Portraits
Akari Tsumugi
Akari Tsumugi is a Japanese adult-film actress and photographic model, known professionally as 明里つむぎ. Her work includes studio performances, photo books and interviews about fashion, music and an unusually detailed interest in bubble tea.
Portraits
Akari Tsumugi
The person behind the name
Akari Tsumugi began her screen career in March 2017. Known in Japanese as 明里つむぎ, she works as an adult-film actress and photographic model. Early award recognition was followed by further photographic projects, including the 2023 book ILLUMINATION.
Her interviews also open a window onto life away from filming: dresses inspired by Haruna Kojima, Korean pop music, travel with friends and an enthusiastic interest in food. In a conversation first published in 2019, she described keeping a personal record of forty bubble-tea shops on her phone.
Akari Tsumugi’s bubble-tea notebookBeginnings and early recognition
Tsumugi made her studio debut with IdeaPocket in March 2017. Her agency gives her birthday as March 31, 1998, and includes two everyday details in her profile: browsing the internet as a hobby and getting up early as a personal skill.
The following year brought a newcomer nomination at the DMM R18 Adult Awards and the Special Presenter Award. She also appeared in a Shirabee audio interview on Radiotalk in 2018; an AV MASTER interview on YouTube followed in 2020.
ILLUMINATION in print
Photography forms another part of her professional work. ILLUMINATION, released to bookstores on July 25, 2023, pairs Tsumugi with photographer Kota Yanagisawa. Saibunkan published the book in a 128-page edition with an initial limited run of 3,000 copies.
The project brought her work into book form several years after her screen debut. Elsewhere, her 2019 street-fashion interview was accompanied by a portrait series photographed by Yutaro Yamaguchi, with clothing supplied by BLACK BRAIN Clothing.
Dresses and a fashion reference
For the street-fashion shoot, Tsumugi stepped into a different wardrobe from her usual everyday clothes. She told the interviewer that she often wore dresses and preferred a restrained look over an overtly cute style. Haruna Kojima had long been one of her references.
That admiration began during her years as an AKB48 fan. Over time, her attention shifted from Kojima’s appearance to her sense of style. She singled out Kojima’s label Her lip to as a favorite, connecting an earlier interest in idols with the clothes she liked to wear.
A decade of K-pop
By the 2019 interview, Tsumugi’s musical interests had moved from Japanese idols toward K-pop. She said she had listened for more than ten years and could generally understand what was being said in Korean through that long familiarity with the language.
She also mentioned Cheng Xiao, known in Japan as Seongso, who had debuted with the group Cosmic Girls before working in China. Female idols interested her for more than music: she enjoyed looking at their makeup and clothes for ideas of her own.
Korea, friends and food
Tsumugi had visited Korea twice with friends in the year of the interview. Neither trip followed a tightly planned itinerary; they spent their time sightseeing and eating. Asked for a recommendation, she mentioned gopchang, a Korean offal dish, and spoke of enjoying spicy food.
Her food interests extended back to Japan. She named garlic, liver and Ikinari Steak among her favorites, then highlighted Qipao Malatang, a restaurant serving glass noodles in a spicy hot-pot-style broth. Eating was a recurring pleasure in the conversation, from meals abroad to familiar places at home.
An ordinary day off
Away from work, her plans could mean meeting friends or going shopping. With nothing arranged, she might spend the day at home watching YouTube or sleeping. The relaxed account of a day off sat alongside the much more systematic notes she kept about bubble tea.
One of her favorite creators was the eating-video YouTuber Sannen Shokutaro. She enjoyed watching a large meal disappear in fast-forward and seeing someone clearly enjoy their food. She also watched the Korean beauty creator 김습습, connecting her viewing habits with her interests in food, makeup and Korean culture.