notes

Notes

Preface and Acknowledgments

1. Within the United States, my travels have been extensive, although not all of the travels have been focused on Hello Kitty. The list of places outside the United States includes Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, and Mazatlán; Vancouver; Buenos Aires; São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro; London; Paris; Rome, Florence, Siena, and Venice; Berlin and Heidelberg; Beijing; Seoul; Delhi; Kathmandu; and Bangkok. 2. Although the South San Francisco office is still important, since around 2010, U.S. operations have shifted increasingly to Sanrio offices in Los Angeles. Also, Nakajima USA has increasingly taken over control of many of the Sanrio stores and operations in the United States, beginning in 1988 but with greater definition since 2004, when it became the principal licensee and primary partner of Sanrio boutique stores. 3. Sanrio stores in Japan give away a free newsletter, Ichigo Shimbun (Strawberry news), which provides information on new items for sale. Sanrio in Japan also publishes a quarterly glossy magazine Kitty Goods Collection, with new products, events, fan comments, and articles at a cost of 600–700 yen each ($7.25–$8.50). 4. Since 2010, Sanrio has been selling their own doc-certified (Vino a Denominazione di Origine Controllata) Hello Kitty wine with the tagline “Our favorite girl has grown up.” According to Drew Hibbert, ceo for Innovation Spirits, which distributes the wines in the United States, “Hello Kitty Wines were originally conceived by Camomilla S.p.A. which is a very successful fashion company in Italy that does a huge amount of business manufacturing and selling Hello Kitty licensed merchandise in Italy and beyond. Camomilla S.p.A. partnered up with Torti ‘Tenimenti Castelrotto’ boutique Italian winery located in the highly regarded Lombardy wine region” (Alimrung 2010). Here are the tasting notes for the four varieties of Hello Kitty wines:

“Hello Kitty Sparkling Brut Rosé—A deep reddish pink sparkling rosé made from 100% Pinot Noir that has a frothy mousse as well as a pretty nose of rose petal and red currant scents.”

“Hello Kitty Sparkling “Sweet Pink” (Half Size)—This semi-sweet sparkler sports a pale pink hue and has very delicate bubbles.”

“2008 Hello Kitty Angel White—This is a fresh, very ‘blanc’ white wine made entirely from Pinot Noir free run juice.”

“2006 Hello Kitty Devil Red—Garnet red with brickish highlights, this is a classically rendered Pinot Noir that presents a seductive bouquet of wild flowers and forest aromas.”

As the article reports, as of 2010, prices per bottle ranged from $19.99 to $29.99 and were available in specialty wine and liquor stores and relevant online outlets.

Introduction

1. Established in 1997 by the photographer Aoki Shōichi, the monthly magazine FRUiTS chronicles youth street fashion as individual expression around the Harajuku area of Tokyo. Each photograph includes the name and age of the subject, a description of the outfit and its origins, and a brief statement by the subject about her or his fashion inspiration. Photographs from the magazine have been compiled in books—FRUiTS (2001) and Fresh FRUiTS (2005)—which further cement the global gaze upon Japanese urban youth culture and reify its denizens as global trendsetters in street fashion. In 2002 and 2003, as part of the Sydney Festival (Australia), the Powerhouse Museum showed Aoki’s photographs and an assortment of outfits in “FRUiTS: Tokyo Street Style— Photographs by Shoichi Aoki,” as well as developed a traveling exhibition from the original show. 2. As quoted on the Amazon.com website: www.amazon.com/Barbie -Collector-Hello-Fashion-Culture/dp/B000PD7UOQ (accessed June 8, 2011). The Barbie doll accessorized in Hello Kitty sells for $49.95. 3. Designed by Bill Greening; release date September 7, 2007; Product code L4687; Pink Label by Mattel. The Hello Kitty Barbie is part of the Pop Culture Collection that includes another Hello Kitty Barbie, designed by Greening, released June 1, 2008, with Barbie in blue capri pants, Hello Kitty tank top, and red cropped jacket. The collection also includes another Sanrio character outfit, My Melody [bunny] Barbie, designed by Greening, released March 1, 2008. 4. Although there are cartoon installations and videorecordings of Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters, this media component is not considered central to sales outside Japan. 5. Fujita’s quote was meant to argue for the inherent attractions of introducing McDonald’s to Japan as an overtly American eatery, rather than a localized

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hybrid. A closely related variant of the quote by Fujita is as follows: “If we [Japanese] eat McDonald’s hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years, we will become taller, our skin will become whiter, and our hair blond” (Love 1986:423). 6. On Sanrio-Europe’s corporate website, here is how Tsuji explains the origin of the name “Sanrio”:

“The name ‘Sanrio’ was derived from Spanish ‘San’ and ‘Rio’. One can find the prefix ‘San’ in many place names, such as San Francisco and San Diego. Translated as ‘saintly’ in English and ‘kiyoraka’ in Japanese, it means ‘pure’. The latter part, ‘Rio’ means river (“kawa” in Japanese), and can also be found in many place names, such as Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande.

“In essence, then, Sanrio means ‘Saintly River’ or ‘Pure River’. It is a name that reflects the spirit of our company, and the goal that we set for ourselves forty years ago: to help build a sincere, virtous [sic] society, like the first cultures that inhabited the fertile banks of great rivers long, long ago—to nurture a community where people live in harmony, caring for and cooperating with one other. For forty years, we have continued striving towards realization of this goal” (www.sanriolicensing.com/philosophy.php [no longer available]). 7. My thanks to Mara Miller for this insight and loan of materials. 8. Masubuchi Souichi, theorist of kawaii, contrasts Hello Kitty’s mouthlessness with Mickey Mouse’s large mouth (1994:127). 9. Sanrio’s use of such simple design has come under suspicion of copyright infringement in a lawsuit filed by the Dutch author and illustrator Dick Bruna, whose austerely abstracted cute rabbit Miffy (created in 1955; popular in Japan shortly thereafter) bears a striking resemblance to Sanrio’s rabbit character Cathy (marketed since 1976 as a friend of Hello Kitty). In November 2010, a court in Amsterdam ruled in favor of Bruna, ordering Sanrio to halt production and sales of Cathy in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, or face a hefty penalty fee. 10. The list of licensees grows. In 2010, Sanrio lists the following licensees, by country on its website:

“(Japan) Shiseido Co., Ltd., Toshiba Corporation, Brother Industries, Ltd., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., Citizen Watch Co., Ltd., Takara Co. Ltd., Bandai Co., Ltd., Tomy Co., Ltd., Lotte Co., Ltd. (United States) Jakks Pacific Inc., Bandai America Inc., Sanyo Fisher Company, Scholastic Inc., chf Industries Inc., Takara U.S.A. Corp., Nakajima U.S.A. Inc., Calego Intl Inc., ntd Apparel Inc. (Hong Kong) mtr Corporation, Nestle (Hong Kong) Ltd., Nokia Pete Ltd., McDonald’s Restaurants (HK) Ltd., Hawley & Hazel Chemical Co. (HK) Ltd., Kimberly-Clark (HK) Ltd. (Korea) Kumbo Toys Ind., Co., Gone Mania Co., Ltd., Neo M Teldeccario Co., Ltd., Mukunghwa Corporation, byc Co. Ltd., Arumoaunsaengwhal Co., Ltd., Yookyung A&G.

