He appeared for the first time here, under the Tsutenkaku tower but its previous version, in the beginning of the 20th century (somewhere between 1908 and 1912) in the form of a wooden statute like the right in the picture. His name is "Billiken" (ビリケン), was designed by an American woman from Kansas City and he is "The God of Things as They Ought to Be" (The slogan is always in English). He appears always in this pose (the one on the left is a variation) and often in a role similar to that of the manekineko cat, to bring customers in a shop; since this is Osaka, the shop is often a restaurant. And he is Osaka's unofficially official mascot for 100 years although no one is completely certain how he crossed the Pacific, bypassed Tokyo and Yokohama and got there.
(For a bigger version of this picture both in color and black and white, check my "Japan Arekore" set on Flickr).
0 comments:
Post a Comment