, says Mari Miura of Sophia University. It is acceptable for men to express sexual desire but not women. Prosecutors do not care about the artistic intention, she says. “All they see is a woman showing her vagina.”

If convicted, Ms Igarashi faces up to two years in prison, or ¥2.5m ($20,000) in fines. Prosecutors began her trial in the Tokyo District Court in April by showing plaster-cast imprints of her nether regions in a box. Poker-faced lawyers stumbled over the word manko (rough translation: “pussy”). The artist admits to making and distributing the imprints but denies that they are obscene.

Her lawyer, Takashi Yamaguchi, doubts his client will be sent to prison, and criticises the trial, which could last over a year, as a waste of public money. Many people are surprised at Ms Igarashi’s decision to fight, he says. She gets hate mail for not admitting guilt and for causing “trouble”. Even feminists dislike her art because they miss the humour and think she is making fun of the female body, laments Ms Igarashi.