Let's talk about the "kawaii"-culture

I guess everyone who are somehow more into japanese culture or have some basic knownledge of it have noticed this fact, that yes, cute things and often called "kawaii"-culture are and is a huge thing in Japan. It's overwhelming and kind of everywhere there. Cute styles, clothes, candy, bags, wallets, food, furniture, cards, toilet paper... almost everything you can come up with and that most likely exists.  And what's the most outstanding part, the cute culture isn't only for children but everyone including adults and older people!

Photo was found from here by google

Some years ago, around the time of my first year in high school all that cute stuff everywhere looked unrealistic to me and I was overwhelmed. That was the first impression I had and no wonder. To have options between casual and cute in almost everything was and still is something that's not in common here in Finland and western countries. It's just not a thing here! Most people don't even know what it means to like such thing as a cute or kawaii culture. Societies evolve differently. While something is weird in one country it's normal in another.

This photo was found from here

Kawaii isn't about perfection. Perfection won't sell and it makes people just bored. Assymmetricality, weird habits and unrealistic asphects make characters cute and adorable and that will put people more at ease. Kawaii isn't also about being sexy or glamorous (there are exceptions though for example: ero-kawaii (erotic cute)). Kawaii culture is developing into different directions all the time and spreading all over the world. It's a different kind of way to reach for things. Something differently refreshing maybe.

A lot of people enjoy cute things just because it can be refreshing in the middle of everyday life. Look at the Rilakkuma -character! It's a somewhat lazy bear that is a completely opposite to the description of busy. I remember I watched a program discussing Rilakkumas popularity in Japan and they pointed out this idea. I have given it a lot of thought and yeah, it makes sense. Japanese society is stict and in general people in Japan are often busy. School and work are places where people spend most of their time. They work long hours and school days are usually long. There are a lot of common rules to follow and many situations where you have to act politely. It's very important in Japan. So of course it's exhausting and you'll need something that makes it more bearable and encouraging instead of those grey and endless piles of paperwork.  

I believe you need to understand the old traditional culture to understand the excisting kawaii pop culture. Kawaii culture was developed particulary after World War 2 but many people often consider it's birth to the Taisho era (1912-1926). Japan took influences of Western culture by interacting with United Stated and it was part of adapting to the modern times. During these times word kawaii appeared in the dictionaries in it's original form Kawayushi. Hovewer kawaii culture has it's roots even deeper around Edo period (1603-1868) when the first traces of kawaii can be found. Takehisa Yumeji is said to be the forerunner of kawaii as he was the first to use the word kawaii to refer to his chiyogami work.

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It often bothers me when I hear people talking about this kawaii culture. It's common that a lot of people usually relate liking cute things to childish things and behavior at least where I have been living. That's really sad because what a person likes or his/her style isn't telling very much of him/her as a person. Of course that might be appropriate way of making the conclusion sometimes but not always. I wound like people to remember to be open and actually see for themselves what kind of person she/he might turn out to be. You can never know until you find out. And this is a very useful thing to remember always in every situation! Don't judge if you don't know for sure. Rumors and evil speakig of others will easily go on and on and what does it give to anyone? Nothing. It does nothing more than hurt people. As dear テイラー Taylor R said on Twitter recently: "Praise what you love, ignore what you don't like. Be kind, we're all human and just trying to do the best we can with the life we have". Reactions are about what we are used to and how openly we'll accept unfamiliar things. Changes will happen slowly.

Then there is this another big  thing surrounded with a lot of negativity. Many people seem to think that wearing sweet street fashion and liking cute japanese culture is _always_ related to being a weeaboo (=wannabe japanese) at least here in Finland and many western countries that I know. Watching anime and reading manga are connected to this as well. If you do all these together, gosh how many rumors there will often be about you. (Again, not everyone judges like that but too many people still do.)  Even if you do these things just sometimes or happen to like kawaii culture you are not a weeaboo. Instead you are just a fan of that thing. There is a word for being passionate about something/ being a fan of something in japanese -->"otaku". That's a way better word to use if you really want to say you're into something and show it's something about Japan. Here in western countries otaku is considered to be mainly japanese pop culture but in Japan you can be an otaku for almost anything. Weeaboo is such a strong word that's extensively misused! Let's dicuss the word weeaboo and what makes being a weeaboo insulting later in another post, hopefully. It's such a big topic itself.  

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I admit that I like this cute culture phenomenon a lot myself. I like lolita and various street fashion styles that might look weird to some people but because I like it, I wear it, without caring about what society thinks of it unless I have to care about the overall image of me causing at work etc.. By myself I got into liking "kawaii"-culture after I got interested in traditional culture; japanese way of thinking that was often so close to my own, that beautiful nature and the history! Of course that happened because seriously, look how widely it has spread extensively overseas as well. There was no way I could ignore it and evade from falling in love with it. For a while I liked those extremely sweet street styles a lot. Now I have calmed down and it's just a kind of normal thing to me. I got used to it. Too much was too much for me and I often enjoy more casual things too. I'm not against liking overly cute things at all and it's adorable in my opinion. I still wear lolita and like a whole lot of cute stuff but I found out that being overly cute all the time is not "my thing".

Sources:
http://www.japanpowered.com/japan-culture/what-is-kawaii
http://howibecametexan.com/2016/03/01/i-dont-want-to-be-cute-in-japan/
http://www.japanpowered.com/japan-culture/what-is-kawaii
NHK World TV
http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2013/07/23/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-kawaii/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawaii
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yumeji_Takehisa