When is a Jamaican not Jamaican? When he’s Jamaipanese. Actually, the young man in question is Kirk Brown. He’s a blogger with a difference.
The only Jamaipanese man I know was waiting for us outside the uptown Kingston office where he works. We picked him up and made our way downtown, to the National Gallery. My husband hung out in the café (their coffee is one of the best cups in Kingston) while Kirk gave me an informative guided tour of an exhibit called “Japan: Kingdom of Characters.” The exhibit, sponsored by the Japan Foundation through the Japanese Embassy in Kingston, will be closing soon (with a cosplay party from 5:00 to 11:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 14 at the National Gallery of Jamaica).
You see, Kirk is truly an expert. All will be revealed if you visit his blog (which you should): http://www.jamaipanese.com. Kirk is officially Jamaica’s longest-serving blogger, having started in February 2006; as such, he won a Blogger of the Year Award. When Kirk started blogging, “I was writing for myself for the first year or two,” he said. He did acquire a following in Eastern Europe. But the blog had a purpose. Kirk had developed a fascination with Japan and all things Japanese. In January 2010 he started saving, working his way towards a visit to Japan (quite a costly undertaking) using his blog as a platform. He earned money from his blog – “At times my earnings rivaled my day job” – through advertising. He obtained private sector funding – especially from Japanese companies, who provided him with a rail pass, Internet service and other practical support. He learnt Japanese. And he got to Japan, through sheer determination, in September 2011. Naturally, he blogged daily during his travels.
Nara and Kyoto were two of the places he loved the best. I would concur. My memories of those two cities are almost dream-like now…Tall trees, peaceful shrines, stone gardens, Nara’s deer park.
The Japan visit was a natural progression from his lifelong love of cartoons (animé), video games and technology. He wanted to learn more about the country that had created this extraordinary fantasy world. So he started reading up on Japanese culture and history. One of the first things that struck him about Japan, he said, was its resilience. “How could this country that was bombed to bits in World War II make such an amazing recovery?” wondered Kirk. “Look at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo,” he observed with obvious admiration. “It was one of the most well-run Olympic games ever. And it said to the world, ‘We are here. We have come out of the ruins.'”
One of the symbols of this period of renewal, Kirk told me, was Astro Boy (or Tetsuwan Atom – Mighty Atom). The animé emerged in 1963 (so he was there for the Olympics) and was an instant hit. A robot with the body of a child, Astro Boy started life as a manga character (a manga is a hand-drawn cartoon or comic). “Most animé start out as manga,” Kirk told me. I asked him if the Japanese comics were influenced by the likes of DC and Marvel Comics in the United States in the early days. “Japanese manga developed alongside American comics in the 1950s and 1960s,” he told me. The heroic characters emerged from the war years, as expressions of hope and renewal – but in very different cultural forms.
After Astro Boy, we moved on to meet Ultraman. He hails from a distant planet and “he gets bigger,” as Kirk put it, when his enemies turn up (the enemies being mostly ghosts and monsters). Ultraman is pretty straightforward stuff: “He’s about good vs evil,” said Kirk. The television series – one of the first broadcast in color in Japan – was enormously successful. Oh, by the way, have you heard of Godzilla? He has been resurrected in film again recently. Well, Ultraman fought him, too. Remember, he can expand in size. No big deal.
We moved along to the seventies, a vibrant period for Japanese “characters.” Now, at this point I should actually explain that I myself lived in Japan for nearly three years in the seventies, and vividly remember the monster shows on my small television, sitting on the tatami matted floor of my tiny apartment. I found these shows hilarious and somewhat addictive, interspersed rather incongruously with regular episodes of “Sesame Street” dubbed into Japanese.
So, I remember well when Hello Kitty hit the Tokyo department stores; it was 1974. She caught on fast and she is absolutely huge to this day. “Many Japanese grew up with Hello Kitty,” Kirk reminded me. She is a round-faced white cat with a red bow on one ear, no mouth, and a completely expressionless face. She was (and still is) a brand, created by a marketing firm called Sanrio. Hello Kitty is a kawaii (cute) character, and she was “born” in…London! In 1970s Japan, Britain was very much in vogue, for some reason. Being British myself, I think I benefited from this when living there; I taught English to businessmen, housewives, factory workers and kindergarten children with a British accent. Anyway, you can find Hello Kitty at http://www.hellokitty.com.
