Kawaii Perception in Japan
Cuteness in Japanese culture
Since the 1970s, cuteness, in Japanese the noun[1] kawaisa (可愛さ?) (literally, "lovability", "cuteness" or "adorableness"), has become a prominent aspect of Japanese popular culture, entertainment, clothing, food, toys, personal appearance, behavior, and mannerisms.[2] The adjective[3] is kawaii (可愛い?)[4] (literally, "lovable", "cute",[5] or "adorable"[6]). The words "kawaisa" and "kawaii" have the root word "kawai" which is formed from the kanji "ka" (可), meaning "acceptable", and "ai" (愛), meaning "love". The term kawaii has taken on the secondary meanings of "cool,"[7] "groovy,"[7] "acceptable,"[8] "desirable,"[8] "charming"[9] "non-threatening".[9]
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[edit] Aesthetics
Sōichi Masubuchi 増渕聡一 (Masubuchi Sōichi?) in his work, Kawaii Syndrome, claims "cute" and "neat" have taken precedence over the former Japanese aesthetics of "beautiful" and "refined".[9]
[edit] Performativity
Japanese women who perform cute behaviors that could be viewed as forced or fake are called "burikko" and this is considered a gender performance.[10] The term "burikko" (鰤子?) is formed from the kanji "buri" 鰤, meaning Japanese amberjack, and "ko" 子, meaning "child".[10] It was a neologism developed in the 1980s by singer Kuniko Yamada 山田邦子 (Yamada Kuniko?).[10]
[edit] Physical attractiveness
In Japan, cuteness is expected of men and women.[11] There is a trend of men shaving their legs to mimic the "asexual" look.[11] Many Japanese men are drawn to the owner of cute merchandise, because it is reminiscent of little girls,[12] and Japanese women try to act cute to attract men.[11] A study by Kanebo (カネボ?), a cosmetic company, found that Japanese women in their 20s and 30s favored the "cute look" with a "childish round face".[8]
[edit] History
[edit] Original definition
The original definition of kawaii came from Lady Murasaki's The Tale of Genji where it referred to pitiable qualities.[9] During the Shogunate period under the ideology of neo-Confucianism, women came to be included under the term kawaii as the perception of women from being animalistic was replaced with the conception of women as docile.[9]
[edit] Cute handwriting
The rise of cuteness in Japanese culture emerged in the 1970s as part of a new style of writing.[13] Many teenage girls began to write laterally using mechanical pencils.[13] These pencils produced very fine lines, as opposed to traditional Japanese writing that varied in thickness and was vertical.[13] Also, the girls would write in big, round characters and they added little pictures to their writing, such as hearts, stars, smiley faces, and letters of the Latin alphabet.[13] These pictures would be inserted randomly and made the writing very hard to read.[13] As a result, this writing style caused a lot of controversy and was banned in many schools.[13] During the 1980s, however, this new "cute" writing was adopted by magazines and comics and was put onto packaging and advertising.[13] From 1984–1986, Kazuma Yamane 山根和麻 (Yamane Kazuma ?) studied the development of cute handwriting, which he called Anomalous Female Teenage Handwriting, in depth.[13] This type of cute Japanese handwriting has also been called: marui ji (丸い字?), meaning "round writing," koneko ji (小猫字?), meaning "kitten writing," manga ji (漫画字?), meaning "comic writing," and burikko ji (鰤子字?), meaning "fake-child writing"[14] Although it was commonly thought that the writing style was something that teenagers had picked up from comics, he found that teenagers had come up with the style themselves, as part of an underground movement.[13]
[edit] Cute fashion
Tomoyuki Sugiyama 杉山奉文 (Sugiyama Tomoyuki?), author of Cool Japan, claims cute fashion in Japan can be traced back to the Edo Period with the popularity of netsuke. [8]
Because of this growing trend, companies such as Sanrio came out with merchandise like Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty was an immediate success and the obsession with cute continued to progress in other areas as well. The 1980s also saw the rise of cute idols, such as Seiko Matsuda, who is largely credited with popularizing the trend. Women began to emulate Seiko Matsuda and her cute fashion style and mannerisms, which emphasized the helplessness and innocence of young girls.[15] The market for cute merchandise in Japan is driven by Japanese girls between 15 and 18 years old.[16] No longer limited to teenagers, however, the spread of making things as cute as possible, even common household items, was embraced by people of all ages. Now there are airplanes painted with Pikachu on the side, and each of Japan’s 47 prefectures, the Tokyo police, and even the public broadcaster NHK all have their own cute mascots. Currently, Sanrio’s line of more than 50 characters takes in more than $1 billion a year and it remains the most successful company to capitalize on the cute trend.[12]
[edit] Cute characters
Cute elements can be found almost everywhere in Japan, from big business to corner markets and national government, ward, and town offices.[12][11] Many companies, large and small, use cute mascots to present their wares and services to the public. For example:
- Pikachu, a character from Pokémon, adorns the side of three ANA passenger jets.