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(Taiwan) Yamaha Motor Taiwan Co., Ltd., Uni-President Enterprises Corp., Macoto Bank, Taiwan Morinaga Co., Ltd., Nice Croup Headquarters, KimberlyClark Taiwan, King Car Food Industrial Co., Ltd., Lian Hwa Foods Corporation, Taiwan Cellular Corporation, kg Telecommunications Co., Ltd., Inventec Online Corporation” (www.sanriolicensing.com/licensing_world.php [no longer available]). 11. Other similar kinds of definitions come from the art world and popular journalism. In their book The Encyclopedia of Bad Taste, the journalists Jane and Michael Stern quote the Hollywood art director Nicolai Remisoff: “Good taste is what is appropriate” (1990:9). 12. A Japanese word semantically overlapping with cool is the premodern iki, meaning having a dapper sense of style. Iki is used more often to describe men in urban settings than to describe women. In contemporary Japan the word kakkoo ii (“cool”; used more often—but not exclusively—as a descriptor for males) is used, as well as the English loan word kuuru. 13. See chapters 5 and 7 for more about the wink. Tohmatsu Kazuo says that the first winking Hello Kitty image was created in 1996 by Yamaguchi Yūko for an edition of Ichigo Shimbun (Strawberry news), Sanrio’s in-store monthly newsletter (personal communication, October 1, 2010). The first winking Hello Kitty image depicted in the Sanrio retrospective of goods dates from 2003 (Sanrio 2009c). 14. Other earlier designations for this same age category are “subteen” and “pretween.” According to Cook, the subteen— “half girl and half woman”—emerged as a graded age-and-size style range primarily for white, middle-class girls in the United States from the mid-1950s to 1960 (2004:137–38, 141). The term tween appeared in a 1987 article in Marketing and Media Decisions to circumscribe consumers of both sexes, aged nine to fifteen (Cook and Kaiser 2004:217). 15. According to the social critic Kay Hymowitz, in the United States the debut of Barbie in 1959 marked the “media’s teening of childhood” and thus the birth of the preteen (and, later, the tween) (quoted in Cook and Kaiser 2004:212). 16. Another common usage of “pink”—or in this case, “pinko”—during the 1950s was its reference to Communist Party sympathizers. Coined during the 1920s, “pinko” or “parlor pink” referred to those espousing leftist-leaning politics, with the implication that these were politics of the salon, rather than committed to action. Therefore “pinko” derogatorily implied the effeteness of a leftist sympathizer. 17. Other notable contemporary uses of pink in the United States include the curving ribbon insignia for breast cancer awareness and activism, and the Victoria Secret’s youth-oriented pink line of clothing (by which fans may join a pink nation) (pink.victoriassecret.com; accessed September 7, 2010).

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18. Karl Schawelka notes that blushing occurs less among elderly than among youth (2006:46). 19. Note that pinku is the borrowed loan word from the English and carries a range of connotations that include the cute and the sexy. However, other Japanese words denote the color pink. The indigenous nadeshiko-iro (pink, derived from the flower Caryophyllaceae, in particular the Large Pink, Dianthus superbus subsp. longicalycinus) has become the basis for the expression “Yamato nadeshiko” (ancient Japan pink), which refers to an ideal of Japanese female beauty and character noted for its link to tradition, unadorned purity, and kindness. The term nadeshiko-iro has been supplanted by momo-iro (pink/peach color), with its reference to the fruit and subsequently to innocent girlishness. The Japanese peach in question has white flesh and a slightly downy skin with color that ranges from a pale, greenish-tinged white to a pink blush. Traditionally, Girl’s Day (third day of the third month) is referred to as Momo no Sekku (Peach Festival). (Thanks to Hirofumi Katsuno for pointing out some of these elements of pink in Japan.) 20. In 1991, policing of censorship laws was eased to exclude works deemed of artistic value. 21. Quoted at www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2009–01–21-hello-kitty -hospital_N.htm (accessed December 14, 2010; no longer available). 22. My thanks to Ricardo Trimillos for this Kitty sighting. 23. My thanks to Nancy Cooper for this Kitty sighting. 24. Other similar volumes include Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia, edited by James Watson (2006) and East Asian Pop Culture; Analyzing the Korean Wave, edited by Chua Beng Huat and Koichi Iwabuchi (2008). 25. In fact, other scholars have begun the task. These works include (in chronological order) Ko Yu-fen, “Hello Kitty and Identity Politics in Taiwan” (2000); Jeremy E. Taylor, “From ‘Hello Kitty’ to Hot-Springs: Nostalgia and the Japanese Past in Taiwan” (2001); Angela Kit-Ching Wan, “Hello Kitty: The Meaning of Consumption in Hong Kong and Its Implication for the Globalization of Popular Culture” (2002); Benjamin Wai-ming Ng, ““The Hello Kitty Craze in Singapore: A Cultural and Comparative Analysis” (n.d.); and Larissa Hjorth, “Odours of Mobility: Mobile Phones and Japanese Cute Culture in the Asia-Pacific” (2005). 26. Sanrio’s European website lists the following countries, where there are company stores: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom (www.sanrio europe.com). Since 2006, Sanrio Europe also publishes its own monthly magazine entitled Hello Kitty Magazine in German.

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Chapter One. Kitty at Home

1. This is what Brian McVeigh too easily calls a “consumutopia”—that is, an idealized capitalist state “in which individuals cheerfully consume and a happy fit between steadfast supply and desirous demand occurs” (2000a:228). 2. This includes the aspirations of those who yearn to attain middle-class or upper-middle class status. According to a Japanese woman who grew up on the outskirts of Tokyo in the mid-1970s, Hello Kitty during that period was considered expensive, relative to other character goods, and thus carried brand-name status. In her elementary school, only the wealthier children had Hello Kitty goods. 3. Although the term “girl-child” may seem internally redundant in combining young female (“girl”) with youth (“child”), I use the term here to specify the innocent, naive image of the shōjo. That image stands in contrast to other uses of “girl,” or in Japlish gyaru (“gal”) that I explain later in discussion of the kogyaru figure. 4. The Japanese female aesthetic that emphasizes eyes to create a doll-like look culminated in the 2000s in special contact lenses known as “circle lenses” in sometimes unusual shades such as violet or pink. Because they cover not only the iris, but also part of the white of the eye, they give the startling impression of a much larger eye. Further, this shōjo aesthetic and the contact lenses that enable it have crossed the Pacific and become a growing trend in the United States, as reported in the New York Times: “The lenses give wearers a childlike doe-eyed appearance. . . . Now that circle lenses have gone mainstream in Japan, Singapore and South Korea, they are turning up in American high schools and college campuses” (Saint Louis 2010:11). 5. Allison discusses the sexualized male gaze upon female bodies of different ages from young children to adults. 6. In Japan it is not uncommon for women to be in charge of birth control, including purchasing condoms. 7. The wearing of school uniforms even on nonschool days reflects in part the strong identification of persons with institutions. Thus, the uniform becomes a badge of not only school identity, but personal identity as well. Schools may be known for their uniforms: an elite school may have an expensive, designer-produced uniform. Those who attend such schools—and therefore own the uniform—may wear their uniforms as a matter of pride. Furthermore, students (especially girls) may select a school based on the stylishness or “brand name” of the uniform (McVeigh 2000b:93). 8. The magazine is currently available online at www.tkj.jp/cutie (accessed September 29, 2012). 9. The editor-in-chief of the magazine from 1989 to 1994, Sekikawa Makoto, insists that Cutie speaks to rebellion against the status quo in Japan. To the