Hello Kitty is rather unusual, because she is a huge merchandising phenomenon. At the exhibit there was a bedroom furnished with Hello Kitty paraphernalia: clocks, bedspreads, balloons, dolls, bags, pictures, calendars, cushions etc. The predominant color was – yes, you’ve guessed it, pink. On the website you will find clothing for women, teens, children and babies. You can buy a Hello Kitty case for your iPhone, and Hello Kitty luggage. And so on, and on. I’ve just discovered that people have Hello Kitty weddings!
OK, so Hello Kitty is a bit extreme. Let’s get back to the regular stuff. Mobile Suit Gundam, for example. When I asked Kirk what his favorite character was, he admitted a great fondness for Gundam. The animated television series premiered in 1979, and started a new trend. Gundam is futuristic, the stuff of science-fiction movies. It is more sophisticated than the good guy/bad guy scenarios of the fifties and sixties, and this appeals to Kirk. “There are deeply overlapping stories in Gundam,” he told me, “and adult, complex themes.” He hastened to point out to me that Gundam is “a peacemaker” among warring interplanetary colonies.
When I saw Gundam at the exhibit he reminded me of Transformers – and he was an influence. Gundam remains very popular, with many different versions, television series, video games and tons of merchandising too. Kirk prefers the “more classic Gundam,” but he does like one which emerged in the 1990s, Gundam Wing.
By the way, among the more modern stuff, Kirk also recommends the manga and graphic novels called “Fullmetal Alchemist,” first published in 2001. It’s the story of two brothers’ search for the philosopher’s stone. And then of course, in the 1990s, there was the well-known Pokémon, which made its appearance as a video game for Nintendo’s Game Boy console in 1996. Pokémon is a collection of cute animals with “special powers” – rather like cuddly X-Men.
Generally, though, Kirk has traditional tastes. “It has become more commercialized,” he told me, “less of an art. Nowadays it is the rehashing of old ideas, making them more modern.” He prefers the originals. Is the manga/animé form of cultural expression running out of ideas?
He also has mixed feelings about the assimilation of characters into every facet of Japanese life. There are characters everywhere. Some are not very well-designed and have been complete failures. For example, the Japanese Government gave each prefecture (like a parish or state) a character of its own, a mascot. The character for Nara prefecture is called Sento-kun. He is a Buddhist monk with antlers on his head (reflecting the famous temples and Nara’s deer park). Religious people were unhappy and Nara residents in general reacted negatively, calling poor Sento-kun “kimochi warui” (literally “bad feeling” – or creepy, unpleasant).
For collectors, the world of manga/animé is a rich landscape. The National Gallery exhibit included some beautifully detailed figures in glass cases. This is another aspect of Japanese culture; I vividly recall collections of richly dressed traditional dolls in similar glass cases, proudly displayed in people’s homes. And they were expensive, too.
What is the significance of the animé, I asked Kirk? “The animé is how the Japanese express their cultural concerns,” he told me. “The same animé – the same story or character – can appeal to a ten-year-old or a forty-year-old. They are getting different messages, at different levels.” I found this somehow touching. Housewives have their favorite characters; so do teenage girls. Businessmen (salarymen as they are called) have their favorite manga that they read during their commute to work. The characters reassure them; they are predictable and safe. Perhaps, in some way, they help the Japanese people find their way through the stress of modern society. Almost like guides, companions.
So what of the future for Kirk “Jamaipanese” Brown? He has just completed his second year studying IT at the University of Technology (did I mention that he also co-administers a tech blog, http://www.GEEZAM.com ?) On the tenth anniversary of his Jamaipanese blog – February 2016 – he hopes to have a book out. He would like to do more work with the younger generation of Jamaicans. What advice would he give to a Jamaican teen, I asked him? “Don’t stick in your shell. Don’t stay in a limited mindset. Jamaica is very small. Get out there and explore!” He also worries about the “instant gratification” culture. Persistence and patience are important assets for young people (Kirk is a perfect role model in that respect).
And of course, he is planning another trip to Japan in 2016. I hope he will take me in his suitcase…
I would like to thank Jamaipanese for being my personal guide and companion through the dream-like world of this fascinating exhibit – which may be coming to a city near you in the future. Look out for it, and get to know the characters. Get to know Japan!
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