Okazaemon, the Ugly Mascot ~ Strange Japan
Meet Okazaemon (オカザえもん), Okazaki City's ugly mascot.
That's not just me making fun of him. Actually I am a fan of Okazaemon. He is generally considered kimo-kawaii, which means something like creepy cute, used for something that is both disturbing but yet kind of cute.
He was designed this way on purpose. His head is 岡, with two eyes stuck in, and his body has 崎 on it—which together means Okazaki, the city's name.
He was a response to the cute mascot fad in Japan for pretty much everything to have mascots. Most cities have one, many organizations and teams have one, as do many companies. This category of mascot characters is called yuru kyara, and it is super popular these days. Pretty much all these mascots are designed to be cute.
So much so that some yuru kyara designers have stated turning to ugly or creepy designs. Enter our guy.
Okazaki has embraced him but neighboring cities label him as creepy and weird, which I think most of us Okazaki folks think is just fine. Better to be different than join the cute fad.
What do you think? Does your city have a mascot, cute or otherwise?
❦
David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. |
Congratulations @dbooster! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Your next target is to reach 3500 comments.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
This post has received a 100.00% upvote from @fambalam! Join thealliance community to get whitelisted for delegation to this community service.
Yuru kyara is everywhere in Japan!! I heard that there is a prison yuru kyara as well.
haha I know, isn't it nuts? But at the same time, it's kind of fun. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if prisons also have their own cute yuru kyara.
Yuru kyara is everywhere in Japan!! I heard that there is a prison yuru kyara as well.