Writing some posts, i.e. observations I have made writing articles on Japan's sub and pop cultures (as well as these cultures abroad) for the past ten years for WSJ's Scene.
Thank you Lara from WSJ Asia m(_ _)m
Enjoy xxxx
If you’ve ever been to Japan, whether you know it or not, you will have encountered multiple examples of
kawaii, the country’s dominant pop-cultural aesthetic.
That bus stop shaped like a watermelon? Kawaii. Adorable police
mascots? Kawaii. Harajuku fashionistas with pink tutus and purple bangs,
Hello Kitty TV sets, fish cakes that look like pandas, girls in manga
with sparkly eyes, construction signs that take the form of frogs? All
kawaii.
Kawaii culture has many guises, but what exactly is it? If it’s just
the Japanese word for “cute,” as it’s usually translated, why not just
call it that?
In my book, “
Kawaii!: Japan’s Culture of Cute,”
I spoke to product designers, manga artists, fashion luminaries, event
organizers, scholars and artists who deal in kawaii. One thing they made
clear is that contrary to popular belief, kawaii products need to be
cute, but not
too cute – otherwise they won’t sell.
Conflicting views abound as to what kawaii is and isn’t. In light of
this, below are five things about kawaii that go against common
misperceptions. I hope they help you look at kawaii in a different
light.
1. Kawaii isn’t about perfection
Though kawaii design is usually associated with a roundness of
composition, pastel colors and childlike facial proportions, aesthetic
perfection is actually undesirable. Kazuhiko Hachiya, the designer of
character goods
PostPet, points out
that if characters are too perfect, consumers greet them suspicion and
unease. That explains why his hit kawaii characters, Momo and friends,
have asymmetrical poses and aren’t immaculately cute.
2. Kawaii isn’t anything new
Kawaii culture developed largely as a result of the convergence of
traditions adapting to modern times, and the appropriation and influence
of Western culture, particularly after World War 2. But its roots go
even deeper: Many people consider its birth to be the beginning of the
Taisho era (1912-1926), when designer Takehisa Yumeji made feminine
items specifically marketed toward girls.
3. Kawaii isn’t supposed to be sexy
In the 1990s, with the rise of Harajuku youth fashion and the influence of
shojo (girls)
manga and illustrators, kawaii became an ideal, something girls wanted
to be. Rather than be pretty, sexy or glamorous, Japanese girls prefer
to be called kawaii. As an adjective, the word commonly implies that
something or someone is cute, sweet, endearing and innocent, but it can
be used in a mind-boggling array of ways. In fact, girls in Japan will
exclaim “kawaii!” so many times a day, and apply it in so many different
contexts – often ironic – that to a foreigner it may seem like their
repertoire in vocabulary is somewhat limited!
4. Kawaii isn’t static
While kawaii culture has been around in Japan for roughly a hundred
years, it is constantly mutating into new directions, thus retaining its
appeal to a fickle consumer demographic. Increasingly, kawaii is teamed
with words that might seem like its antithesis: take
ero-kawaii (erotic cute),
kimo-kawaii (creepy cute) and
guro-kawaii (grotesque cute). In the past five years or so, hit products such as Gloomy, a
pink homicidal bear often depicted attacking his owner, are the opposite of what we might commonly consider cute.
5. Kawaii isn’t confined to Japan
These days it isn’t just Japanese people that have an
all-encompassing love of kawaii: fans of the culture are popping up
globally, from the
Japan Expo in Paris,
HARAJUKU KAWAii!! at London’s
HYPER JAPAN event, and San Francisco’s
J-Pop Summit Festival.
As for whether it will become more than a subculture overseas, we’ll
have to wait and see.
Manami Okazaki writes about the more colorful aspects of Japanese
contemporary culture. She is the author of five books on Japanese pop
culture, including most recently, “Kawaii, the culture of Cute” (Prestel
UK).
Follow Scene Asia on Twitter @WSJscene.
