What is Kawaii Art?

Beginning in the 1970s, Japan saw a bubbling of this “cute” art style amongst the youth. Following a global protest cycle in the late 60s, students turned to pen and paper to protest “against the system.” Teenage girls, specifically, would use mechanical pencils to create curly, oversized lettering, with hearts and stars decorating the borders. This seemingly unserious writing trend— coined marui-ji— was just the beginning. 

Beyond the page, this type of art blossomed with a symbiotic relationship with manga (comics), anime, and merchandise from popular brands. In 1974, Sanrio— a Japanese stationary and entertainment company— released the notorious Hello Kitty, with her simple features, innocent nature, and soft pink bow, encouraging a kawaii fandom to take off.

The aesthetic can be found throughout many mediums– drawings, paintings, digital art, film, and television, to name a few. What separates the style from others is the rounded shapes, uncomplicated features, and pastels or bright colors, all captured in a “childlike” essence.

Though, well before Hello Kitty and embellished letters, the pioneering artist credited for bringing the kawaii art movement to mainstream media is Japanese visual artist and illustrator Rune Naito. He first drew bobble-headed, baby-faced girls in popular Japanese magazines in the mid-1950s. 

Others among Naito worthy of being noted for their contribution to this cutesy cult are contemporary artists Yoshitomo Nara and Takashi Murakami, with youthful motifs and adorably-eerie figures peppered in every piece. 

Interestingly, there’s a psychological science behind the appeal of all things kawaii. As most of the figures are simplistic, with dots acting as mouths and little evidence of dominating emotions, viewers are able to project their own theorized personas onto the characters. This individualized interpretation allows for a wider audience to be reached, since consumers can morph the art into whatever they seem fitting. 

Similarly, the youthfulness elicited from this art style is meant to instill a feeling of nostalgia and childlike wonder within viewers. The same goes for Japanese games like Pokémon or Tamagotchis. These video games, centered around caring for and interacting with charming creatures, are intended to provide that sense of nostalgic comfort, drawing users in with its “cozy” appeal.

Though seemingly soothing, the synonymous nature of the kawaii style with youth trends does turn some people away from the art. The infantilizing feelings and overall aesthetic can lead people to look down upon these childish, Pop Art-adjacent creations, with some critics even deeming it “not real art.”

However, this poses no threat to the kawaii art scene. In fact, between the iconic anthropomorphized cat and the curly q lettering, the aesthetic has only been ever-expanding. Perhaps even taking after Miss Kitty herself, today, every government office in Japan has its own kawaii-style mascot, from a six-foot-tall fuzzy mandarin orange at the Wakayama Women's Prison, to a fluffy, horned-wearing cat representing the Hikone Castle.