Photographs from a friend travelling in Japan right now. Painted images on walls, roller shutter doors, laptops and facades. Cultural artifacts of popular imagination and kitsch commercialism.

I keep adding new photos and discovering new words. ‘Kawaiii‘ is apparently a word of creative design, cuteness and fun.

Culture is everywhere in these pictures. And as kawaii almost harmly penetrates and revitalises experience. From statues of dogs dressed with clothes - to keep them warm in winter, to anthropomorphic products of extreme and apolitical cuteness. From ordered and well-designed cemeteries to ordered and well-designed food displays, sign fonts, and corporate identities. From imitations of VW camper vans to commemorative artifacts; such as of the frieze of a dog, who walked to work with his master on his way to the train station everyday and continued to do so even when his owner died…

Cuteness, order, consumption. Where market meets kawaiii… and vise versa. Or, where a cup of noodles promises freedom.

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Photographs by Faye T © 2007 (Design & post-processing by Chr.S.)