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question of the childishness of the Japanese fashion depicted, he writes: “I would get endless questions from the [American] press asking whether young Japanese women really liked these childish things. I used to answer, ‘The message is in the fact that they dare to wear these childish things.’ To be kawaii was to be daring and challenge the norm, a desire that runs rampant among Japanese youth” (2007:74). One can only assume that the rape-as-chic photo spread is interpreted from this viewpoint as another opportunity to assert the magazine’s position in representing Japanese young women as “daring and challeng[ing] the norm.” Victims of sexual abuse may not agree. 10. According to a 1999 survey of otoshidama, the average amount received yearly by each child was 40,000 yen (approximately $400). 11. Other forms of girl-culture expression can be found in shōjo manga (girl comics). Although manga of all genres tended to be produced by men, in the late 1960s and 1970s a group of female manga artists emerged, dubbing themselves “The Magnificent 24” after their shared year of birth (Shouwa 24 by the Japanese calendrical system; 1949 by Euro-American reckoning). These women transformed the genre of shōjo manga to reflect what they felt to be female sensibilities and aesthetics. Since their rise, shōjo manga may be considered largely by and for females and has spawned further subcultural shōjo expression, such as dōjinshi (fan-produced magazines) and specifically ya-o-i (fan-produced comics featuring same-sex boy love). 12. Much of the Japanese and foreign media at the time interpreted enjo kōsai as teenage prostitution. On the one hand, this implication sensationalized the phenomenon beyond the physical reality for a great number of cases (Miller 2004a). On the other hand, as Allison discusses regarding hostess clubs in Japan, socializing and playful banter between men and women-for-hire can be part of compensated, sexualized interaction in particular settings in contemporary Japan (1994). 13. Many Japanese and non-Japanese scholars have attempted to define kawaii, from listing its physical characteristics to enumerating its emotional qualities (e.g., Kinsella 1995:220; Masubuchi 1994; McVeigh 2000b:137–41). McVeigh lists the following types of cuteness: (1) baby cuteness, (2) very young cuteness, (3) young cuteness, (4) maternal cuteness, (5) teen cuteness, (6) adult cuteness, (7) sexy cuteness, (8) pornography cuteness, (9) child pornography cuteness, (10) authority cuteness, and (11) corporate cuteness (2000b:135). The women I interviewed, quoted at the beginning of the chapter, have their own checklist for the concept. Perhaps what is most telling is the response given by a thirty-five-year-old Japanese woman: “In many occasions, young people [in Japan] can’t think of any other suitable word other than ‘kawaii,’ and that’s why kawaii meaning keeps expanding even more” (I. O., personal communication, February 7, 2002). 14. Merish notes that the word cute emerged in late nineteenth-century

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America as colloquial slang linked to the sentimentalism of the period (1996:187). 15. Dolls provide a central image of female aidoru, many of whom are worshipped by fans exactly as living, breathing, dancing, singing, posing dolls. 16. Marilyn Ivy brings up the point of the viewer who might consider Nara’s works kawaii: although the artist depicts children and childhood, his vision is an adult’s, with at least some children rejecting it (2010:13). 17. This body position is notably unfeline. Instead, it more closely resembles the sitting of human toddlers, legs stretched out in front of them. If Hello Kitty was first marketed to children of elementary-school age, the design already referenced a younger, infantilized state than theirs. 18. Because of the similarity of services offered, banks compete on the basis of kyarakutā mascots. Customers often select their bank by the appeal of the bank’s kyarakutā, especially because these decorate bank books and other paraphernalia. The exact kyarakutā and their bank affiliations change over time, each change considered newsworthy and accompanied by public announcements.

This practice now extends to the United States and elsewhere, although in more delimited form. Bank of America offers a Hello Kitty–decorated visa debit and credit cards. However, whereas in Japan the bank becomes identified with the kyarakutā, in the United States, this is only one consumer option. This contrast demonstrates the more widespread, generalized acceptance of kyarakutā in Japan for all ages.

In Hong Kong, the Dah Sing Bank offers a special “Hello Kitty Consolidated Account” that integrates various banking services. Upon opening the Hello Kitty Consolidated Account, the customer receives a Hello Kitty statement, atm card, and checkbook. In 2007, jcb began partnering with China Merchants Bank (cmb), to offer Hello Kitty–decorated credit cards in China. 19. As an example of the ways in which kyarakutā are used, Kiccoro and Morizo preceded the opening of the high-tech Aichi Expo by several months, generating excitement for the event through their media placement and sales. Thus, the public came to anticipate and even purchase material goods of the event through these kyarakutā mascots. The physicalization and characterization of the mascots closely reinforced the environmental theme of the Expo, which was “Nature’s Wisdom” in conjunction with technology. The critical point of the mascots—as with kyarakutā—is that they have personalities, and are thus more than two-dimensional drawings. They are, undoubtedly, “characters.” From the Expo website: “Kiccoro (Forest Child) The Forest Child has only just been born. Jumping around everywhere, he’s (she’s) full of energy! The Forest Child wants to see and do everything! He’s (she’s) looking forward to making lots of friends at the Expo. Morizo (Forest Grand Father) The Forest Grand Father has been living in the forest since long ago. He’s an easy-going and kind old man, he has seen many things and knows everything, but he hasn’t lost

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his curiosity. Hearing about the Expo, he’s enthusiastic about lending a hand” (www.expo2005.or.jp/en/whatexpo/mascot.html; accessed September 29, 2012).

