insta

I've finally started instagram, I work in media, so I usually get my books reviewed/ receive interviews with traditional publications to promote them, and get bored with social media, as it seems like a bit of a chore --I don't even have FB or twitter!
Buuuut I will try and stick with this, I have a couple of thousand unused kokeshi photos, and I am passionate about promoting Tohoku culture, so please check it out!
My handle is tohokukokeshi;  I will upload my kokeshi outtakes (photos that didn't make it in my book) I've already met some amazing artists, which has been nice, I didn't realise how many people overseas make contemporary kokeshi, it is really cool to see.

edited to add, I am not a shop!

PS I'm using insta to upload outtakes from my books -- not to sell kokeshi, I have had a few enquiries about it. The two best places to buy kokeshi in Tokyo are:

Tohoku Standard Market in skytree -- this place has a lot of kokeshi, as well as other Tohoku related products, from food to hand crafted items. It is beautiful! It is in Sky Tree, Japan's tallest monument, check out the view and buy some kokeshi.

Kokeshka in Kamakura, this place is curated by the makers of Kokeshi Jidai, an amazing magazine for kokeshi fans. It is truly one of the best magazines coming out of Japan, the design and photography is so superb. Anyways, this shop is in Kamakura and has a fine range, they also have English speaking staff (the co-owner is bilingual).

I recommend both, not one or the other. Both are in places you'd want to go to anyways!
drop by xxxxxx

LA TERCERA

Did an interview with La Tercera newspaper, in Chile about kawaii culture. Thanks Nicolas Diaz for dropping me a line. It is in Spanish, but check it out if you understand!

Si se le preguntara a una persona común y corriente qué es lo primero que relaciona con Japón, las respuestas variarían mucho según la edad: tal vez los mayores recordarían al país del sol naciente como la cuna de los samuráis y las geishas, mientras que otros recordarían la calidad de sus productos electrónicos, como los televisores. Pero en el caso de la generación más joven, está claro que la principal y más reciente influencia del país nipón ha sido, simplemente, la estética kawaii.

Esta tendencia está representada principalmente por animales antropomorfizados como Hello Kitty o el oso Rilakkuma, los que son fácilmente reconocibles por sus formas redondas y colores fuertes que dominan prácticamente todo tipo de juguetes, libros y accesorios. Si bien estos personajes llegaron al mundo occidental a través de medios como los videojuegos, el manga y el animé, ahora forman parte de la conciencia colectiva.

Los orígenes más profundos de la cultura kawaii -término que significa “lindo” o “tierno” en japonés- se remontan al período Edo (1603-1868), una era de paz y prosperidad en la historia japonesa en la que las artes y culturas experimentaron un alto crecimiento. En esa época surgieron obras de xilografía que muestran a animales antropomorfizados y que podrían ser los antepasados más antiguos de Hello Kitty. Según Keiko Nakamura, curadora del museo Yayoi-Yumeji en Tokio, el año decisivo para el establecimiento de esta estética fue 1914, cuando el ilustrador Yumeji Takehisa abrió una tienda especializada en artículos con ilustraciones que representaban imágenes dulces y tiernas, con el objetivo de venderlas a muchachas escolares de la alta sociedad japonesa.

“El boom definitivo no fue hasta los 80, con el lanzamiento de íconos como Hello Kitty. Eso se extendió a los 90, durante la burbuja económica japonesa que significó una larga época de crecimiento y consumo”, dice Manami Okazaki, periodista japonesa especializada en cultura pop y con nueve libros publicados, entre ellos Kawaii!: la cultura japonesa de lo lindo.

“La cultura kawaii ha significado una gran influencia en la cultura pop mundial, porque resuena con una juventud global que está muy motivada por lo visual, con una gran atención al detalle y que admira la sensibilidad japonesa cuando se trata de la moda o el arte. Estos aspectos son ideales en un mundo que busca compartir y conseguir ‘me gusta’ en redes sociales como Instagram”, dice Okazaki.
Si bien internet ha sido clave para propagar este fenómeno, el kawaii también se manifiesta en otras formas: “Hoy se la ve en una gran variedad de formatos, desde comida hasta ropa y diseño gráfico. Además, puede mezclarse con otras tendencias ya existentes. Por ejemplo, en EE.UU. muchas chicas usan imágenes kawaii mezcladas con elementos del punk y feminismo para crear su propia imagen”, añade Okazaki.

