I had no idea kawaii was now an English word: Kimono-clad princesses offer apologies for roadside construction in Kyoto

Kimono-clad princesses offer apologies for roadside construction in Kyoto

I came by that info from this article.  I'm fine with kawaii joining the vast numbers of words English has borrowed from other languages.  Most of them are food words, but there are enough that aren't.  And we use various foreign language phrases at times, too, because they have a certain je ne sais quoi.  That sounds smarter than saying we use them because they have this thing and I don't know what to call it.  It's probably charisma.  Kawaii means cute, but used for a particular form of cuteness as exemplified by Hello Kitty and various manga and anime characters (to use two more borrowed words), it has charisma.

For example, your grandchild is cute.  Your grandchild's Sailor Moon blanket is kawaii.

And yes, to make a general observation, there is a lot of emphasis on kawaii in Japan.  Every prefecture, many cities and practically every company you can do business of some kind with has as a mascot some cutie-pie cartoon character.  And some of these involve sending emissaries in fluffy costumes to do personal appearances.  Even the grotesque and hilarious Funasshi, a parody of these "wild characters," is ultimately kawaii unto itself.  Himself?  Herself?  Our local cute character is Ieyasu-kun, a kawaii-ified version of the guy who beat all comers to unify Japan and set up the Tokugawa Shogunate that then ruled the country as an all-powerful dictatorship for about 200 years. 

It's fun to have your photo taken giving the peace sign and smiling broadly next to a fluffy, round-headed caricature of an iron-willed man responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in battle, plus who knows how many political murders in order to consolidate his rule.  I feel the same way about Ieyasu-kun I do when I see the presidents race at a Washington Nationals game.

C'est la vie!

It's not just Hello Kitty: Japan's character craze

It's not just Hello Kitty: Japan's character craze

Well, I like 'em.  People tend to love their cute characters here and there are some artists who really know how to bring it.  The cute, that is. 

Hello Kitty, or Kitty White if you prefer, is the undisputed Empress of Kawaii.  I never imagined when a Sanrio shop opened in the mall in my hometown I'd ever learn to love Kitty.  Eventually, I had to surrender to her charms.  I blame a close friend who spent the happiest portion of her professional art life working for the company and handling their North American website.  If you sent a Hello Kitty themed e-card during the 2000s, chances are she created it.  She even did some of their product design.  She has internalized kawaii and I've picked up an appreciation of it from her, I suppose.  Also some stationery.

Our local cute character is a version of Tokugawa Ieyasu, a person I think is a bizarre choice for kawaii-ification, but the kids are really into his round head.  We call him Ieyasu-kun.  Kumamon is a particular favorite of mine.  I find the simple design very appealing.  Funashi is freaky fun.  There are even Funashi impersonators on TV from time to time.  That's impact.

More fuel for my love for these cute characters comes from having designed hundreds or even thousands of characters in my life, and not having a single one of them gain any sort of popularity.  Not even within my circle of friends.  To do something that gains broad popularity takes talent and skill that has eluded me.  But I recognize it in others and bow to their winning ways!