The Japanese vagina-kayak artist was found guilty of obscenity

The judge in Japan said that her kayak is ok - it is a work of art - but because the artist sent out data allowing people to reproduce her vagina in a 3-D format, she was found guilty of violating Japan's obscenity laws.

A kayak is a type of boat created by Native Americans living in the far northern Pacific. It is a very slim boat for one rider, usually. A vagina is a woman's sexual organ. Obscenity refers to anything considered to be dirty or that might cause shame - obscenity is, basically, pornography which is considered very offensive.

The article:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/09/japanese-vagina-kayak-artist-found-guilty-of-obscenity

Vocabulary from the article:

to be fined - to be punished by being forced to pay an amount of money to the state

genitals - her sex organ, her vagina

a case - any legal matter is called 'a case'

ridicule - when people make fun of something or mock something

female genitalia - the vagina

pseudonym - a fake name

arrested - she was taken away by the police

recipients - receivers

the penalty - the punishment

prosecutors - lawyers for the state who try to get people punished

convicted - found guilty

obscene - very dirty, very pornographic

cleared of a charge - found not-guilty of an allegation or claim that she broke the law; a charge is a claim by the state that someone broke the law. He was arrested for the charge of murder. He was charged with murder.

inorganic - not alive

to arouse - to make one want to have sex, to make one horny

a legal appeal - when lawyers go to a higher court and ask for help to change a lower court's decision

a public petition - when people sign a document saying they don't agree with a government decision

moulded - when a shape is created by pouring a liquid substance into a mold and then allowing it to get hard

a pussy - a slang term for a vagina

a diorama - a recreated landscape scene

hypocrisy - when a person says one thing but does another; in Japan the government allowed pornographic images of children to be shown in manga, but objected to reproductions of a manko (vagina)

pixelated - obscured, messed up so you can't see it clearly

The Waterboys frontman - the singer for the English rock group Waterboys