El movimiento en Chile 
En nuestro país, el inicio del fenómeno está fuertemente vinculado a la masificación de la cultura “otaku”, es decir, aquellos fanáticos del manga y el animé, así como también los videojuegos. Si bien marcas como Hello Kitty y otros personajes de Sanrio (su compañía creadora) ya existían en Chile al momento del “boom otaku” que trajo al país series como Dragon Ball y Sailor Moon, el alcance del animé en la TV abierta atrajo a más personas hacia este fenómeno.

“Hoy te das cuenta que ya no es una mera moda, sino un concepto cultural, artístico e intelectual que se ha establecido con fuerza”, dice Carlos Humberto Rozas, magíster en educación de la Universidad Católica y profesor de historia y cultura de Japón del Instituto Chileno-Japonés. “Incluso, ya existen tiendas de accesorios, peluquerías, talleres de tatuajes y grupos musicales que apuntan a esta estética sin estar vinculados directamente a los fanáticos del manga y el animé”, agrega.

Tal como explica Rozas, la última década ha visto un crecimiento explosivo de la cultura y estética kawaii fuera del grupo que la vio nacer en el país. En la cultura pop chilena existen una serie de exponentes que, si bien consideran al animé y el manga como claras influencias, comparten sus creaciones con un público objetivo lejano a las comunidades de nicho.

Un ejemplo es Milton Mahan, mitad del dúo pop Dënver junto a Mariana Montenegro. Al preparar el debut del nuevo disco titulado Sangre-cita, Mahan apostó por utilizar una estética kawaii en su último video musical Mai Lov. Su primer acercamiento con la estética de lo tierno fue de adolescente, en pleno boom otaku: “Entre los animé que daban por la tele, los videojuegos y muchos ratos de ocio acumulé muchísimas montañas de dibujos hechos por mí y algunos cómics malísimos. Por ahí logré entrar a este lenguaje que para mi tenía que ver más con lo kawaii que con la cultura real del Japón”, explica.
La ingeniera en sonido, estilista y músico Felicia Morales, también se cautivó por la imagen del animé durante su adolescencia, algo que aún conserva como parte de su estética en el día a día. “Empezó a aceptarse de forma más masiva en Chile en la época de las tribus urbanas. Cuando se mostraron todos los estilos en programas de televisión abierta se masificó todo lo sucedía con la juventud en Chile. Pese a que nunca faltó la gente que se reía, se hizo más normal ver a gente vestida de forma muy distinta por las calles y lo kawaii se empezó a conocer”, cuenta.

Morales cumplió con uno de sus sueños al viajar a Japón por primera vez en 2015. Aunque reconoce que es una parte importante de toda la estética, cree que no es necesario ser un experto en el país nipón para identificarse con su estilo de imagen tan característico. “Yo me considero una seguidora hace ya bastante tiempo y lo que conocí más a fondo fue el lado religioso y ancestral del país”.
Otra fuerte exponente de la cultura kawaii local es Karina Marchant, tatuadora profesional y especializada en todo tipo de diseños de este estilo basados en personajes del mundo del animé, manga o videojuegos, así como también otros diseñados por ella misma. Su estudio de tatuajes, Pequeño Tokio Tattoo Studio, ha amasado una importante popularidad en las redes sociales locales, sumando más de 30 mil seguidores entre Instagram y Facebook.

“Muchos de mis clientes me cuentan que les daba vergüenza ir a una tienda de tatuajes a pedir que le hicieran su idea porque quizás se iban a reír de ellos o no lo iban a querer hacer simplemente porque no es una temática de tatuaje tan tradicional”, cuenta. Entre sus principales influencias hay artistas japoneses y otros artistas americanos o europeos que siguen esta línea: “Principalmente, la marca de ropa Doki Doki, los artistas del estilo “superflat” Aya Takano y Yoshitomo Nara, la cantante japonesa Kyary Pamyu Pamyu y la tatuadora norteamericana Alex Strangler”.