The two inseparable figures—child (ungendered) and grandfather—represent intergenerational ties that hold not only the link to past wisdom but also a connection to future technologically enhanced stewardship of the earth. 20. Jan Bardsley and her coeditor, Laura Miller, underscore the point with a wonderfully appropriate Hello Kitty illustration gracing the cover of their book Manners and Mischief: Gender, Power, and Etiquette in Japan (2011). 21. My focus here and elsewhere on cell phone straps is not accidental. In Japan, these straps are the most common form of cell phone accessory. The straps personalize an object that, for many, is a constant and indispensable companion (cf. Ito, Okabe, and Matsuda 2005). Because of their size and cost, they functioned as the prototypical small, casual Hello Kitty purchase in the 2000s. 22. These hologram glasses are the products of Holospex, and are sold separately, with prices ranging from 280 to 500 yen (around $3.25 to $6.00), as well as included in packets of fireworks during the summer. The Hello Kitty lens sells for 350 yen ($4.16). Hello Kitty is not the only pictorial offering for these glasses; as of 2010, Doraemon (Cat Robot), smiley face, hearts, flowers, stars, lettered inscriptions (e.g., Happy Birthday, daisuki! [I love you/it!], and several others were also available (www.hanabi.ne.jp/3d.html; accessed December 2, 2010). For a photographed example of the result, see www.space-graphics.co.jp /holospex/common-img/KittyPhoto-P.gif. 23. An inversion of the Hello Kitty glasses are Hello Kitty contact lenses, which turns the wearer’s pupils into small images of Hello Kitty’s head. Whereas the glasses turn the outside world into a plethora of Kitty images, the contact lenses embed Kitty images onto each of the wearer’s eyes. 24. See chapter 2 for brief mention of the human-object exchange between the Sanrio founder Tsuji Shintarō and the Sanrio kyarakutā Strawberry King. 25. Note that not all politicians in Japan have been “kyarakutā-ed.” Rather, only those already popular add to their public visibility (and ultimately, the profitability of their image) through kyarakutā. 26. This relationship of animal to animal costume is one followed through in Sanrio’s Hello Kitty animal line. In this, Hello Kitty “becomes” various animals by donning their full body-suited costumes. 27. One might consider the theoretical possibility that if Shishiro were to take on a life of its own in popularity, then in due time the roles of honnin and dainin might be reversed, raising the provocative question, Who is whose surrogate? This question, however, is somewhat spurious because of numbers: there should be only one honnin to potentially many dainin. Since there is only one Koizumi and any number of Shishiro, Koizumi is exempt from becoming Shishiro’s stand-in. 28. Schattschneider points to Claude Lévi-Strauss’s argument from his 1966

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publication The Savage Mind, in which he suggests that miniaturized artworks hold considerable aesthetic power by virtue of their radical suppression of size, scale, or weight, thereby allowing the viewer to grasp the whole in its shrunken entirety (2003:204). 29. These characterizations of “wet” and “dry” are common contrastive pairs in Japanese discourse, stereotypically pitting emotionality against rationality, warmth against coldness, softness against hardness. The ideal is “wet” interaction between people who interdepend (cf. amae). 30. This is not to assume that intimacy is necessarily devoid of contempt. As in many intimate relationships, contempt may form part of the ambivalence that makes for complex layers of interaction. However, I would contend that this is exactly the beauty of a relationship with a mute object or figure. Kyarakutā do not talk back (see the Ursula LeGuin quote at the beginning of chapter 3). 31. The calculation of gift amount depends on strength of relationship, gratitude, and hierarchy (Rupp 2003:34). The precision of the ledger is exemplified by the favored gift for most formal occasions: money. With money as the gift, then one may repay with the kind of exactitude that leaves no ambiguity. Furthermore, because prices for particular branded objects are fairly standardized in Japan, many people can estimate the cost of an object, and therefore the financial allocation of the gift. In Rupp’s fieldwork, she found people who said they could tell the relationship between two people from the gift exchanged (35). 32. Note, however, that iyashi includes objects and activities that rather than social are solitary. These include spa-linked products, such as candles for aromatherapy, essential oils for well-being, and herbal teas for relaxation. The kind of sociality that is acceptable as iyashi must be undemanding, relaxed, informal, and, thereby, low stress. For these reasons, some may see inanimate objects, and especially cute ones, as primary sites of developing an iyashi relationship. There is a genre of kyarakutā, usefully labeled iyashi-kyara (healing characters) whose cuteness is meant specifically to impart a sense of mental ease and relief from daily stresses. One example is the Rilakkuma (Relax Bear) character launched in 2003 by San-X. Much of the market for iyashi products focuses on females, as described above, and indeed females seem to be the primary target in iyashi discourse. Of course, the public recognizes that men, too, need stress relief; however, male options—such as bars, karaoke, and golf—are already well established as homosocial activities (see Allison 1994). 33. This does not exclude men from social activities, both homosocial and heterosexual. But it does suggest that females in Japan handle the materiality of exchange through well-worn practices of consumption, in part as a gendered practice. Whereas men may stereotypically exchange alcoholic drinks with each other, females exchange gifts. This gendered division of exchange characterizes norms and expectations of social life in contemporary Japan. 34. Some of these—such as $100 melons—have made headlines overseas

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(e.g., Tanikawa 2005). What is important for an overseas reader to comprehend is that these gifts are created to fulfill a social obligation. The care given its wrapping is as important as the contents (Hendry 1993; Masubuchi 1994:108–9). In the case of fruit, special categories of gift fruits shape the way and place they are planted, tended, harvested, and packaged, resulting in, for example, the infamous melons. 35. The slogan is expressed in English in both Japanese and English websites and other corporate literature of Sanrio. 36. I was told by a Japanese woman in her mid-thirties (b. 1974) that her friends would sometimes comment, “Kawaii nedan da ne” (Such a “cute” price!) in reference to a pleasing item that also had a “pleasingly” low price. 37. Including a small toy or prize as part of the purchase is not unique to Sanrio. In Japan, certain candies, such as Tomoe Ame and Botan Rice Candy, come with an “amusing toy” or, more recently, stickers. Marc Steinberg traces the use of omake as part of merchandising in Japan to the commercial culture of Osaka as developed in the 1920s, particularly in the candy industry, and furthered through a “convergent relationship between omake, product, and character image” (2012:50–51, 54). In the United States, Cracker Jack (candied popcorn) boxes include a small toy or trading card, a practice dubbed “A Prize in Every Box” that began in 1912. The Cracker Jack website includes the following: “Prize Inside. Whad’ya get? There are new surprises waiting for you—so open a bag and enjoy” (www.crackerjack.com/home.htm; no longer available). The difference between these and Sanrio, however, is that Sanrio’s prize comes attached to the outer wrapping of the gift, and therefore is generated as part of the purchase transaction, rather than boxed industrially elsewhere. I contend that there is, at least minimally, a greater sense of being gifted on the spot as part of a personalized transaction in Sanrio’s approach. Even if all of Sanrio’s prizes are the same, the sales clerk must attach each “small gift” personally as part of the wrapping process. The labor is immediate and visible. 38. Sanrio Surprises stores can be found throughout the United States and Latin America. 39. Whereas the English word souvenir may refer to both an item brought back for oneself as a reminder of the trip, as well as that purchased as a gift for someone else, the miyage refers only to that bought for someone else as a gift (Rupp 2003:70). 40. The first catalogue, published in 2005, lists 850 items; the second catalogue, published in 2008, lists 788 items. In 2008 Sanrio extended the gotōchi line beyond Japan to foreign destinations. This garnered media notice: news, for example, Vogue Nippon dubbed Sanrio’s new line as “Gotōchi in Paris” (2008:178). 41. See www.strapya-world.com/products (accessed December 4, 2010; no longer available).

