Tanuki in Shigaraki

We’ve previously covered the Tanuki here but I recently had the chance to visit Shigaraki in Shiga the ancient centre for pottery making in Japan and the biggest producer of Tanuki. The towns pottery history dates back to the 12th century as the area has many clay beds which are used by local potters. There are many shops selling pots and plates and of course a huge array of Tanuki. Heres my collection of photos of a small portion of the massive Tanuki population in Shigaraki.

Sakamoto Ryoma

Sakamoto Ryoma a low ranking samurai is credited with unifying Japan, modernizing the country and even regarded as the father of the Japanese Navy. In recent years in part to an NHK Taiga drama he’s had a revival of interest. According to the Japan Times “Ryōma has inspired at least seven television drama series, six novels, seven manga and five films.” Here’s a selection of posters, signs and of course a couple of 3D mascots which take on his likeness. Read more about the fascinating man here.

Santa Claus

A belated ‘Happy Christmas’ to you all. We hope everyone is having a great new year. Here’s a small collection of some great Santa Claus / Father Christmas / St Nicholas mascots from around the world. Thanks to Mikerosbery and Formica for the great photos. More Idle Idol content coming soon and a new exciting project to be announced.

Peko-chan Museum

2010 marks the 100th year for Fujiya the confectionery company. It’s also the 60th anniversary of Peko-chan, the mascot for the company. To celebrate Fujiya have opened the Peko-chan museum with a seemingly endless supply of Peko-chan related products and a number of mascots from Peko-chans career. The mascots on display include a very early papermache model and the latest talking Peko-chan from 2010. The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. until Sept. 6th (2010) and is free to enter.

I saw the first talking Peko-chan mascot at the exhibition, when I touched her hand she challenged me to a game of rock paper scissors but apparently is capable of saying more than 90 other phrases. The new mascot isn’t radically different in design. The hair colour is lighter and the tongue slightly bigger. According to the Japan Times

Fujiya President Yasufumi Sakurai said the company plans to place the talking Peko-chans at some 100 stores across the nation over the next year.

Also on display is a Peko-chan robot dressed as a princess. The mascot can sing the Fujiya theme song and even answer questions. I particularly liked seeing how the Peko-chan character has evolved over the years. Also the Peko-chan kimono is funny.

© 2010 zoe mw

© 2010 welovepandas

Halloween Mascots

The Colonel doesn’t seem to miss any opportunity to dress up and Halloween is no exception. My local Colonel Sanders must love Christmas more though as he’s already dressed as Father Christmas. The other mascot who loves fancy dress or cosplay is Peko-chan who can be seen wearing a cute little witches costume. Thanks to welovepandas and zoe mw for the photos.

The Elephant & Castle Pub

Indian Restarant logo and close up of Elephant & Castle sign

Elephant & Castle

The red elephant sits proudly at the entrance to a shopping centre in South London with a castle perched on it’s back. The Elephant and Castle is not only a mascot but a road, a tube station, a roundabout, an area, a shopping centre and a pub! The Elephant as it sometimes known is a busy intersection and major public transport hub.

The origin of the name ‘Elephant and Castle’ derives from a crest which represented a craft guild founded in the 13th century, the guild were made up of workers who made knives, scissors and weapons. The expensive items produced by the workers may of used ivory, hence why the elephant was used. The castle on the elephants’ back is a symbol of strength and has it’s origins from elephants in India that had a carriage or howdah which was typically positioned on the elephants’ back and used by hunters or wealthy people. The forge that used the emblem eventually turned into a coaching inn/pub and they kept the sign and name. Before 1750 the area was called Newington but as the importance of the location grew the name Elephant and Castle was adopted. The reason for this was there were several other places in London called Newington such as Stoke Newington and Newington Green.

Elephant and Castle is set for further changes but I imagine the name will stay the same. The area is currently being regenerated with plans to demolish the shopping centre in the year 2014; I’m hoping however that the famous mascot will remain intact.

Japanese Robots

The Japanese love robots, they pioneer in the creation of them, Testuwan Atomu was the first to create a cartoon character robot with Atomu (Astro Boy) old people have robot pets for companions and luckily for me they have loads of robot figures everywhere.

