Kawaii

About

Kawaii, the Japanese word for cute, names an aesthetic of round shapes, big eyes, soft colours and cheerful vulnerability. Its roots run deep: around the year 1000 the court writer Sei Shōnagon listed endearing sights, such as a sparrow chick hopping towards someone who squeaks at it. In the 1910s and 1920s Takehisa Yumeji's wistful, large-eyed women shaped the look of girls' magazines, and in the 1970s rounded handwriting and character stationery made cuteness a youth culture.

Contemporary artists treat kawaii as both style and subject. Takashi Murakami's grinning flowers and his character Mr. DOB turn it into a signature, and Chiho Aoshima fills digital landscapes with doe-eyed girls and ghosts. Yoshitomo Nara's children look sweet until their scowls and knives come into view, and Hikari Shimoda paints wide-eyed children in superhero costumes amid disaster. The style has spread far beyond Japan, as in Buff Monster's melting ice-cream characters.