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42. Travel thus becomes a common association with Hello Kitty. 43. Japan’s other goodwill tourism ambassadors include the Korean singer Younha, the Japanese actress Yoshino Kimura, and the Japanese pop/rock duo Puffy AmiYumi. In particular, the singers Puffy AmiYumi have acted as poster girls for the country’s “Cool Japan” tourism campaign. 44. Although true “neoteny” would suggest a proportionately large head, the effect of the oversized bow is to infantilize the face to ever smaller dimensions. 45. This lack of tethering of kyarakutā to narrative runs parallel to Hiroki Azuma’s thesis spelled out in his English-translated work Otaku; Japan’s Database Animals, in which he argues that, in postmodern Japan, consumers look far less to grand narratives and far more to characters in an affective mode of regard he dubs “chara-moe” (kyara-moe; neoerotic rapture, obsessively focused on characters) (2009:37). 46. Sanrio has made it company policy that each kyarakutā has a backstory that includes a birth date, personality, family, and friends, posted on the company website. Customers may or may not know this backstory, but by providing one, the company aligns their kyarakutā more closely with fairy-tale characters, rather than mere commercial items or logos. What is important is that the “fairy” (i.e., kyarakutā) have a “tale” in order to give it the legitimacy of a true (i.e., embedded within children’s literature) fairy-tale character. Nishizawa Masafumi considers this emphasis on endowing kyarakutā with a backstory to be unique to Sanrio (1990:184). 47. Note that anthropometry was used in the early twentieth century by anthropologists in the United States and Europe, contributing to carefully calibrated physical definitions of race (e.g., in Germany, distinguishing Jews from Aryans), as well as its refutation (e.g., in the United States, led by Franz Boas and his students). 48. In fact, many of her hobbies and her personality reflect that of Hello Kitty’s designer, Yamaguchi Yūko (2009). Yamaguchi is the third and current designer of the cat. 49. As Martin Davidson points out, in this day of intense marketing, a successful brand itself “has a personality that we relate to as though in dialogue with it” (1992:28).

Chapter Two. Marketing Global Kitty

1. I refer to Japanese references to spiritual practices as dō (way, path)—as in bushidō (way of the warrior). 2. For details of Tsuji’s life in English, including the development of Sanrio and the social communications business, see Ken Belson and Brian Bremner’s Hello Kitty: The Remarkable Story of Sanrio and the Billion Dollar Feline Phenomenon (2004).

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3. Strawberries in particular are considered “cute fruits” in contemporary Japan. 4. Yamaguchi studied design at Joshibi University of Art and Design. 5. Hello Kitty, like many cartoon characters, is subject to drawing lessons for the general public. For example, the following website provides step-by-step instructions, Dragoart, “How to Draw a Cute Hip Hello Kitty,” www.dragoart .com (accessed September 3, 2010). 6. YouTube, “An Interview with Hello Kitty Designer Yuko Yamaguchi,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP9_b2gcwuk (accessed September 2, 2010). 7. Particular fictional characters that come to mind, both of whom are popular in Japan, include Anne of Green Gables (Lucy Maud Montgomery, 1908) and Pippi Longstocking (Astrid Lindgren, 1945). 8. Yamaguchi is also responsible for fleshing out Hello Kitty fictive life in terms of other characters for sale. She introduced Kitty’s boyfriend, “Dear Daniel,” in 1999 and Kitty’s pet cat, “Charmmy Kitty,” in 2004. 9. See YouTube: “Lisa and Hello Kitty” (“Underdog” video), accessed June 17, 2009. 10. The postmodern take, of course, on Klein’s critique are the enterprises that pride themselves on “no branding.” In Japan (and in the 2000s, with outlets in Europe and beginning in the United States), one such highly successful chain of stores is Mujirushi Ryōuhin (nicknamed “Muji”) the purposely noname brand of high-quality goods of their own design and manufacture (www .muji.com; accessed December 8, 2010). No brand has become a brand technique. 11. Hensley’s use of “The Change” sounds almost biological, running parallel with medical discourse interpreting female hormonal shifts during the life cycle.

Chapter Three. Global Kitty Nearly Everywhere

1. The contractual arrangement between Sanrio and Nakajima USA is complex and changing. The license contract between the two companies began in 1988, but did not expand significantly until 2004, when Nakajima USA took over the running of Sanrio boutiques. As of 2010, Nakajima USA operates forty-nine independently run Sanrio stores and forty-seven Nakajima USA–owned Sanrio stores, and serves as Sanrio’s principle licensee. 2. The website includes a Sanrio Model Casting Call for professionals and amateurs, decorated with Hello Kitty holding a camera. The casting call held in Los Angeles asks for girls, aged four to fourteen, “all ethnicities and all looks,” to be featured in print and digital advertising. The winners of the casting call receive a professional photo shoot and a $200 gift certificate at a Southern California Sanrio store. 3. See www.giantrobot.com/about.html (accessed June 15, 2010). 4. Frank Shepard Fairey (b. 1970) is a skateboarder, dj, street artist, and

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graphic designer, whose character André the Giant appeared in a series of posters, stickers, spray-painted images, and T-shirts known as the obey series. He has more recently gained media attention with the lawsuit over his Barack Obama “Hope” poster, for which he adopted a copyrighted photo from Associated Press. 5. My thanks to Theodore Jun Yoo for this Kitty sighting (and several others).

Chapter Four. Kitty Backlash

1. A similar kind of powerful referentiality exists in the 2011 Japan Society exhibit Bye Bye Kitty!!! which I discuss further in chapter 6. 2. I have not yet found anti–Hello Kitty consumer groups in Asia (including Japan), as discussed briefly in chapter 1 (see also Yano 2004:132–33). This is not to say that everyone in Asia likes Hello Kitty, but rather that push-back sentiment may not have culturally sanctioned means for expression. Indeed, I have spoken with individuals in Japan who do not necessarily like Hello Kitty, but at least during the period of fieldwork, they did not think to express their feelings publicly. Instead, they voted with their pocketbooks, choosing not to buy Sanrio’s cat. The situation may be changing as Hello Kitty becomes more and more of a global figure that represents Japan (see chapter 7). 3. The following sites were listed in Yumi Umiumare’s original e-mail message: http://yumi.com.au/performanceCredits/C_DasShokuHora.html; http: //yumi.com.au/performanceCredits/C_DasShokuHoraPhotos.html; http://yumi .com.au/performanceCredits/C_DasShokuHoraClip.html; http://yumi.com.au /performanceCredits/C_BurlesqueHour.html. 4. The site www.asianwhite.org is no longer available, but see Big Bad Chinese Mama, www.bigbadchinesemama.com (accessed September 30, 2012), which has similar content. 5. This is a good example of different cultures emphasizing different facial parts for expressivity. Japanese look to eyes, whereas Euro-Americans look to mouths. However, see the chapter 1 discussion of doll-like eyes and the growing popularity of circle lenses from Asia in America. 6. See www.queeg.com/hellokitty (accessed November 18, 2002). 7. See www.queeg.com/hellokitty/faq2.html (accessed November 18, 2002). 8. This page was found at www.geocities.com/lindsy0287/evilkitty.html on May 1, 2003, but is no longer available. 9. This page was found at www.geocities.com/kill_kitty_here/main.html on May 1, 2003, but is no longer available. 10. This page was found at www.kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu/~kamikaze/sanrio on May 3, 2003, but is no longer available. 11. See Hello Kitty Hell, www.kittyhell.com/about (accessed July 4, 2010).

