New Sato-chan

One of the first posts on the Idle Idol site was about Sato-chan and Satoko-chan. In the previous post I described Shimizu Pharmacy in Ginza and it’s small museum dedicated to the pair of elephants. I was once again passing by the store when I quickly noticed a new Sato-chan mascot outside. This design marks the latest in a long line of alterations since it’s inception in 1955. The earliest model I’ve found is from 1965 and is my favourite. The design didn’t change much over the years until 1982. The only version of this design I’ve found was painted over in white and placed outside a hairdressers in Omotesando, Tokyo. The next change was in 1993, the eyes are the most noticeable difference and he’s the skipping pose lost in favour of a standing position. In 2000 there are more small changes, the face and body becoming more round and streamlined. You can see this model wearing the blue coat. Which leads us to the latest design. The most obvious difference is the eyes which now have colour (green for Sato-chan and pink for Satoko-chan).

The final photos on the page show the previous model dressed up as various characters from the anime One Piece which I also spotted recently.

What do you think of the latest design, let me know in the comments.

Elephant Parade in London

With over 250 elephant mascots dotted around the city I’m surprised I didn’t spot one earlier than I did. After I saw my first one walking into central London I soon started spotting them everywhere. With a good excuse to explore London I started on my search. Each Elephant is painted/designed by a different artist or celebrity such as Marc Quinn, Paul Smith, De Beauvoir Primary School in Hackney (Years 4 & 6) and many more.

It’s anticipated that over 25 million people will see the elephants making it London’s biggest outdoor art event. The purpose of the Elephant Parade is to highlight the crisis facing Asian elephants and to raise money for the elephant family charity. All of the elephants will be auctioned, and the money raised will go towards protecting Asian elephants and their habitat. To find out more about the elephant parade visit elephantparadelondon.org.

I’ve included a few of my favourites on this page but if you’re keen to see more I suggest visiting Jason Parvins’ site as he’s amazingly managed to find and photograph every elephant!

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.

Tokyo Park Animals

When it came to editing Idle Idol we ended up removing a whole section called Park attendants. They didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the mascots but it was really hard to get rid of such great characters from the book.

All over Japan these creatures brighten up small parks with slides made into elephants, wobbly seat pandas and some animals just there to brighten up a small corner of fun.