En el mercado
No sólo de arte vive el mundo de lo kawaii: concebido para un mundo consumista, no es difícil encontrar todo tipo de accesorios, juegos, juguetes y snacks, entre otros. Si bien en un principio eran difíciles de conseguir porque se requería viajar a otro país o conseguirlos por internet, ahora el mercado chileno tiene opciones para cualquiera que desee echarle un vistazo a todo este colorido universo.

Pamela Díaz Catalán (27) es una pionera: dueña de la tienda Paraíso Kawaii, ubicada en la galería Dos Caracoles de Providencia (Providencia 2216 Local 18A), explica que tras un tiempo vendiendo artículos importados de Asia a través de redes sociales, la demanda la motivó a abrir una tienda presencial: “Partió como un proyecto personal, ya que veía que no habían muchas tiendas que vendieran productos kawaii en Chile y creía que podría ser un buen negocio. Con el tiempo me lo tomé más en serio y pudimos abrir un local que lleva dos años en funcionamiento. En total, ya son cinco”.

Ella explica que, entre los artículos que más vende destacan los polerones con personajes como Totoro (de la película del estudio Ghibli), Alpacasso (alpacas de peluche) y accesorios de escritorio, como lápices o libros de notas. Supermercados asiáticos, como los del barrio de Patronato en Recoleta, también son enclaves clásicos para hallar artículos kawaii. China House Market (Antonia López de Bello 310) se especializa en snacks como galletas en forma de Koala (Koala’s March), los clásicos chocolates en palito que son parte de cientos de animés (Pocky) o los más nuevos sets de comida instantánea “Popin Cookin”, todos de origen japonés.

El caso de “Popin Cookin” es especial, ya que a pesar de venderse en Japón hace ya un buen tiempo no se popularizaron en Occidente hasta que YouTube se empezó a llenar de videos que mostraban cómo prepararlos. El set consiste en pequeños sobres de polvo con ingredientes deshidratados que se mezclan con agua usando herramientas que vienen incluidas (cucharas, platos, etc.), por lo que permite “cocinar” una muy pequeña cena completa sólo agregando agua.


La llegada y masificación de estos productos es una clara muestra de que Chile sigue los pasos del resto del mundo occidental frente a la invasión kawaii. “Cuando entrevisto a gente en Japón sobre el tema, no entienden qué tiene de especial”, explica Okazaki. “Para ellos es parte de la vida cotidiana. Por ejemplo, mi tarjeta de crédito tiene una imagen de Miffy (un personaje de libros infantiles), viajo regularmente en un avión con personajes de manga pintados encima, y estoy comiendo galletas en forma de koala. Sí, creo que definitivamente pasará lo mismo en Occidente”.

First We Feast

Did an interview with Regan Hoffman for her story on Gudetama for food website First We Feast. I didn't know their site before, but their long form articles are really fantastic!
Thanks so much Regan, and congrats on such great read, really well researched and written xxx

He’s lazy. So lazy. He lies around in bed all day, and generally won’t move unless prodded with a giant stick. Drop him in boiling water, and his reaction is to sigh and accept his imminent doom. His bare ass is nearly always hanging out. He’s a goddamn superstar.
That’s Gudetama, or Lazy Egg, Sanrio’s newest cartoon character and its biggest hit since Hello Kitty, the mouthless cat-girl whose most noteworthy quality is that she wears a hair bow. Since his launch in 2013, Gudetama’s apathetic yellow face has appeared on nearly 1,700 items, from pencil cases to luggage, to full-body costumes. That’s incredible success, especially for a company that’s struggled over the past two decades to create a follow-up to its powerhouse Kitty. But why is an anthropomorphic piece of food the one to hit the big time, let alone a lumpy yellow egg with a butt and a bad attitude? It’s complicated.