- Asahi Bank used Miffy (Nijntje), a character from a Dutch series of children's picture books, on some of its ATM and credit cards.
- All 47 prefectures have cute mascot characters.[citation needed]
- The Japan Post "Yū-Pack" mascot is a stylized mailbox;[17] they also use other cute mascot characters to promote their various services (among them the Postal Savings Bank) and have used many such on postage stamps.
- Some police forces in Japan have their own moe mascots, which sometimes adorn the front of kōban (police boxes).
- Sanrio, the company behind Hello Kitty and other similarly cute characters, runs the Sanrio Puroland theme park in Tokyo.
Cute can be also used to describe a specific fashion sense[18][7] of an individual, and generally includes clothing that appears to be made for young children, apart from the size, or clothing that accentuates the cuteness of the individual wearing the clothing. Ruffles and pastel colors are commonly (but not always) featured, and accessories often include toys or bags featuring anime characters.[12]
[edit] Popular cute characters in Japan
These cute characters are popular in Japan: Tarepanda,[12]Hello Kitty,[12] Momo the Postpet,[12] Felix the Cat,[12] Pingu,[12] Mickey Mouse,[12] Teletubbies,[12] Snoopy,[11] Winnie-the-Pooh,[11] Miffy,[11] Rilakkuma,[19] Mameshiba[20] and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit[21]
[edit] Cute in the USA but not Japan
Cabbage patch kids did not sell well in Japan, because Japanese people considered their facial features to be "wrong" and "grotesque" compared to the flatter and featureless face of Hello Kitty.[9] Also, Barbie did not fare well in Japan compared to the Rika-chan doll who was modeled after a pre-pubescent girl.[9]
[edit] Perception in Japan
As a cultural phenomenon, cuteness is increasingly accepted in Japan as a part of Japanese culture and national identity. Tomoyuki Sugiyama 杉山奉文 (Sugiyama Tomoyuki?), author of "Cool Japan", believes that "cuteness" is rooted in Japan's harmony-loving culture, and Nobuyoshi Kurita 栗田経惟 (Kurita Nobuyoshi?), a sociology professor at Musashi University in Tokyo, has stated that "cute" is a "magic term" that encompasses everything that's acceptable and desirable in Japan.[22]
On the other hand, those skeptical of cuteness consider it a sign of an infantile mentality.[22] In particular, Hiroto Murasawa 村澤大翔 (Murasawa Hiroto?), professor of beauty and culture at Osaka Shoin Women’s University asserts that cuteness is "a mentality that breeds non-assertion ... Individuals who choose to stand out get beaten down."[22]
[edit] Influence on other cultures
Cute merchandise and products are especially popular in some other parts of East Asia, such as China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.[12][23]
Japan's global image has shifted from being known for austere rock gardens to being known for "cute-worship".[8]