"Umeboshi Otaku" Limited Print on Hahnemuehle Photo Rag 308 gsm
(100% acid free cotton) Print Size : 210mm x 297mm. 
Editions : 20.
Andrea Innocent (a.k.a innocentgirl),2006.

All images © Andrea Innocent 2005 - 2008

Umeboshi and umeboshi related paraphenalia + person 
obsessed with umeboshi = Umeboshi Otaku. 
Umeboshi (Japanese : ; literally “pickled ume”) are a Japanese pickle (tsukemono) 
and are well known for their healing properties and sourness. The Ume tree 
(Prunus Mume) is a species of the asian plum. Umeboshi are made by harvesting 
ume fruit when they ripen around June and pickling them in jars with seasoned 
pickling liquid, or vinegar. Purple perilla (member of the mint family) leaves are often 
added to the mix, giving the Umeboshi a dark red colour. Umeboshi are often eaten 
with white rice and can be found in a variety of bento boxes due to their high salt 
and citric acid content, which acts as a preservative.

Wikipedia definition of Otaku:

 Otaku, in modern Japanese slang refers to an overtly obsessive fan of  any one 
particular theme, topic, or hobby. Common uses are anime otaku and manga otaku 
(comic book geek), pasokon otaku (personal computer geek), gemu otaku (video 
game otaku) and otaku that are extreme fans of idols, heavily promoted singing girls.

“The otaku, the passionate obsessive, the information age's embodiment of the 
connoisseur, more concerned with the accumulation of data than of objects, 
seems a natural crossover figure in today's interface of British and Japanese          
cultures. I see it in the eyes of the Portobello dealers, and in the eyes of the 
Japanese collectors: a perfectly calm train-spotter frenzy, murderous  and 
sublime. Understanding otaku -hood, I think, is one of the keys to understanding  
the culture of the web. There is something profoundly post-national about it,
 extra-geographic. We are all curators, in the post-modern world, whether we 
want to be or not”. 
         William Gibson, The Observer 2001-04-01