for Japanese nunsploitation films (a subgenre imported from Italy) with the critically acclaimed School of the Holy Beast (1974) directed by Norifumi Suzuki. Toei also produced a whole series of erotic samurai pictures such as Bohachi Bushido: Clan of the Forgotten Eight (Bōhachi Bushidō: Poruno Jidaigeki) (1973). Nikkatsu Roman Porno In 1971 Takashi Itamochi, president of Nikkatsu, Japan's oldest major film studio, decided to stop his own company's involvement with action films and start making sexploitation films. Like Toei, Nikkatsu had made some previous films in the sexploitation market, such as Story of Heresy in Meiji Era (1968) and Tokyo Bathhouse (1968), which featured over 30 sex-film stars in cameo appearances. Nikkatsu launched its Roman Porno series in November 1971 with Apartment Wife: Affair In the Afternoon, starring Kazuko Shirakawa. The film became a huge hit, inspired 20 sequels within seven years, established Shirakawa as Nikkatsu's first "Queen", and successfully launched the high-profile Roman porno series. Director Masaru Konuma says that the process of making Roman Porno was the same as that of making a pink film except for the higher budget. Nikkatsu made these higher-quality pink films almost exclusively, at an average rate of three per month, for the next 17 years. Nikkatsu gave its Roman porno directors a great deal of artistic freedom in creating their films, as long as they met the official minimum quota of four nude or sex scenes per hour. The result was a series that was popular both with audiences and with critics. One or two Roman Pornos appeared on the top-ten lists of Japanese critics every year throughout the run of the series. Nikkatsu's higher-quality sex films essentially took the pink film market away from the smaller, independent studios until the mid-1980s, when adult videos began to lure away much of the pink film's clientele. Tatsumi Kumashiro was one of the major directors of the Roman Porno. Kumashiro directed a string of financial and critical hits unprecedented in Japanese cinematic history, including Ichijo's Wet Desire (1972) and Woman with Red Hair (1979), starring Junko Miyashita. He became known as the "King of Nikkatsu Roman porno" Noboru Tanaka, director of A Woman Called Sada Abe (1975), is judged by many critics today to have been the best of Nikkatsu's Roman Porno directors. The S&M subgenre of the Roman Porno was established in 1974 when the studio hired Naomi Tani to star in Flower