Life in Japan has been filtered through a layer of cartoon for hundreds of years, from the 18th-century origins of manga, to the first anime of the early 1900s. Unlike comics and cartoons in the West, they’ve never been just kids’ stuff; the earliest manga books were stories of life in Japan’s red-light districts, and contemporary works don’t shy away from adult situations either. Japanese cartoons tend to reflect what’s happening in the world right now, and in this moment, what’s happening is food. “Gudetama’s popularity is equally an obsession with food as it is kawaii culture,” says Manami Okazaki, author of Kawaii, Japan’s Culture of Cute.
If cartoons have been around for centuries, kawaii is what made them big business. Kawaii—literally a combination of “cute”/”lovable”/”pitiful”—began in the 1970s as a high-school trend; kids changed their handwriting to a childlike scrawl studded with hearts and smiley faces, and adopted babyish language and actions to go along with it. Parents and teachers were dismayed, but as the years passed and those teenagers grew up, the posturing childishness stuck and infiltrated daily life. With it came a cult of cuter, more innocent cartoon characters, starting with Western imports like Mickey Mouse and the Dutch bunny Miffy, and hitting its stride in 1973 with Hello Kitty and her roly-poly Sanrio squad of penguins, bunnies, and flying cloud-puppies.

n 2014, Sanrio pulled in $6.5 billion in licensing fees to put its characters on everyday home goods, from toilet paper to toasters. Now, companies know that adding a cute mascot (known as yuru-kyara) to whatever they’re selling—even boring, thoroughly grown-up products like home insurance and savings bonds—will help it sell. Every prefecture in Japan has its own mascot to boost regional tourism and make a few extra bucks on swag. Since 2010, yuru-kyara have even had their own pageant—in 2014, more than 1,700 characters participated.

Because the competition is so stiff, the pressure is on to keep generating new characters that will resonate in the over-saturated Japanese market. At one Sanrio competitor, every employee is required to design a new kawaii character every month. Gudetama himself was the result of an in-house contest to come up with a food-based character. He came in second to a slice of salmon (he was robbed!) but handily trounced more than a dozen others, including Soygeisha, a makeup-wearing block of tofu, and a bread-panda named Omupanda.

“Japan has a long history of making food aesthetic, and merging food presentation and art,” says Okazaki. “Given that kawaii is one of the most prominent contemporary movements and resonates with most youth in Japan, it isn’t much of a surprise that food merged with kawaii design.” Food has also been lurking on the sidelines of kawaii culture from the beginning—it’s just never been in the spotlight before. The first major food character, a man with a bread-roll head named Anpanman, was created in 1973, and for years he was a culinary anomaly, an Oscar Meyer weinermobile in a land of Vespas. Sweets and fruit have been an aesthetic component of kawaii —Sanrio’s in-house newsletter is called the Strawberry Times—but Gudetama represents the first time a straight-up piece of food, and a savory one at that, has been the center of attention.

What makes Gudetama stand out even more so is his attitude. While most kawaii characters’ personalities range from polite obedience to manic cheerfulness, Gudetama just can’t seem to give a fuck. Like a ’90s standup comedian, he says what we’re all thinking—a revolutionary concept in the highly repressed, work-obsessed Japanese culture. Partially because of this nonchalance, and because of that whole naked butt thing, he’s also considered part of a new kawaii subculture called kimo-kawaii, or gross-cute, which is resonating more with underground youth culture than the sweetie-pie characters of yore. Kimo-kawaii’s biggest star is Gloomy, a murderous bear who routinely disembowels and eats his little-boy owner. He’s adorable.

In the West, where weird for the sake of weird is a well-established marketing technique, kimo-kawaii characters are a natural fit. The U.S., especially, has a longstanding love of characters with bad attitudes (remember hip-hop Looney Tunes?). Gudetama’s 120,000 followers on his English Facebook page attest to his popularity outside of Japan, as does his command of Sanrio’s largest YouTube viewership.

