Bow down to your god Hello Kitty and our Sanrio Overlords

"Cute" Food and food related products// yuru-kyara


Takoyaki stands

Gudetama

small egg character, usually characterized as lazy. His name is kind of a pun, a play on tamago and gude gude, usually a describer of someone with no energy. Part of Sanrio (same company as Hello Kitty) He is though to embody ~~~~depression~~~~, but still employs aspects of the cute culture Japan is known for. He appears on all sort of merchandise, from slippers to towels to cookware. Many of these cute "mascots" (yuru-kyara)  are used to convey negative emotions, whereas in the West mascots and flagship characters are usually associated with positive emotions and cheering people up. These "negative" mascots are usually made to be cute in order to help alleviate some of the taboos, such as a cute character in a pharmacy for something people would not want to discuss (the article talks about cute poop icons.) The article also relates Shintoism and the existence of it's 8 million + gods as a reason why mascots are easily accepted in Japan, the author doesn't really explain this point any further, but  more research into this could be interesting. 

Sanrio Food Character Election

voting for Sanrio characters to become main characters. Winners of 2013 were Gudetama and KIRIMI-chan

Mascots (yuru-kyara) and Shintoism// Polytheistic religion

Gods-> idolized and worshiped

Yuru-kyara -> idolized, less worshiped (in some circles probably still worshiped)

Earthquake in Kumamoto in 2016, usage of Kumamon helped generate lots of funds to help the damaged area & contribute to a sense of happiness to people who partook in fundraising events involving the mascot. 

Kumamon has also generated ¥123.2 billion in revenue in Japan throughout 2012-13. These yuru kyara are not worshiped as a deity per se, but people subscribe to the "religion" of this culture the same way. 

Things to continue to research

-Relating anthropomorphism in Japanese culture and advertising today with anthropomorphism in Japanese culture and religious themes

            -historical significance

            -cute religious mascots (kamakura daibutsu merch from surrounding markets) (**** typing kawaii daibutsu into google search probably means im going to hell)

-gurokawaii//kimokawaii- weird food mascots 

Kobitodukan(こびとづかん)

-why this relates to food

Articles:

https://www.tofugu.com/japan/kimokawaii/

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pagantama/2017/03/14/gods-mascots/

https://nippaku.wordpress.com/2015/11/12/antropomorphism-in-japanese-culture/

https://www.japantoday.com/smartphone/view/arts-culture/why-does-japan-love-fictional-characters-so-much

http://www.fluentu.com/japanese/blog/japanese-culture-mascots/

https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-07-31/one-japan-s-most-popular-mascots-egg-crippling-depression

https://blog.gaijinpot.com/kawaii-culture/

http://sanrio.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Food_Character_Election