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"Kawaii" = 'cute', 'lovable', 'adorable'. One of |
It's basically everywhere... (Obuse, Nagano Prefecture) |
quite literally everywhere... (Central Fukuoka) |
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| Obviously it has some roots in Japanese age-old traditions... (Kumamoto castle grounds) | ...and an esthetics system where effort is put to arrange the most basic forms in more refined ways than you would deem possible at first sight. (Magome) |
A writing system where you can even make letters smile helps as well... (Obuse, Nagano Prefecture) |
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| Just as the love for comics also goes back far in time... (Fukuoka) | ...or belief systems like Shintoism were about everything in the universe can be revered as a deity - going from ancestors, mountains to foxes, cats or rabbits (Matsumoto) |
Enabling people to see things from the point of some other creatures having to share this same planet with us... (Matsumoto) |
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| ...not even necessarily living creatures (Matsumoto) | The old Japan has of course largely been swept by modernity (Kumamoto) |
And contacts with the West have led to some new fixations, like the "let's-have-our-own-Eiffel -Tower-syndrome" (Nagoya television tower) |
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| Tokyo Tower being the obvious winner, reaching even higher than his Parisian cousin (Photo taken in April 2012) | Possibly conquering these heights helped creating a somewhat more serene atmosphere towards some aspects of Western aesthetics (Kumamoto) |
But that is all still a leap away... (Fukuoka) |
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| ...from combining all these things in the most outrageous of ways (picture taken in Tokyo during my first travel in November 2009) | Modern depiction of Hell - a pretty relaxed one... (Nagoya) |
Fly-mutant-biker (Nagoya) |
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| All professions need their own mascots. Nagoya fire fighters ready for battle! | The same for lobby groups - especially the amoral ones. Michishirube Tiger Beetle putting a few pairs of hands behind the "Road Development Promotion Campaign" in Nagoya (as if traffic isn't dense enough yet in the home town of Toyota) |
Nagoya |
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| Though there are others who just prefer a "little sniff" of understated sarcasm... (Japan Self-Defense Forces publicity in Nagano) | Also local governments have been forced into this "cuteness arms race", creating their own mascots. Here you have the mascot of the Nagano area |
And so wherever you go in Nagano... |
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| Meet Kumamon... | His beginnings were humble - promoting Kumamoto as a travel destination after the opening of the new Kyushu Shinkansen line |
Helping tourists around in town (Kumamoto) |
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| Giving reminders in hotels... | Then came the major breakthrough as winner of the Yuru Kyara ("Gentle Characters") Grand Prix - a nationwide local mascot contest on NHK TV-channel, hotly contested by a few hundred contestants (Kumamoto) |
Turning him instantly into something of a nationwide rock star... (Kumamoto) - (watch video) |
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| ...that soon he became too big for just Kumamoto (over 220.000 followers on Twitter) - here dominating Kumamoto skyline | And instead of some small publicity figure inside some Shinkansens... (Kagoshima) |
...he simply started taking them over... |
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| ...together with his little helper Kuro | A cherished local star making it in the rest of the country (here in Nagoya) |
And though Kumamons talents are manifold... |
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| Mobile phone payment for public transport comes to mind... | Fish appraisal in Fukuoka |
Even the honour of brightening up this most Japanese of things - the vending machine... (downtown Kumamoto) |
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| Halloween mood | Some cities, like Pohang, have jumped on the idea of their own mascots as well |
The conclusion? (Busan) |
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