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It doesn’t hurt that the unofficial motto of Internet food culture is “put an egg on it,” either. Gudetama is often pictured as part of a composed dish, his little face peering out from a roll of tamago or an egg-salad sandwich, and easily half of the #Gudetama Instagram results are home-cooking attempts to recreate these scenes. Sanrio cafés around Japan and beyond market Gudetama meals, and last November, they partnered with L.A. restaurant Plan Check for a special three-course dinner. When a Hong Kong café came up with a Gudetama-shaped steamed bun that could vomit or shit custard, it was reported on around the world.

“The abundance of food in kawaii culture points to the burgeoning affluence of Japanese youth and their growing leisure time post-WWII, where eating and cooking food gradually became regarded as hobbies,” says Okazaki. “I think you need a certain degree of affluence to find things like Gudetama amusing.”

Fox village in Zao

This takes the cake for one of the most awesome places I've been to in Japan. If you know me, you will know I am a total animal nut but I mean, seriously... this place is TOO MUCH.
One half of my family were snowboarding in Zao, so I met up with them. We did get warned but  these guys stole our friends'  baby daughter's hat (running off gleefully) so all I can say is watch your stuff!
It is a sanctuary and the enclosure is big, you are walking around with foxes all around you, and of course, there is also a little Inari (fox deity) shrine, so you can shoot 'foxes at the fox shrine' style photos.

 It is also very close to hotsprings, ....and hence a kokeshi village.
There is a cluster of artisan studios in Shiroishi making all kinds of cute wooden folk toys, you can stroll from one to one and check them out.
I initially went here for my book, Kokeshi from Tohoku with Love -- if you only have time to visit one village, this and also Naruko are both little hubs of production with their own museums.
Kamasaki onsen is also close by. Nice little trip with the ozzies...

2016 and Gudetama in the Wall Street Journal

Happy New Year, the year of the monkey, last year was pretty trying, so I'm actually glad it is over, but feeling pretty upbeat about this year.

Thanks for making my book such a success, and this year I will start another project on cat culture in Japan. From mythology to folklore to designers to artists, it will be in the same coffee table tome/ journalistic format with hundreds of photos, and historical & cultural context. I'm actually personally more of a dog person, but Japan has a hugely rich cat culture.
It will take some time, as I am in the middle of finishing another book, but I'm really looking forward to this project!

In other news, I did a mini interview with Jun Hongo at the Wall Street journal about gudetama, the kawaii egg character which is ubiquitous around Japan and actually, Asia at large. It follows his full article here.
Why are serious press outlets reporting on such a thing? Well, these characters are a huge part of Japan's soft power diplomacy (Japan ranks consistently in the top 10 for soft power rankings, Monocle ranked Japan as #4), the tourism industry and popular culture, and it is a multi billion dollar industry.

Check it out and thanks to Jun Hongo for dropping me a line!

If anyone should see life sunnyside-up, it ought to be an egg yolk. Not Gudetama. It lies around apathetically, muttering things like “I don’t feel like doing anything” and “Can I go home now?”
The cartoon character with a defeatist demeanor is a surprise hit—and a departure for its creator, Sanrio Co.8136.TO -1.86% For more than four decades, Sanrio has charmed the world with Hello Kitty, whose twinkling eyes and large-sized bow made it the epitome of cuteness.
Sanrio has already shipped 1,700 items related to Gudetama, and in response to a growing fan base in Asia, the company in November launched the character’s products in the U.S. as well. Manami Okazaki, a journalist who has followed Japan’s “kawaii” (cute) culture, shares her opinion about the yolk.

Hello Kitty may have charmed the world, but Gudetama, an egg yolk with a slacker’s personality, is gaining a huge following. Photo: Miho Inada/The Wall Street Journal

Miho Inada/The Wall Street Journal

Japan Real Time: Why has Gudetama gained popularity in Japan and Asia?
Manami Okazaki: Gudetama is already popular overseas. At the Eslite Bookstore in Hong Kong, a gudetama book is currently one of their top selling books. A perusal of Instagram hashtags reveals #gudetama has over 131,000 results. There are unofficial fan pages, and all the comments are in English. One fan has even created a “Gudetama in real life” fan page with egg-y recipes which are made to replicate Gudetama in a variety of edible dishes.  I think overseas consumers are already familiar with iconic characters such as Hello Kitty and Rilakkuma, and are ready for offshoots that deviate from “straight” kawaii types. Because of social media, people overseas are picking up on Japanese trends instantly.

