Nuigurumi Lucky Cat

The making of nuigurumi, the Japanese stuffed dolls, was a popular handicraft in Japan and this is probably an explanation for the today's abundance of stuffed dolls in Japan, varying from traditional toys to mascots, anime and video game characters and... let's not forget Hello Kitty.

Of course, most of the stuffed dolls are now made with up-to-date technologies from modern materials, but in some traditional areas you may still find nuigurumi created from traditional materials like silk.

One nuigurumi I particularly liked was this lucky cat, a kind of maneki neko, one of the most popular good luck charms in Japan. Wearing a samurai outfit from the Edo Period called kamishimo (a formal kimono with hakama and kataginu, a sleeveless jacket with exaggerated shoulders), I found it to be absolutely adorable. Unfortunately it wasn't for sale, it was just for window decoration (^_^).