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12. Ibid. 13. See www.uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Hello_Kitty (accessed July 14, 2010). 14. “The Top Ten Ways to Kill Hello Kitty,” forty-two seconds, May 5, 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY39qmUg07Q&feature=related (no longer available). 15. “No More Hello Kitty,” nineteen seconds, August 24, 2007, www.youtube .com/watch?v=53bab12GBU4&NR=1, and “No More Hello Kitty 2,” twenty-six seconds, June 12, 2008, www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yGcf0r2-yA&NR=1; both videos are no longer available. 16. “Bye Bye Kitty,” fifty-one seconds, June 20, 2009; “Korosu Kat Mission,” twenty-nine seconds, June 22, 2009; “Korosu Mission 2: Draw,” thirty seconds; June 23, 2009; “Korosu Guerrilla,” thirty seconds, June 23, 2009. All of these videos were originally posted on YouTube but are no longer available. 17. “Bye Bye Hello Kitty,” four minutes and twenty-six seconds, October 2009, posted by Francyrobot on YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxzwts -6NPA (accessed October 2, 2012). 18. See Goodbye Kitty, www.goodbyekitty.net (accessed July 4, 2010). 19. “Fuck Hello Kitty” Facebook group, www.facebook.com/group.php?gid =4820708196 (accessed July 5, 2010; no longer available). 20. “commandofuckhellokitty,” www.youtube.com/watch (accessed July 7, 2010). 21. For a video of this event, see www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=44781 &op=1&o=global&view=global&subj=4820708196&id=100001124701625 &fbid=105230019524488#!/video/video.php?v=31273869511&oid=4820708196 (accessed July 16, 2010). 22. The Landover Baptist site can be reached at www.landoverbaptist.net /showthread.php?t=19851 (accessed July 5, 2010). 23. Ibid. 24. Ibid. 25. Ibid. 26. Juan Pablo Leonardo and Kathia Leonardo, “Hello Kitty or Hell of Kitty,” www.crossroad.to/articles2/2003/hello_kitty.htm (accessed October 2, 2012). 27. Ibid.

Chapter Five. Kitty Subversions

1. In a book of design history entitled Hello Kitty Memories, the first image of Hello Kitty winking can be found in 2003 (Sanrio 2009b:192). 2. Quotation from www.mookychick.co.uk/riotgrrl/ (accessed August 8, 2010; no longer available). Other icons of the week include Annie Oakley, American cowgirl sharpshooter; Bettie Paige, pinup model; Clara Bow, silent

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film star; Frida Kahlo, Mexican artist; the Fabulous Moolah, female wrestler; Queen Christina of Sweden; Missy Elliott, female rapper; Princess Leia, of Star Wars; Josephine Baker, 1920s African American Parisian entertainer; Björk, New Age Icelandic pop star; and Queen Cleopatra. 3. Hello Kitty is not the only “toy” icon that appropriates punk. The Alexander Doll Company, Inc., founded in 1923 by Beatrice Alexander Behrman in New York with its line of Madame Alexander collectible dolls, teamed up with Sanrio in 2008 to offer two matching Hello Kitty–Madame Alexander punk rock figures (an eight-inch doll with approximately two-inch plush). Part of the Americana collection, Furry Friends Collection Doll, and Hello Kitty Collection—and named Madame Alexander Punk Princess Hello Kitty Wendy (#48560)—the set is described as follows by the Alexander Doll Company: “Hello Kitty is a popular icon in American culture. This year’s styles are very contemporary, with a black dress with pink trim, black net stockings, and black boots. ‘Punk Princess Hello Kitty Wendy’ is a Caucasian Wendy doll with blonde hair in pigtails. It includes plush Hello Kitty in a matching outfit, and a star shaped purse” (www.amazon .com/Madame-Alexander-Princess-Americana-Collection/dp/B00171QAVY; accessed August 23, 2010).

The company’s second set of punk figures from 2008 is Punk Princess Hello Kitty Lilly (#44918), with the Lilly doll having what is called an “Asian face sculpt” (although to my eye, the doll still has white features) and black hair; she is dressed in matching green plaid with a smaller Hello Kitty plush. As of 2010, the Wendy set was available on eBay for $75.00, while the Lilly set was selling new for $74.95.

Other sets within the Madame Alexander Hello Kitty Collection include (in order of model number, and therefore as issued chronologically): My New Friend Hello Kitty (#42680; from 2006), with Hello Kitty and blond doll in matching pink kimono; My New Friend Hello Kitty—Asian (#42681; from 2006), with Hello Kitty and Asian-featured, brunette doll in pigtails, each in a blue kimono; Ice Cream Delight Kitty (#46170; from 2007), with Hello Kitty as an ice-cream cone and red-headed doll in pigtails; Madame Alexander Wendy Loves Hello Kitty (#47475; from 2007), with blond doll and Hello Kitty wearing matching spring outfits in pastel yellow, blue, and pink; Out and About with Hello Kitty (#50375; from 2009), with a blue-eyed, freckled, brown-haired doll carrying Hello Kitty in matching pink coats.

What is notable is that the Alexander Doll Company classifies Hello Kitty as a popular icon in American culture and yet subtly, though intermittently, connects Sanrio’s cat to Asia through pairings with “Asian face-sculpt” dolls, black hair, pigtails (to a certain extent, stereotypically referencing young girls in China), and costuming. It is the double inscription of Sanrio’s cat—both American and Japanese/Asian—that gives flexibility to the figure. 4. Admittedly, Sanrio’s punk line generated some controversy, especially

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with nonpunk Hello Kitty fans. But one nonpunk fan defends Sanrio’s punk design as opening fandom to a broader audience: “I’m not upset that Hello Kitty went punk or anything. As a matter of fact, I think it’s good to see a different side of her because now Hello Kitty is reachable to all audiences and not just for little girls or someone who likes extremely happy and cute stuff. If you think Hello Kitty isn’t for you because you think she is just too cute or babyish, well, now you can see that she is not all about being cute and appealing to kids under age 12. Hello Kitty proved to us that she can be anything we wanted her to be, and that includes being wild, adventurous and . . . punk. In my opinion though, no matter what, she is still a cute, adorable, nice feline that we have always loved, and that’s one thing that will never change. Hello Kitty is an international icon that was made to bring a smile to all of us fans” (www.hello -kitty-gifts.com/punk-hello-kitty.htm; accessed August 23, 2010 but no longer available). 5. To see this example, search on YouTube for “Seek & Destroy Solo with Fender Squier Hello Kitty” (accessed October 7, 2012). 6. See www.asiansandfriendshouston.com/site (accessed August 18, 2010). 7. It is not unusual for a person growing up in Hawai’i to eat with chopsticks, regardless of one’s ethnicity. 8. Here is how the former corporate spokesperson Doug Parkes explained it in a 2002 interview: “We actually changed the design when it came to light . . . that [our massage wand was being publicized on the Internet as a vibrator]. . . . [The old design] was a Hello Kitty figure and you could take the figure [sheath] off, which would just leave the [vibrating wand] instrument itself. [We changed it so that] you can’t take it off. So now actually Kitty’s on it the whole time, which would prevent any alternate use. But obviously it [news of a Hello Kitty vibrator] hit the Internet and there are still people talking about it even now” (personal communication, May 2002). Although the vibrator has been officially off the market for a few years now, its American-based Internet sales continues.