JRT: Why are many of Japanese characters being embraced overseas as well?
Ms. Okazaki: Characters up until now, by and large utilize universal kawaii qualities that are not specific to one culture. Characters are made to replicate the proportions of babies, and have traits which anyone can recognize as “cute”, which in turn breeds feelings of love, and an instinct to adore and nurture that item. Also famously, characters like Hello Kitty and Rilakkuma have brazenly expressionless faces, and hence anyone of any emotional state can feel an affinity with these characters.

Merchandise featuring Gudetama has been popular in Japan.

Miho Inada/The Wall Street Journal

JRT: Are there any other strategies for their success?

Ms. Okazaki: A very large part of the success of these characters overseas is that they are versatile, and Hello Kitty has collaborated with a wide array of brands, hence widening her appeal to seemingly incongruous consumers, like Hello Kitty X Vans, HK X Swarovski. At her 40th anniversary exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum, many famous street graffiti artists made homages to her. This way, people who might not be typically into cute characters become familiar with her cult-like appeal.

Kawaii material

Something I get asked a lot, I guess because I also made a book on kimonos, is where to get cute textiles. In a word, Nippori (near the train station). There is a street called Senigai, which is a DIY/ crafters dream district with shops lined up selling lace, buttons, materials (from very cheap to very high quality) to kimono fabrics to branded material (Hello Kitty, denim barnd material, kimono company textiles) to traditionally dyed materials and so on. They also sell wholesale clothing, and just really ridiculously cheap fashion -- like 2dollar t-shirts and 10 dollar jackets, I don't know what the quality is like, but if you are on a budget, you can get a lot. 

There are numerous shops in this district (you can easily spend a day here), the most famous being  Tomato and one entire floor is devoted to character fabrics. It is AWESOME. 

Animal Friends Japan

Had a bit of money owing from an awesome Ozzie from our last book sale a while back, and I had a day off+ in Japan (seriously a rare event in my life!) so did a bit of shopping for Animal Friends Japan, they are looking after refugee dogs from the nuke disaster in Tohoku @ 40,279 yen.
Kokeshi from Tohoku with Love (the first version) has sold out but we will continue to have flash sales and support people in Tohoku.
Before you go -- dont people need the money too? actually if I lost my house, and my life and got stuck in a temporary village where pets aren't allowed, to have to leave my dogs behind in a nuke no-go zone to starve, that would kill me. Also a lot of the owners are going back for their pets once their living situation has changed, so as much as I am animal nut, this is also for the people of Tohoku too.
They took 150 from Fukushima and now are left with 40 as most got adopted or taken back. Amazing!

If you want to pitch in check their FB and they have periodic requests for things you can buy off amazon for them. 
and you can also donate directly off their HP using a credit card. This place has a good reputation (as well as Ark -- I really do research these places!) so your money will go directly to where it is meant to.


this is from their HP:

Ku was rescued from Futaba, Fukushima. He was friendly and obviously well-loved. After extensive searching we managed to track down his owners, who had been displaced due to the disaster. They were delighted that he was safe, but couldn't take him back immediately, so we promised to take care of him for as long as they needed us to. They came to visit Ku as often as they could and he really missed them when they left. After a long wait his owners finally finished building their new home and they came to pick up. Everyone was overjoyed to see Ku return to his family. It's been over 4 years since the 2011 earthquake and we still care for many cases like Ku's. More than half of our 340 animals come from Fukushima's evacuation zone, and more still come from other prefectures affected by the tsunami. Many of them have lost their families and homes forever, and caring for them as they enter old age is becoming increasingly difficult due to the financial burden of elderly animals.