11/9/14 Pitt Artist's Pen, colored pencils, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook |
In August 2001, Greg and I visited Japan with part of my extended
family on a tour of Yamaguchi prefecture
on the western end of Honshu. The tour included attendance at a major expo
highlighting the prefecture’s culture, commerce and industry. Called Kirara (a play on the word for sparkling
or glittering), the expo culminated with a spectacular electronic and fireworks display (I’m amazed that I was able to
find a link to the show 13 years later!).
Although the Kirara expo doesn’t really stand out in my
memory, the trip itself is special to us for a couple of reasons: For one, it was not
only our first (of several so far) trip to Japan; it was also our first trip
with a passport. (It may now seem like we travel frequently, but that has only
been true the past few years.) Secondly, we returned home from that trip only
days before 9/11, so it was the last time we flew without going through the TSA
security procedures that we all now know and love so well. After that, the
world was forever changed, so I still associate a sense of innocence with that first
trip to Japan.
Here we are at the expo with a 3-D version of the logo characters. |
The logo for the Kirara expo included a musical band of five
animal mascots who appeared in many forms all over the expo grounds. The
Japanese are famous for their love of all things cute – Japan is the birthplace of
Hello Kitty, after all. Since grown Japanese men have no problem wearing
clothing or carrying backpacks with cute icons on them, the official expo
T-shirt was emblazoned with this logo – and this logo only. There was no
conservative (non-cute) alternative.
Of course my family ended our expo visit in the gift shop,
where I spotted the T-shirts. I decided it would be a terrific idea if everyone
in my family got the shirts and wore them on the flight home, expressing some
kind of family team spirit. Everyone managed to dredge up enough spirit to buy
the shirts, but I didn’t see many wearing them (I’m guessing my brother wouldn’t
have been caught dead in a “cute” shirt even in the privacy of his own home).
Greg and me in our Kirara shirts at Kansai airport. I think my nephew Jason was the only other family member who wore his on the flight, but I couldn't find a photo of him wearing it. |
I, on the other hand, not only wore my Kirara T-shirt on the
flight home; I continued to wear it to Jazzercise, to wash the car, to clean
the bathroom or to do any other activity that required my least formal attire. I
tell you all of this seemingly irrelevant information because today, 13 years
later, I’ve decided to retire that shirt. (A hole finally appeared in the armpit
after its last washing.) Despite what you may be thinking, I’m not one of those
people who keeps on wearing clothes until they are rags, but I guess I was
sentimental about that shirt. (And although the logo is a bit faded, that T-shirt
has held up better than most!)
Normally if I’m feeling sentimental about an object that
needs to be tossed, I get Greg to take a photo of me with the object, and then
I can let it go. This time I decided to memorialize the logo by sketching it. I
tried to reproduce the details and colors as faithfully as possible. Despite
the many years that I wore the shirt, I had never studied the logo as carefully
as I did today. It incorporates an amazing number of colors – I had to use 12
colored pencils!
OK, now I can toss it. (But it’s not the last time I’ll see
the logo; it also appears on a dishtowel that I still use!)
Great idea to sketch the logo as a remembrance instead of keeping the shirt. I don't know if I could do that. I have kept several articles of clothing that I've purchased on trips (and I don't even wear them), several of which are 40 years old like my "Running of the Bulls" t-shirt and my caftan from my first trip to Turkey in 1973. lol
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