Kawaii Culture (Part 1) PDF

Kawaii phenomenon and contemporary Japanese pop culture Contemporary popular culture in East Asia Spring 2024 K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė "When I consider what Japanese culture is like, the answer is that it all is subculture. Therefore, art is unnecessary." – Takashi Murakami Foto: Tonari no Zin...

Kawaii phenomenon and contemporary Japanese pop culture Contemporary popular culture in East Asia Spring 2024 K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė "When I consider what Japanese culture is like, the answer is that it all is subculture. Therefore, art is unnecessary." – Takashi Murakami Foto: Tonari no Zingaro/Instagram K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Today‘s topics: Concept of kawaii Fashion styles and types of kawaii Kawaii ambassadors Kawaii characters Purikura K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė The concept kawaii: meaning 可愛い かわいい ‘pretty’, ‘sweet’, ‘cute’, ‘adorable’ Connotative meanings: ‘humble’, ‘embarrassed’, ‘pitiful’, ‘vulnerable’, ‘soft’, ‘tiny’, ‘attractive’ (Kinsella 1995) Related words: sunaoni (obedient) enryogachi (reserved) kodomoppoi (childish) mujaki (innocent) musekinin (irresponsible) Derivative ‘kawaisoo’ (pathetic, poor, pitiable) K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Kawaii meaning (Nihon kokugo daijiten) 1. Looks miserable and raises sympathy, pitiable, pathetic, piteous. 2. Attractive, cannot be neglected, cherished, beloved. 3. Has a sweet nature, lovely. (a) (of faces and figures of young women and children) adorable, attractive. (b) (like children) innocent, obedient, touching. 4. (of things and shapes) attractively small, small and beautiful. 5. Trivial, pitiful (used with slight disdain) Cited from: Nittono (2016) K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė The concept kawaii: origins The first author who mentioned kawaii is the writer Sei-shonagon, who wrote about pretty things in her essay Makura-no-soushi (枕草 子）in 11th century (Heian period) The original word for kawaii was kawohayushi meaning “face embarrassed” The first stylized image representing the kawaii concept was Maneki neko cat from Edo period (1603-1868), as it was round and fat. K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Manga description of pretty things by SeiShonagon Kurosu, M. (2017) K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Word transition in Japanese regarding cute or pretty, beautiful and embarrassed feeling or pity (see Nittono 2016: 81) K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Development of kawaii culture Beginning: 1970s (kawaii writing style called marumoji emerged) Flourishing: 1980s (subculture becomes representative of Japanese pop culture) Revival in mid 1990s (media mix projects, mascots) Kawaii culture industrialized: -animation -fashion -entertainment industry -food -symbols of institutions and places -everyday items K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė From sweet kawaii to dark kawaii 1970s: shift from consumption of things to consumption of images 1980s: sweet kawaii, the culture of shōjo, kawaii as a mechanism of self-pity and escapism. 1990s and later: cuteness merging with horror and violence as a sign of felt anxiety about one’s powerlessness. (see Sato, K. 2009) K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Photo: Zedge Kawaii can be perceived as: Phenomenon Culture Style/fashion Aesthetics Philosophy of life “What emerges is that cute is not just an aesthetic in Japan. It is a [new] philosophy of life” (Shimamura 1991) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU4_6Xlw0-Q K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė https://shop.6dokidoki.com Kawaii is everywhere K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Kawaii is everywhere K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Types of kawaii Two aspects of kawaii by Nittono (2016): “Kawaii has two aspects: one is an aspect of feeling and another is an aspect of cultural value.” Three types of kawaii by Marcus,Kurosu,Ma &Hashizume (2017): 1) Psycho-physical kawaii (mixture of perception and emotion). Psycho-physical kawaii attributes: round shape, pink, orange, yellow, green colors, soft and fluffy materials, small size 2) Cultural kawaii (Lolita, Gal and similar fashion styles) 3) Generic kawaii (description of fashion, appearance or characteristics of a person) 4) Other types of kawaii: yume-kawaii (fashion), kimo-kawaii (creepy cuteness), guro-kawaii (grotesque), ero-kawaii K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė (erotic), busu-kawaii (ugly cuteness), yami-kawaii (ill Yume kawaii Foto: https://aminoapps.com/c/kawaii-lifestyle/ K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Busu-kawaii Guro-kawaii K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Foto: Kurosu, M. (2017); aminoapps.com Ero-kawaii Foto: https://aminoapps.com K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Yami-kawaii Inspired by manga about Menhera-chan and her bunny Usatan (author: Ezaki Bisuko, 2014) A mixture of yume-kawaii sweet style and guro-kawaii grotesque style Main motives: plasters, bandages, syringes, pills, bunnies, notes about thoughts related to suicide, death, etc. K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Kawaii fashion styles Lolita Gyaru (Gal) Decorakei K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Dekora-kei https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WblNctc3ys Doku (toxic) kawaii K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Fuwa kawaii K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Neo kawaii K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė Lolita Appeared in 1970-80s as a protest form against social norms Style is based on the European fashion of Victorian style dolls Characteristic attributes: corsets, multilayered skirts, underskirt panties, wigs, laced umbrellas etc. There is a big variety of Lolita sub-styles: Gosurori, Warori, Sweet Rori, Gurorori etc. K.Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė How similar is kimono and Lolita dress? Jūnihitoe- robe of aristocrat women of Heian period (10-12c.) Restricted movements as a symbol of femininity GosuroriGothic Lolita Sweet Lolita (Amarori) 和 Japanese Lolita (Warori) Grotesque Lolita (Gurorori) Gyaru („gal“, „girl“) Became popular in the end of 1990s and the beginning of 2000s Gyaru sub-styles: kogyaru, ganguro, mamba (yamamba), kuro gyaru, shiro gyaru, tsuyome gyaru,agejo, gyaruo (male version),... Characteristic: artificial tan, complicated dyed hair styles, very bright make-up, long decorated nails, sexy clothes, colorful eye lenses, platform shoes.. Kogyaru Introduced by singer Amuro Namie Mikuru-kei („small face“) Clothing style- school uniform style skirt, long socks, oiran shoes Namie Amuro in 1996. Source: http://www.amuro.fr/ Kogyaru Oiran shoes Gyaru wearing oiran shoes Agejo gyaru and Hime gyaru Harutamu- a famous model gyarusa, founder of the clothing brand GALEO Gangur o Colorful hair Especially deep tan Glitter White eye-make up Mamba/Yamamba Urahara: UraHarajuku style The pioneers of Urahara fashion are designers Hiroshi Fujiwara („Good Enough“),Jun Takahashi („Undercover“) and Nigo ( „Bathing Ape“, 1993m.) Which style do you like best? ☺