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Fuzz and Fur: Japan's Costumed Characters

With Fuzz and Fur: Japan's Costumed Characters, Edward and John Harrison delve into another bizarre and cute niche of Japanese popular culture by interviewing and photographing the men and women that create a niche in the phenomenon of kigurumi, which roughly means “dressing up as a stuffed toy.” While adoration for mythical creatures and popular anime characters is nothing new in Japan, this pastime has created a new marketing tool for local government institutions: yuru-kyara. Roughly translated as “amateur characters,” yuru-kyara are costumes based on local attractions and points of interest that help define any given area. Through a strange amalgam of hometown pride and cost-saving measures, municipalities often tap their citizens to design the characters. The same citizen enthusiasts also convene yuru-kyara conventions of their own, and give life to another aspect ofJapan’s enigmatic, yet utterly captivating, visual culture.

  • Format
  • hardcover
  • Pages
  • 144
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9781935613121
  • Genres
  • japan
  • Release date
  • 2011