"[9] After making her debut as a non-pornographic photobook and "image video" model, Kobayashi entered the AV field in 1986.
[5] Because of her rapid popularity, Nikkatsu, Japan's leading producer of softcore pornography at the time, hired her to appear in theatrical films in 1987.
[5] Kobayashi was not particularly sexually precocious, claiming at the time of her AV debut, "I lost my virginity at 18, which is probably a bit late, and I wasn't very experienced with men.
She changed her stage name to Hitomi Kobayashi for the video which was a surprise success, selling 50,000 copies.
"[6] Japan's censorship laws prevent the display of sexual organs,[12] allowing Kobayashi to maintain her insistence on performing only simulated sex on camera throughout her AV career.
Kobayashi considered her AV performances to be another form of acting and came up with various techniques for appearing to have actual sex.
When it could be plainly seen that the "AV Queen" was not performing real sex, Kobayashi feared that her fans would abandon her.
[8] Nikkatsu, which had been the leader of Japanese theatrical pornography since the inception of its Roman Porno series in 1971, was rapidly losing its audience to the AV industry.
However, Japan's practice of censorship by fogging out genitals made this move into "hardcore" rather pointless, since, as Donald Richie put it in his pioneering essay on the Pink film, "none of the working parts are ever shown.
During this period, she never officially retired, never completely ceased appearing in AVs, and worked occasionally as a stripper.
About the sex scenes, Galloway comments, "Ikeda handles the steamy segments like a pro, coming as he did from Nikkatsu, where he honed his craft making the studio's signature roman porno (romantic pornography).
[18] In 1997, she played the somewhat autobiographical role of fictional AV actress Mizuki Mahoro in the 1997 V-cinema film Destroying Mosaic (モザイク崩し).
[5] In an industry in which the average career spans only a year and produces five to ten videos,[25] by 2003, Kobayashi had worked in the AV field for over a decade and a half and appeared in about 70 films.
[2] Controversy followed in the wake of the release when some of the investors in the video reported they were promised dividends from their investment, but had received none.
It was claimed that Kobayashi had got over 50 investors for the project, but that her husband had used the money to pay personal debt and for recreational activities unrelated to the film.