A Tokyo court has acknowledged Monday that a vagina-shaped kayak created by a Japanese "vagina artist" is art while on display, but found her guilty of violating the country's obscenity law by distributing it in the form of digital data.

The Tokyo District Court ordered Megumi Igarashi, known as alias Rokudenashiko, or good-for-nothing girl, to pay a fine of 400,000 yen ($3,700) over the illegal distribution of her scanned vagina data, her lawyers said.

The kayak, painted in bright colors and decorated, does not look like skin or immediately suggest female genitalia, and was not considered obscene, presiding judge Mihoko Tanabe said, according to Kyodo News. The ruling said, however, that the data, though it's flat and inorganic, realistically portrays the shape of a vagina and could sexually arouse viewers.

Igarashi was charged over the kayak display at a sex goods shop in Tokyo and distribution of vagina data in 2013 and 2014. She has argued her kayak is art using a vagina as a motif, and is not obscenity.

Despite its lucrative porn industry and tolerance to displays of scantily dressed women in ads on public transportation, Japan's obscenity laws prohibit public displays of genitalia itself.

This case has been reported by the world’s news networks as it raises questions about freedom of expression.