Sanrio also sells condoms in Japan, although these initially did not bear a Hello Kitty design (instead they showed Monkichi, the rascally monkey, or Badtz-Maru, the penguin with “attitude”). More recently, Sanrio offers Hello Kitty condoms, sold to look like lollipops (see www.kittyhell.com/2007/11/12 /hello-kitty-condoms). Here, too, the company defends its product by explaining that in Japan, women are the ones responsible for birth control, and condoms are still the leading form of it. Therefore, if Sanrio caters to all aspects of women’s lives, then it stands to reason that the company would include birth control among its products. Furthermore, according to Parkes, with the threat of hiv-aids and other sexually transmitted diseases, producing a cute condom is nothing less than Sanrio shouldering the mantle of social responsibility. The production and marketing of cute condoms by Sanrio become part of corporate policy of responsible citizenship.

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9. In August 2010, the price range for the pink “massage wand” from different sellers handled by Amazon.com varied, from $37.75 to $54.00, plus shipping. Amazon.com also lists the black “massage wand” but notes that it is only variably available (www.amazon.com/Hello-Kitty-Black-Vibrator/dp /B000XJJOTG). 10. My use of “slutty” can be taken as tongue-in-cheek parody, not unlike the deliberate performance of “sluttiness” by Riot Grrrls (Attwood 2007). Feona Attwood provides a neat chronology of uses and definitions of the term slut from a fourteenth-century pejorative meaning “dirty and untidy” to the late twentieth-century practice of Riot Grrrls writing slut on their bodies at public events (2007). 11. To see this video, search on YouTube for “aee: Tera Patrick—G4tv.com” (accessed August 26, 2010). 12. Mariko Passion, “Hello Kitty Has No Mouth and Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy,” Marikopassion.wordpress.com (accessed May 1, 2009).

Chapter Six. Playing with Kitty

1. A notable exhibit of Japanese art that takes kawaii visual culture as an oblique reference point in sophisticated ways was organized by the Japan Society (New York) and displayed there from March through June 2011. Clearly referencing Hello Kitty in its title, the exhibit Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art (and resultant catalogue) includes Japanese artists born between the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, whose approach may be considered a response to the pervasive culture of kawaii in contemporary Japan. The curator David Elliott takes Hello Kitty as a backdrop of “bland [childish] inscrutability” against which the young Japanese artists in the exhibit demonstrate “a more complicated, adult view of life, melding traditional viewpoints with perceptions of present and future in radical and sometimes unsettling combinations. . . . There is no room for Kitty’s blankness here” (2011:7). The only work of art in the exhibit/catalogue that actually includes an image of Hello Kitty is a photograph by the artist Nara Yoshitomo of a beautifully maintained Hello Kitty tombstone in gray granite. 2. The incorporation of art into Sanrio’s purview seems to be an increasingly regular part of the company’s strategy. An art exhibit based on Sanrio characters (of which Hello Kitty plays a major role) is also part of the fiftieth anniversary of Sanrio, celebrated in 2010–11. That exhibit opened in Los Angeles in November 2010 and Miami in December 2010. As of this writing, plans are being made for a coffee-table art book compiling these works (Marchi, personal communication, November 15, 2010). Because of the timing, I do not include analyses of these exhibits in this book. 3. Quotation from Kitty Ex (n.d.).

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4. The table in appendix 2 lists the artists in the order given in the Kitty Ex. Perfect Guide Book, indicating their occupation, country, and title of Hello Kitty piece. 5. This national designation is not definitive; although I read through the biographies of the artists, I have no way of knowing their citizenship. For example, several artists were born elsewhere, but now live and work in New York. In these cases, I listed them as American. 6. See www.circlemakers.org/hellokitty.html (accessed September 6, 2010). 7. The artists exhibiting work at Three Apples (in the same order that they are listed in the catalogue): 64 Colors, aiko, Akiko Masuda, Amanda Visell, Andrew Brandou, Angry Woebots, bigfoot, Bobby Chiu, Branded, Brandt Peters, Brian McCarty, Buff Monster, Caia Koopman, Camilla d’Errico, Carrie Jardine, chase, Colin Christian, Crowded Teeth, Dan Goodsell, deph, Devilrobots, dgph, Dr. Romanelli, Edwin Ushiro, Elizabeth Ito, Frank Kozik, FriendsWithYou, Gary Baseman, Huck Gee, hush, Jason Han, Jason Kronenwald, Jason Mecier, Jeremyville, Jermaine Rogers, Jim Mahfood, Johnny Yanok, Jupey Krusho, Kathie Olivas, Kei Acedera, Ken Tanaka, Luke Chueh, Mad Barbarians, Madoka Kinoshita, Mari Inukai, Mark Dean Veca, Martin Hsu, Marty M. Ito, mear one Melissa, Haslam, Melissa Contreras, Melly Trochez, Michael Banks, Michelle Valigura, Misha, Mori Chack, Natalia Fabia, Nate Frizzell, Norma Christmas, Peekaboo Monster, persue, Peter Chan, Plasticgod, Plex Lowery, Punchgut, Ron English, Mr. Shane Jessup, Simone Legno, slick, Tado, Tara McPherson, Tessar Lo, Thomas Han, Tim diet, Travis Louie, Yoko d’Holbachie, Yoskay Yamamoto, Yosuke Ueno, and Yumiko Kayukawa.

Unfortunately, the catalogue does not give any indication of their country of origin or biographical profile, although it does list website information for each of the artists. 8. Other notable pop icons that have generated art works have been Mickey Mouse and Barbie, although I am not sure of the respective producing corporations and the artworks. See The Art of Mickey Mouse (1993) and The Art of Barbie: Artists Celebrate the World’s Favorite Doll (1994), both edited by Craig Yoe. Barbie art has been the subject of exhibits; for example, see Plastic Princess: Barbie as Art curated by Leonie Bradbury at Montserrat College of Art Gallery in Beverly, Massachusetts in 2006 (www.web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit5/papers/bradbury _barbie.pdf, accessed September 8, 2010). Leika Akiyama, discussed later in this chapter, exhibited at this Barbie show, as well as engages in Hello Kitty art. 9. Sachs’s panel-by-panel instructions reads: “Let’s start with a circle. Then, add wings to make a bow. Clean it up with lack. Make an ear. Now, make the head. Draw eyes and a nose. Don’t forget wiskers [sic], too. Move the whole deal over and add a mushroom. Add yellow, limbs, and a tail” (Sanrio 2004:72–73). 10. Many observers see strong visual similarities between Sanrio’s Hello Kitty and Dick Bruna’s simple flat illustrations in primary colors, such as Miffy as noted previously.

