research- Graphic Japan: From Woodblock and Zen to Manga and Kawaii

Graphic Japan: From Woodblock and Zen to Manga and Kawaii

By Natalie Avellam

Main points in the book:

Kawaii (pronounced kay-wah-ee), meaning cute, is one of the most loved and most widely used words in Japan. Kawaii essentially means 'childlike', with celebrating all that is 'sweet, adorable, innocent, pure, simple, genuine, gentle, weak, vulnerable'.

kawaii culture manifests itself in the cute cartoon characters that infiltrate every part of life in Japan. Mary Roach explains in the article in Wired Magazine 'The Japanese save money with cute(jiffy the rabbit on atm cards), pray with cute (Hello Kitty charm bags at shinto shrines). A love of cute characters appears to transcend both age and gender. Thirty year old women wake up to toasters that burn Hello Kitty's face onto a piece of bread, organise their lives with Hello Kitty day-planners, and wear Hello Kitty underwear. Mitsubishi released a snoopy car, of which is rival to Daihatsu's Hello Kitty car. 

The functions of cute :

Cute is not just eye candy on the surfaces of consumer products; kawaii characters also function as a polite way of conferring guidance and information to the public. They appear on street signs, in instruction manuals, in phone books, and on utilities bills. Warning signs on automatic doors show startled bunny rabbits. Train ticket machines display cartoon staff bowing and thanking you for your purchase. If a road is being dug up, you can expect to see flyers showing cartoon moles wearing hard hats apologising for the inconvenience. In a country where people are brought up on a diet of manga and anime, cartoons are a common language. Almost every public institution has a cute mascot. Japan's public broadcast channel, NHK, features a rather scary looking, brown, square shaped teeth called domo-kun. Each police department of japan's 47 prefectures has a distinctly un-macho mascot. Tokyo's police department has a giant animated mouse with a pointy blue hat called pi-po-kun. 

Kawaii and the cute face of corporate:

For corporate business, Kawaii helps to give a friendly face to an otherwise impersonal corporate identity, giving people a way to build a personal relationship with a particular brand. Companies make themselves more approachable and less threatening by adopting cute mascots. 

The origins of cute:

The widespread use of kawaii is a fairly recent phenomenon, however Sharon Kinsella in her essay 'cuties in Japan' explains that the word kawaii is derived from Kawajushi, a word that first appeared in dictionaries prior to 1945. It had principal meanings of 'shy' or 'embarrassed', but possessed secondary meanings such as 'pathetic', 'vulnerable', 'darling', 'loveable', and 'small'. Kawaii first appeared in the early 1970's, at the same time as the emergence of a new craze among teenagers, especially girls, for cute, babyish handwriting. 

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