We sup­pose it’s con­ceiv­ready {that a} reward of a picket­en Totoro fig­urine, hand-carved from a sin­gle block the use of 50 dif­fer­ent varieties of chis­els, may spark a rev­er­ence for tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese craft and nature within the subsequent gen­er­a­tion…

Or, they is also left want­ing you’d giv­en them an infinite­ly extra hug­gable machine-made plushie ver­sion, espe­cial­ly if you’ll be able to’t lend a hand suck­ing on your breath each and every time they begin fum­bling with that exquis­ite­ly craft­ed ￥330,000 yen inheritor­loom-to-be. (That’s $2341.81 in US dol­lars.)

After all, direc­tor Hayao Miyaza­ki’s 1988 ani­mat­ed fea­ture My Neigh­bor Totoro has legions of enthusiasts of every age, and a few will con­sid­er them­selves reasonably fortunate in the event that they win the lot­tery that grants them the abil­i­ty to pur­chase this kind of trea­certain.

They’re now not simplest carved by way of professional arti­sans in Ina­mi, town of picket­carv­ing, however the picket may be that of a cam­phor tree — the nat­ur­al habi­tat of the mys­te­ri­ous, magazine­i­cal Totoro! (It’s additionally con­sid­ered holy by way of prac­ti­tion­ers of the Shin­to reli­gion.)

Nonetheless, if it’s unclear that the recip­i­ent will tru­ly appre­ci­ate such idea­ful­ness, you’re prob­a­bly wager­ter off going with anoth­er be offering­ing from Stu­dio Ghibli’s Totoro-themed col­lab­o­ra­tion with Nak­a­gawa Masashichi Shoten, a pur­vey­or of tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese crafts.

According to­haps a￥4180 bud vase fired in Ure­shi­no Town’s Edo-peri­od Yozan Kiln, fea­tur­ing Totoro or a clus­ter of susuwatari, the pom pom-like soot sprites infest­ing the Kusak­abe fam­i­ly’s new house, who additionally play an element in Spir­it­ed Away.

Perhaps a tiny Totoro bell amulet, mould­ed by way of crafts­males in Odawara, cel­e­brat­ed for the qual­i­ty in their met­al­paintings for the reason that ear­ly 1500s, once they out­have compatibility­ted samu­rai with guns, armor and hel­mets?

What a few Totoro-embla­zoned trea­certain field from Yat­suo, manufactured from sten­cil-dyed hand­made washi paper? There’s noth­ing inher­ent­ly unsuitable with stash­ing your acorn col­lec­tion in an previous Altoid’s tin, however this ves­sel comes along with his­toric pedi­gree:

As one of the vital lead­ing cities alongside the trunk street, Yatu­so flour­ished via … professional­duc­tion of wrap­ping paper for the nation-wide well-known “Toya­ma Med­i­cine”. At its gold­en age, from the Edo Technology to the start­ning of the Mei­ji Technology within the nineteenth cen­tu­ry, many peo­ple had been engaged in paper­mak­ing by way of hand­paintings of their properties. Yat­suo Japan­ese paper was once be expecting­ed to be unbreak­ready as it was once used as pack­age for expen­sive med­i­cine and on the similar time it must glance bril­liant. It needed to be thick and stout in order that it may well be imper­vi­ous to water and the label print­ed at the sur­face would now not be smeared.

The listing of Totoro-inspired tra­di­tion­al crafts is impres­sive. A rep­re­sen­ta­tive sam­pling:

Chusen-dyed tenugui hand­ker­chiefs and t‑shirts…

Dish­tow­els produced from 5 lay­ers of Kayaori fab­ric that “was once intro­duced to Japan dur­ing the Nara peri­od and is claimed to permit wind to move via however stay mos­qui­ft out”…

Tiny Ari­ta ware acorn plates that praise mem­bers of the blank plate membership with a view of the Cat­bus… 

View the col­lec­tion and be told extra about February’s lot­tery for an opportunity to pur­chase a Cam­phor picket Totoro right here.

Fingers-on enthusiasts might pre­fer to cul­ti­vate an appre­ci­a­tion for tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese hand­i­crafts by way of strive­ing a DIY Totoro.

By means of Spoon & Tam­a­move/Colos­sal

Relat­ed Con­tent 

Move Hun­dreds of Hours of Stu­dio Ghi­b­li Film Tune That Will Lend a hand You Learn about, Paintings, or Sim­ply Loosen up: My Neigh­bor Totoro, Spir­it­ed Away & Extra

A Excursion of Stu­dio Ghibli’s Logo New Theme Park in Japan, Which Re-Cre­ates the Worlds of Spir­it­ed Away, My Neigh­bor Totoro, and Oth­er Clas­sics

Construct Your Personal Minia­ture Units from Hayao Miyazaki’s Loved Motion pictures: My Neigh­bor Totoro, Kiki’s Deliv­ery Ser­vice & Extra

– Ayun Hal­l­i­day is the Leader Pri­ma­tol­o­gist of the East Vil­lage Inky zine and writer, most up-to-date­ly, of Cre­ative, Now not Well-known: The Small Pota­to Guy­i­festo and Cre­ative, Now not Well-known Activ­i­ty Guide. Fol­low her @AyunHalliday.