Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Random Picture 45


The Ryoma Sakamoto (a political revolutionary in the mid-1800's) theming of foods has not disappeared yet, despite having been around for most of the previous year. I saw this display of regional Japanese sweets and cookies at a local supermarket. One of the great benefits of using the image of someone long-dead with no family to claim rights to his image is that you can splatter his face anywhere and everywhere without offering a slice of the profit pie to anyone else.

I think that we're bound to see this fad finally run out of steam in 2011 as the documentary on Japanese T.V. that inspired it is certain to be fading in memory and I'm sure people feel less inspired to buy snacks by his stern-looking face than they once did.

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