Hikonyan, the mascot of Hikone City.

Hikonyan (ひこにゃん) is a mascot created by the city government of Hikone, Japan. He was created in 2007 to mark the 400th anniversary of the founding of Hikone Castle. The character design is derived from a legend concerning maneki-neko and Ii Naotaka, the 3rd Lord of Hikone.[1][2][3] The daimyō was beckoned by a white cat to seek shelter from a storm in a temple, and thus saved from a lightning strike.[4] In Japanese, "nyan" is an onomatopoeia for a cat's meow. Hikonyan's samurai helmet is based on a Ii family helmet currently in the Hikone Castle museum. Hikonyan's popularity increased tourist visitation of Hikone by over 200,000 annually. The estimate of Hikonyan's effect on the tourist industry is 17.4 billion yen (approximately US$218 million) and the overall economic effects total 33.8 billion yen (US$425 million). Total merchandise sales reached about 1.7 billion yen (US$21 million) as of 2008.[5] In 2010, Hikonyan won first place in the open vote competition of other mascots, collectively known as Yuru-chara (ゆるキャラ).[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Fortune Beckons: Japan's Lucky Cat Figurines". nippon.com. 1 August 2014. Archived from the original on 9 November 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
  2. ↑ 東京都の"招き猫発祥の地"である豪徳寺・自性院・今戸神社、猫はどう違う? (in Japanese). Mynavi News. 22 July 2014. Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
  3. ↑ 招き猫発祥地争い 浅草・今戸神社と世田谷・豪徳寺が主張中 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. 6 March 2016. Archived from the original on 15 October 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
  4. ↑ "ひこにゃん プロフィール". Hikone City Sightseeing Promotion Division. Retrieved 25 December 2012.
  5. ↑ "The Most Popular Cat in Japan and Japanese Naive Painting". Detour Japan. Retrieved 2013-12-12.
  6. ↑ "Results announced in Yuru-kyara character popularity poll". Oricon. 2010-10-26. Archived from the original on 2013-04-03. Retrieved 2013-12-12.
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