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11. See www.tomsachs.org/exhibition/bronze-collection (accessed September 8, 2010). 12. See www.tomsachs.com/biography.html?__v:file=22 (accessed September 8, 2010). 13. Thomas Kinkade (b. 1958) is a commercial artist whose trademark phrase is “Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light.” Known as much for his mass marketing, as well as his accessible style (high realism, glowing highlights) and overtly sentimental subjects (stone cottages, bucolic rural landscapes, flower-filled gardens, Christian themes), he bills himself as “America’s Most Collected Living Artist” (www.thomaskinkade.com/magi/servlet/com.asucon.ebiz.biography .web.tk.BiographyServlet; accessed September 8, 2010). 14. From www.decordova.org/decordova/exhibit/2005/prettysweet05.htm (accessed September 8, 2010; no longer available). 15. See www.leslieholt.net/artist-statement (accessed June 18, 2009).

Chapter Seven. Japan’s Cute-Cool as Global Wink

1. Coverage of the event can be seen, for example, on the following: “Hello Kitty Rings the Closing Bell at the nyse,” www.youtube.com (accessed August 31, 2010). 2. See www.licensemag.com/licensemag/Character/Sanrios-Hello-Kitty -Rings-Closing-Bell-at-NYSE/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/682384?context CategoryId=9990 (accessed August 3, 2010). Also present at this ceremony was Maxine Clark—founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Build-ABear Workshop—a company Sanrio had just partnered with to develop new products. 3. Ibid. 4. Murakami’s ability to incite controversy pervades his world. In 2010 a group of French traditionalists, Coordination Défense de Versailles, protested a Murakami installation at Versailles claiming that his pop art and overt commercialism do not warrant the honor of an exhibition at the famed chateau (Ng 2010). At the time of the article’s writing, the group had approximately five thousand signatures. 5. Matsui Midori traces four stages in the artistic transformation of cute culture in Japan: (1) 1991–93: appropriation of cute images from popular culture by artists such as Murakami and Nishiyama Minako as a “critique of Japanese postmodern subculture”; (2) 1995 on: Nara Yoshitomo capturing the scowling naif, in parallel with young women during this same period using cameras to capture aspects of their everyday lives, which results in “the reclamation of adolescent innocence and amateurism”; (3) 1999: Murakami’s “aestheticization” of “Japanese Neo Pop” and “Superflat,” which results in “the formation of a uniquely Japanese artistic expression out of Tokyo’s postcolonial hybrid cul-

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ture”; and (4) 2000s: Takano Aya and Aoshima Chiho appropriating the erotic language of anime to create their own feminist utopic visions, which results in “the feminine reinvention of otaku genres through a gradual negotiation of male desire (Matsui 2005:211). 6. “Little Boy” also recalls General Douglas MacArthur’s infamous pronouncement presented to Congress in 1951 as supreme commander of the Allied Powers in Japan, assessing Japan’s stage of development as that of a boy of twelve, when compared with United States (and Germany) as mature adults of forty-five years. 7. Those divides have become increasingly blurred amid “Cool Japan” hype. Three years after Hello Kitty’s debut in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York (see the introduction), Murakami’s eerie, cute characters KaiKai (a childlike character dressed as a rabbit) and Kiki (an impish, three-eyed, fanged creature) made their own parade appearance in New York in 2010. Murakami’s characters’ inclusion in the iconic parade, however, differed from Hello Kitty’s in banking little on general public recognizability and more on the cultural cache of playful “high” art. In fact, the organizers of the Macy’s parade had sought Murakami’s participation since 2005 with a series of inflatables not linked to merchandise or cartoons, but to internationally recognized artists. Robin Hall, the executive producer of the New York parade, explained that the event “‘is a snapshot of American culture.’ While much of its roster is dedicated to readily identifiable figures like SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer [currently popular American cartoon figures], he said, ‘I do believe there’s room in this parade . . . for high art’” (Itzkoff 2010). In line with this belief, Murakami’s contributions were preceded in previous years by inflatables designed by Tom Otterness (Humpty Dumpty in 2005), Jeff Koons (silver rabbit in 2007), and Keith Haring (iconic figure holding up a heart in 2007). In an interview for the New York Times, Murakami described his parade balloon figures as “cute yet fearsome, . . . modern and yet connected to the past. They embody eccentric beauty” (ibid.). 8. This was preceded in 2002 by a policy speech in which Koizumi emphasized national development of intellectual property focusing on innovative and creative products, resulting in the establishment of the Strategic Council on Intellectual Property. Michal Daliot-Bul notes the sequence of events of 2002, including Douglas McGray’s influential article on Japan’s “gross national cool” (Daliot-Bul 2009:250–51). The concept of “Cool Japan” may be said to be the outcome of these events. 9. This dialogue was taken from www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23716592/ (accessed September 15, 2010). 10. In fact, some of those within the culture industries labeled “Cool Japan” criticize such governmental support. For example, the manga author Otsuka Eiji comments: “For those of us connected to comics and animation, the national

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promotion of booming ‘Japanimation’ as a kind of successful mutant strain in the poor Japanese economy has really not been all that meaningful. . . . As far as we are concerned, as a subculture we take pride not in dubious recognition at the national level by the government but in creating comics that delight and are supported by readers. Furthermore, we question the motives of a national polity trying to cozy up to a sub- or even counterculture” (Otsuka and Ohsawa 2005; quoted in Sugiura 2008:151). 11. Japan Times, search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20100815a1.html. 12. The entire event was taped. The transcription of Monji’s remarks was derived from that taping. 13. See Daliot-Bul for further discussion of the relationship between Cool Japan’s youth-oriented imaging and older aestheticized imagings, at least according to the Japanese policy makers (2009:252–54). 14. Monji refers to ukiyo-e, Japanese woodblock prints, primarily of the premodern period. Long considered mere everyday visual culture in Japan, they were not generally regarded as valuable works of art until Western collectors took notice and began purchasing them. Thus, some of the best-known collections of ukiyo-e exist outside Japan. This pattern, in which the Japanese place a high value upon aspects of their own culture primarily after Euro-American experts have done so, has been common since the Meiji era (1868–1912). 15. See www.animenewsservice.com/archives/sanrio.htm (accessed September 8, 2010). 16. Some stores are also called “Sanrio Surprises.” Locations include Honolulu and Aiea, in Hawai’i; Alhambra, Culver City, Gardena, Temple City, and Milpitas, in California; Austin and San Antonio; Chattanooga; and Fort Lauderdale.

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