Book Review: Kawaii! Japan's Culture of Cute

Recently I've been accumulating books about Japanese pop culture, particularly ones that reference the Lolita fashion in one way or another. There aren't a ton to choose from, but there have been a few releases that seemed worth checking out! 

The first one I'd like to review is Manami Okazaki and Geoff Johnson's Kawaii! Japan's Culture of Cute from 2013. Of the few I've recently picked up this one is probably my favorite of the bunch! I had actually almost skipped over this one completely because the cover made it look like a much more shallow book than it actually was. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was insightful as well as authentic, showcasing some things beyond just Hello Kitty bento boxes. Kawaii! contains a number of interviews with a variety of different creators about their own take on the kawaii lifestyle. The book is divided into six different aspects of this kawaii lifestyle!

The first section of Kawaii!, "The Roots of Kawaii" is probably the most wordy, even though it's composed of almost entirely interviews, just as the rest of the book is. There's really just a lot to be said about the early days of kawaii in the 60s and 70s! I love the kawaii characters of the 70's and it was really cool to get to see some pictures of the "fancy goods" of the era, in addition to the totally iconic shojo art of the era!

Interviews in this section include the curator of the Yayoi-Yumeji Museum, Eico Hanamura, a couple different researchers with the Kyoto International Manga Museum, Macoto Takahashi, and Yumiko Igarashi. 

The second section was entitled "Cute Design Overload" and focused on kind of "iconic" Japanese kawaii, from cute merchandise characters like Hello Kitty and Gloomy Bear, to cute shops like Swimmer, to cute public works, to even Itasha which is an otaku fad of tricking their cars out with anime character decals.

This section was one of the largest in the books and very photo oriented, but still had a fair number of interviews with the Gloomy Bear creator Mori Chack, Swimmer designer Hiroko Sakizume, and Nameneko creator Satoru Tsuda.

The third section in the book, "Adorable Eats", was very brief and all about cute foods! This section was mostly devoted to pictures, but it did have an interview with Miki Ikezawa, a rep for MaiDreamin.

The fourth section was called "How to Dress Kawaii" and was tied with the chapter on kawaii designs for largest in the book! There were tons of interviews and street snaps in this section, pretty much all of which I found very interesting (which is fantastic, because it was the reason I bought the book in the first place!). While most of this section is devoted to street fashion and designers, there is, of course, a few pages devoted to cosplay and Comiket. Books like this almost always inevitably will talk about cosplay, and I'm thankful that this book kept it very short and kept the focus on fashion designers and lifestyle wear rather than costume and otaku culture.

Interviews in this section included Shoichi Aoki of FRUiTS, Kumamiki of Party Baby, Takuya Sawada of Takuya Angel, Yuka and Vani of 6%DOKIDOKI, Toyoko Yokoyama from Conomi, Lolita models Rin Rin and Chikage, and Gashicon of h.NAOTO's Hangry & Angry line.

The fifth section was "Cute Crafts" which is pretty self explanatory! It featured a number of different Japanese crafters, of both modern cute things as well as traditional Japanese cute things like kokeshi. This section was brief but packed full of pictures and interviews with various crafters.

The final section is called "Kawaii Visual Art" and is a bit different from the design section because it featured artists who create art for themselves rather than as part of a larger merchandising business. This section was also brief but packed full of pictures and interviews. A lot of the art in this chapter was trendier and edgier than the design section and was a refreshing end to a book about all things kawaii.

Interviews featured in this chapter include Chikuwaemil, Junko Mizuno, Osamu Watanabe, and a handful of others.

Overall, while the actual Lolita related content in this book is minimal, I really enjoyed this book. I particularly loved the different takes on the kawaii culture, and even the different creators very definitions of the word!

I actually recently put together a list on Amazon of all the English language books about Japanese street fashion that I could find! I have a handful of them but I'm hoping to work my way through the list and eventually get them all. Especially while I'm anticipating the possible English translation of Shades of Wonderland!

Lolitas vs. The Living Dolls

Anyone in the Lolita fashion right now can tell you that one of the biggest hot topics at the moment is the media's recent portrayals of Lolitas as "Living Dolls" and lumping them in with a variety of different people who choose to use Barbie as their fashion icons. It's not unusual to associate Lolitas with dolls, we've been doing it ourselves for years, but this recent trend of lumping them with Barbie dolls is a new and unusual stereotype. For some reason it's easier for people to understand the fashion in terms of Barbie dolls. To an extent it's understandable: many Lolitas are known for wearing pink and having elaborately large hair, just like Barbie! But when compared to the other self proclaimed "Human Barbies" Lolitas seem really out of place, at least to those of us who are very familiar with the fashion. Personally I find it really strange that Lolitas are being featured in the same shows as people who go through extensive plastic surgery and extreme breast implants. I really have no problem with people who generally want to look unreal and plan on having very real medical procedures to do so, I just fail to see what these people have to do with the Lolita fashion, because the two are almost always mentioned together.

I've heard a lot of mixed reactions to the term "Living Doll" being used to describe Lolitas. It's mostly groans and head-desking, but a number of people like the term because they like looking like dolls (not necessarily Barbie dolls though) and feel like they shouldn't have to change because of some reality shows. Alternatively I've heard some people say why shouldn't we use the term "Living Doll" to describe Lolita and show people how Lolita is really done and provide some much needed normalcy, compared to the often over dramatic, suspiciously edited, pseudo-Lolita shown in these shows.

A number of Lolitas have expressed concern about people simply getting the wrong idea about what Lolita is based on these shows, and it's a very real concern, as the people featured on these programs, if relatively normal outside of the show, are edited in ways that are intended to make your average viewer think "what a weirdo!". In these "Living Doll" shows and articles Lolitas are often painted as juvenile fame obsessed losers who have little interests beyond wigs, fake eyelashes, and the color pink, and it's this idea that most people are fighting against, not necessarily Lolita's association with dolls.



How do I personally feel about this term being applied to Lolitas? Honestly, as someone who has been a Lolita for a very long time, I find it very difficult to muster up the effort to really care what outsiders to the fashion think about it. I've been around long enough for strangers to have thought we were all self-harming emos, Harajuku obsessed Gwen Stefani fans, or Lady Gaga clones, and then promptly forget they ever thought these things about us in the first place. This new "Living Doll" stereotype is just another on a long list of annoyances. In general I feel kind of apathetic about being called a "Living Doll" by outsiders, it's annoying because it's not true, but there's pretty much a guarantee that if someone thought I was some sort of Human Barbie Doll just because I wear Lolita and they saw a reality show that featured the fashion, they probably would have thought something equally silly if they hadn't seen the show.

What do you think about using the term "Living Doll" for Lolitas? Do you find it to be a less controversial term than "Lolita" and an easy way to explain the fashion to outsiders? Or do you try to distance yourself as much as possible from the hightly-edited antics of "weirdo watching" reality TV?