Biography of Hajime Sorayama (a.k.a.: Sorayama Hajime)

Hajime Sorayama (空山基, Sorayama Hajime, born February 22, 1947) is a Japanese illustrator known, along for his design work on the original Sony AIBO, for his precisely detailed, erotic portrayals of feminine robots. He describes his highly detailed style as "superrealism", which he says "deals with the technical issue of how close one can get to one's object."

Modern English-language editions of Sorayama's art books give his name as Hajime Sorayama, using conventional Western order, with given name followed by surname. Some older publications give his name as Sorayama Hajime, using native Japanese name order, which puts the family name first.

Sorayama's first art book Sexy Robot, was published by Genko-sha in 1983. For the work, he used ideas from pin-up art, which in the book then appear as chrome-plated gynoids in suggestive poses. His next book, Pin-up (Graphic-sha, 1984), continued in the same vein. A number of his other works similarly revolve around figures in suggestive poses, including highly realistic depictions in latex and leather. His pin-up work appeared monthly for years in the pages of Penthouse magazine, and Playboy TV later aired made a television special on Soryama's art. Sorayama said of his pin-up work: "That’s my mania. I’ve been drawing them since high school. Back then, there was this thing for the Playboy and Penthouse playmates. Now, it’s the girl-next-door, idol type, but in our day, these pin-ups were like goddesses. I guess I could describe it as my own goddess cult." In 1985 Sorayama published the video Illustration Video, his first work apart from the books of illustrations. This features work he did for the films Brain Dead (1992), Timecop (1994), and Space Trucker (1995); design of trading cards, limited-edition prints, CD-ROMs, and the cover art for Aerosmith's 2001 album Just Push Play; art exhibitions; and the initial design for what would eventually become Sony's dog-like robotic "pet", the AIBO. He published an additional four books in the 1980s, and three new volumes plus a retrospective collection in the 1990s. Production models of Sony AIBO went to market on May 11, 1999.