Izumi Shima (志麻 いづみ, Shima Izumi) is a Japanese film actress best known for her work in Nikkatsu’s Roman Porno cycle and, especially, for a run of early-1980s S&M features that placed her among the studio’s recognized “SM Queens.” For collectors of Japanese bondage cinema and Oniroku Dan adaptations, she is a central face of rope, discipline, and elegant cruelty on the Nikkatsu lot.
Early Life and Stage Names
Shima was born Keiko Ishida (石田恵子) in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district on December 3, 1953. She debuted as an actress by 1975 under the alias Keiko Ono (小野恵子) in the television series Taiyō ni Hoero!, then changed names again to avoid confusion with another performer. In that early period she also worked as Emi Shirakawa (白川恵美) and Nozomi Shirakawa (白川望美). In 1977 she signed an exclusive contract with Nikkatsu and received the lasting stage name Izumi Shima.
Nikkatsu Debut and a Difficult Start
Her studio debut was the August 1977 Roman Porno Lady Chatterley In Tokyo (東京チャタレー夫人). Nikkatsu hyped her as their “most beautiful actress,” and the cinematography was built to showcase her looks. Box-office and audience response disappointed, and she spent years in low-profile and supporting parts. SM author Oniroku Dan—also her sexual partner—later suggested she struggled on camera with the uninhibited physical intimacy those early roles demanded, a professional shyness that contrasted with a passionate private sex life. Even so, she appeared in S&M titles during this valley period, including Blazing Bondage Lady (1980) and Female Beautician Rope Discipline (1981), both written by Dan.
Dark Hair, Velvet Soul and SM Queen Status
When Dan, dissatisfied with how his scripts were being treated, produced his own film Dark Hair, Velvet Soul (団鬼六 黒髪縄夫人, 1982), he brought in respected pink-film director Mamoru Watanabe and cast Shima as lead. Commentators Thomas and Yuko Weisser noted that she brought “elegance and panache” to the role. After that success she specialized in S&M features and was counted among Nikkatsu’s leading SM actresses of the 1980s. In 1982–1983 she was effectively the studio’s SM Queen (SMの女王); later casting often placed her as the commanding dominatrix type rather than only the suffering heroine.
Dan’s English-language collection Season of Infidelity (Vertical, Inc., 2010)—four stories first published in Japanese in 1997—ends with “Bewitching Bloom,” which recounts his relationship with Naomi Tani and comments on three subsequent Nikkatsu Queens: Shima, Junko Mabuki, and Miki Takakura. That literary afterlife keeps Shima inside the same lineage as the more internationally famous Tani generation of SM stars.
Selected Nikkatsu Filmography
Roman Porno and SM-adjacent credits across her Nikkatsu years include:
- Lady Chatterley In Tokyo (Aug. 1977)
- Gate of Flesh (Dec. 1977)
- Tenement Apartment: Obscene Affair (Jan. 1978)
- Teacher Deer (Mar. 1978)
- Apartment Wife: Night By Ourselves (Apr. 1978)
- Wakazuma ga nureru toki (Jun. 1978); Hito natsu no kankei (Aug. 1978)
- Izumi daihachi no okashikko (Oct. 1978); Invisible Man: Rape! (Dec. 1978)
- Shiroi fukurami (Feb. 1979); Flesh Target: Rape! (Mar. 1979)
- Three Juicy Sisters: Casual Sex (Jun. 1979)
- Bridal Doll / Dan Oniroku (Oct. 1979); Tokyo Eros: 1001 Nights (Oct. 1979)
- Koichiro Uno’s Wet and Purring (Jan. 1980); Haitoku fujin no yokujō (Feb. 1980)
- Uptown Lady: Days of Eros (May 1980); Secret of Newlywed Wife (Jul. 1980)
- Blazing Bondage Lady aka Madam Rope Flame (Dan Oniroku, Sep. 1980)
- Sekkusu Dokku: Midarana Chiryō (Dec. 1980); Woman Who Exposes Herself (Jan. 1981)
- Love Me Strong… Love Me Hard (May 1981); Widow’s Bedroom (Jun. 1981)
- Female Beautician Rope Discipline (Dan Oniroku, Nov. 1981)
- Dark Hair Velvet Soul (Oni Pro / Nikkatsu, Mar. 1982)
- Indecent Family: Mother & Daughter (May 1982); Blue Woman (Dan Oniroku, Aug. 1982)
- Rope and Breasts (Jan. 1983); Snake Hole (Oni Pro / Nikkatsu, Feb. 1983)
- Beautiful Teacher in Torture Hell (Dan Oniroku, Dec. 1985)
- Snake and Whip (Dan Oniroku, Aug. 1986); Angel To Be Sacrificed (Jan. 1988)
That list tracks a career arc from beauty-marketed Chatterley pastiche through apartment-wife softcore into full Dan-branded rope cinema—bondage ladies, beautician discipline, black-haired rope wives, snake holes, whip titles, and torture-hell teacher fantasies. The Dan Oniroku header on so many titles is the brand stamp Japanese SM film fans still search for.
Place in Japanese SM Film History
Shima did not invent Nikkatsu’s SM line; she inherited and refined it after the Naomi Tani era, proving the studio could mint new Queens when scripts, directors like Watanabe, and performers aligned. Her screen presence—elegance inside rope narrative, later dominatrix authority—gives collectors a different flavor from pure suffering-heroine templates. For bdsmwild readers tracking Japanese bondage film, Izumi Shima is essential 1980s continuity: the actress who survived a cold start, specialized in S&M, and left a dense Oniroku filmography still circulating among pink-film and SM archivists.
Primary English-language context remains Dan’s Season of Infidelity and the Weisser-style Roman Porno guides that treat her as a named SM Queen rather than a footnote. The films themselves—especially Dark Hair, Velvet Soul, Blazing Bondage Lady, Female Beautician Rope Discipline, Snake Hole, and the mid-80s torture and whip titles—are the argument for her lasting place in Japanese erotic bondage cinema.