The huge and very cool Gundam was located in Odaiba last year to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Gundam anime. Unfortunatly it was taken down but you can see many smaller versions outside model shops in and various other places around Japan. Mobile Suit Gundam was produced by Sunrise, a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings. The second picture on the right was taken inside the Namco offices in Shinagawa while the left photo was snapped outside the Bandai offices in Asakusa. Bandai make the intricate and popular model kits.

The next two photos show a pair of awesome robots outside a home ware shop in Asakusa on Kappabashi. Kappabashi is famous for all the kitchen ware shops. This particularly one sold loads of pots and pans which is what they are both made from.

Another homemade robot shown is the cardboard box robot outside an off licence (liquor store). Presumably made from the boxes the booze comes in. The symbol on his chest is the kanji for alcohol.

The final robot is Tetsujin 28-go which is sometimes called “Iron man #28″ or Gigantor. The manga revolved around a huge robot and his controller, a 12-year-old boy named Shotaro Kaneda. The three-stories-tall robot was created during World War II but by the time he was completed (after 27 failed attempts), the war had ended. He ends up being used by the young boy to fight evil robots, criminals and mad scientists. I’ve spotted loads of these blue bots all over Japan. He was also recently used in some NTT commercials and there’s a huge one in Kobe which was recently finished.

© 2010 PaulMcAleer

© 2010 Flashbender

© 2010 plain_jane53177

© 2010 abbyladybug

© 2010 fontplaydotcom

© 2010 dwwebber

Native American Store Standers

In the West, characters used to advertise products appeared as early as the 17th century with the “cigar store Indian.” Native Americans were associated with the introduction of tobacco and so became a common symbol of tobacco stores. It wasn’t long before shops had wooden figures made with crude representations of how they thought Native Americans looked to show their often illiterate customers what they sold. This is our first post on Idle Idol looking at mascots outside of Japan. We’ll be doing this more and more after the book has launched. The first photo was taken by Edward in Tokyo but all the others are taken by different photographers. Click the photos to go to their flickr pages. To see more great Cigar store indians check out our gallery on flickr.

Inflatables

I avoided having any inflatable characters In the Idle Idol book as they didn’t quite fit in. Going to the Tokyo international Anime Fair last week I spotted quite a few inflatable characters so thought it would make an interesting collection for the website.

The first character is Mr Earth, the mascot for Tokyo’s Shibaura Water Recyling Center. Check google maps to see a huge version of him painted onto their reservoir tanks.

Next we have Otosan the softbank dog and Docomodake the Docomo mushroom. Both mascots are for Japans two biggest mobile phone providers. Otosan (Japanese for dad) stars in the softbank adverts. He also has his own DVD showing his daily life.

The huge Stitch was in Akihabara. Stitch is extremely popular in Japan. It was a Japanese animation company who produced a spin off animation set on a fictional Okinawa island. Next we have a random pink ball from somewhere near Ueno, Then Pickachu and Maneki Neko. The large boy with glasses is Detective Conan a popular character from the Case Closed manga. The penguin is the Suica mascot, Suica is a rechargeable smart card for use on the trains, in convenience stores and at vending machines. The big mouthed guy in the hat is Karuojisan who’s the character for a brand of crisps. The big lion was on some random pachinko building in Tokyo.

Bird Watching

Pictured here is one pelican from a pair guarding a gaudy love hotel in Ikebukuro. I like the fact the two kanji used for Ikebukuro are literally pond and bag it almost sounds like an insult and somehow alludes to the seedy repuatation of the area. Ikebukuro has two love hotel districts, in one of them you can find Hotel Ell’s and the two pelicans. Most Love hotels seem to have English names in an effort to sound more exotic and exciting. The hotels list three prices (also in English): one is for ‘rest’, which can be for a couple of hours; one for a ‘stay’, which is for overnight; and lastly one for ‘service time’ or ‘free time’, a cheap alternative during off-peak hours.

The two flamingoes were found in Omotesando, Tokyo. I love the way their beaks hook over the railing.