The dark side of Kawaii

I think I first became aware of the term 'kawaii' on Ebay.  A few years ago it was popping up everywhere on there, shortly after the word Harajuku and Emo were being bandied about by just about every seller.  So I looked it up and after a fairly superficial search I read that it meant 'cute girl'.

Just recently, after becoming very interested in and beginning to make amigurumi, I thought I would revisit the term and find out a little more about it.  What I found was slightly disturbing and made me realise the importance of researching a term and understanding more about it's cultural context before adopting it.

The use of the word 'kawaii' can be traced back to 1970s Japan.  It was first applied to the writing style of Japanese schoolgirls who used the calligraphy style name burikko-ji (writing that looks as if it was written by a child).  However, during the 80s the concept of Kawaii began to be exploited by large companies (perhaps the largest of these being Sanrio-x) and the marketing of Kawaii was born.

"The culture of cuteness emerged during the 1970s. The 'girl' became the central target of a new consumer culture, and variety of 'character goods' and other items were produced. A girl's private room became her sanctuary, separating her from the rest of the world, encouraging her identification with cute objects, and impelling her to project the self-image of the 'cute, innocent I.' In that process, the word kawaii, meaning 'cute', began to incorporate its classical meaning, kawaiso (pitiful). Otsuka argues that a girl's perception of herself as 'cute' and the 'innocent (pitiful) I,' who survives only in the security of a closed room, encourages a closed mode of communication in which its participants share a homogenous emotional time-space, excluding others from their haven."  Midori Matsui

The above quote made me feel very uncomfortable.  I already knew that there was an ideal in Japanese culture for the young, innocent girl (especially schoolgirl uniforms and Lolita style clothes).

But to encourage young women to become almost 'entombed' in their bedroom, surrounded by cuteness and staying in this childlike, vulnerable state seems verging on abusive.  Perhaps it is a bastardization of the Geisha tradition of acting childlike and coquettish. 

However, after further reading, it seems that it was maybe Japanese women who were the driving force behind the culture of kawaii:

There is a phenomenon in the country of the little girl being seen as a sex object, as can be observed by the sale of schoolgirls’ panties in vending machines as well as pornographic magazines illustrating junior high school girls (Roach). Given this observation, it is possible to assume that the “childishness” of kawaii girls was not entirely innocent and it has been noted that many of these young women used this to their advantage, dating multiple boys who took them out to dinner and bought them fancy gifts.

The young women taking part in kawaii culture effectively evolved it into a form of power and independence for Japanese females. Many of them were unmarried and used it as a means to express their freedom from married life, which could be very oppressive and boring for Japanese women.   (Jeremy Read, Kawaii:Culture of Cuteness)

I'm still having trouble separating the empowerment of women from the idea of the sexualisation of children.  Some Manga cartoons have been banned in European countries because of this type of imagery.  It just goes to show that understanding different cultures and the subtexts within them is a very difficult thing.


I have been interested in Asian culture for a long time now and after doing this little bit of research I think I may have to get on to Amazon to buy some books!  Does anyone else have any thoughts on kawaii and how comfortable are you with it?


In the meantime, here's some more kawaii images to finish with: