Latest news with #DonguriKyowakoku
SoraNews24
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- SoraNews24
Studio Ghibli adds folding fans to its anime specialty store in Japan
Totoro and No Face whisk you away to enchanted worlds. With the humidity beginning to rise in Japan, Studio Ghibli is here to provide some much needed relief with two folding fans dedicated to My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away. The first fan depicts the Totoros from My Neighbour Totoro, in a cooling nighttime forest scene. Totoro and the smaller Medium Totoro can be seen blowing into their ocarinas as they do in the film. On the other end of the fan you'll find the Small Totoros hanging out on a branch, watching the fireworks as many people do during summer in Japan. The attention to detail continues beneath the design, where you'll be greeted by charming Totoro cutouts every time you open the fan. The second design is adorned with camelias and characters from Spirited Away. No Face stares out from the floral setting as a scattering of Soot Sprites scamper about, carrying their beloved star-shaped komeito candy pieces. ▼ Stretching across the fan is Haku, in dragon form… ▼ …and on the bottom, cutout details tip the hat to natural elements like bamboo leaves. With fans being an essential everyday item on summer outings, you'll need a bag to store them in, and there are four varieties to choose from, two of which are new for summer. ▼ The new bags feature No Face, with the kanji 'ゆ' ('Yu') acting as a nod to the bathhouse in the film… ▼ …and Totoro, with a Soot Sprite. Unfortunately, the blue Totoro bag proved to be so popular that it sold out soon after it was released on 31 May. However, two designs have been restocked, including one with an image of Totoro, in a traditional yellow-toned Japanese colour known as 'yamabuki'. The final fan bag is an indigo-hued variety featuring No Face, again with the character 'ゆ', but this time the character is looking over its shoulder, in a pose that recalls the moment a cooling wave of water splashes against him during the train journey scene. The fans retail for 4,070 yen (US$28.33) each and the bags for 1,540 yen each, and they can be purchased at Donguri Kyowakoku stores and online, while stocks last. If flat fans are more your thing, Studio Ghibli has you covered there too. Source: Donguri Kyowakoku Top Image: Donguri Kyowakoku Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
Japan Today
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
Studio Ghibli releases Japanese sake flask and cup set for anime lovers
By Oona McGee, SoraNews24 Out of all the animated movies Studio Ghibli has ever produced, "Porco Ross" remains one of the most underrated. The tale of a pig who flies planes sadly missed its mark with some audience-goers, but for director Hayao Miyazaki, whose been known to depict himself as a pig, it remains a firm favorite — so much so that we can imagine a smile fluttering over his face if he were to see this sweet sake set that honors the film. Called the 'Porco Rosso Tokkuri Ochoko Set Kanpai with Porco', this two-piece set includes a sake flask, known as tokkuri in Japanese, and an ochoko ('sake cup'), which are like no others you'll find in Japan. ▼ The tokkuri is designed to look like the wine bottle seen in the film… ▼ …while the sake cup is shaped like Porco, complete with the character's distinctive moustache and sunglasses. ▼ The set lets you 'kanpai with Porco' ('cheers with Porco'). The wine bottle's label features a motif of the Savoia S.21 Prototype Fighter Seaplane that Porco flies, along with an Italian phrase that translates as 'This is what it means to be cool', and the year of the movie's release. The flask measures 16.5 centimeters (6.5 inches) in height and 5.8 centimeters in width and holds 200 milliliters of liquid. The sake cup measures 3.5 centimeters in height and 5.2 centimeters in diameter and holds 35 milliliters of liquid. Both the flask and cup are made from porcelain and are microwave and dishwasher safe. Initially released in 2018, the set has been out of stock for around seven years but is now available to purchase at Donguri Kyowakoku stores and online, priced at 4,950 yen. Source, images: Donguri Kyowakoku Read more stories from SoraNews24. -- Beautiful Studio Ghibli anime sake flask and cup set lets you get liquored up the Laputa way -- Studio Ghibli anime films get American comic book style update with new glassware collection -- Studio Ghibli's Porco Rosso: Behind-the-scenes trivia and secret Easter eggs revealed External Link © SoraNews24
SoraNews24
a day ago
- Entertainment
- SoraNews24
Studio Ghibli releases new Totoro tenugui anime art for the rainy season in Japan
Traditional techniques bring centuries of craftsmanship to Totoro. Japan is a country of many seasons, and the one that's about to begin is rainy. Known as 'tsuyu' in Japanese, the rainy season generally hits the mainland around mid-June, which is just enough time for us to put up a seasonal decoration with Totoro as the star. Sold by the Studio Ghibli specialty retail chain Donguri Kyowakoku, this new product is both decorative and functional as it's a beautifully dyed tenugui. These traditional cotton cloths can be used as hand towels, handkerchiefs, head coverings, and wraps for lunch boxes or gifts, but a lot of the time they're used as wall decorations, due to their beautiful designs. ▼ This tenugui has a particularly beautiful design called 'Rain Stripe' The rainy scene, depicting Totoro in his forest home, has been stenciled onto the fabric using a traditional hand-dyed method called 'chusen'. The raindrops blend harmoniously with the background stripes, which are slightly wavy as opposed to being straight, in a style known as 'yoroke-jima' ('wobbly stripes'). Because the fabric is dyed using traditional techniques the colours may bleed slightly, especially at the beginning of use. The more you use it, the more character it will develop over time so you can enjoy the unique colours that only an authentic hand-dyed tenugui can offer. ▼ As there are no seams, the cloth dries quickly and has a stronger resistance to dirt and dust. The cute frog in the corner of the tenugui completes the scene, with blue hues designed to keep you cool as the humidity rises. With each tenugui hand-dyed individually by a craftsman, these are like miniature works of art, and they can be purchased for 3,740 yen (US$26), at Donguri Kyowakoku stores and online, while stocks last. Source, images: Donguri Kyowakoku ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
SoraNews24
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- SoraNews24
Beautiful covers make Studio Ghibli vinyl soundtracks and image albums look as good as they sound
Gorgeous artwork graces the jackets of LP releases of the work of Ghibli's greatest composer. Some audiophiles insist that vinyl recordings sound better than digital ones. You can make a pretty strong argument, though, that they sound better too, Because of their size and scratchable material, records need jackets, and those jackets can have beautiful artwork. Serving as stunning examples of that are these vinyl records for the anime films of Studio Ghibli, on offer from specialty shop Donguri Kyowakoku. There aren't just rectangular croppings of their respective movie posters or DVD covers, either, but artwork specially chosen for the LP jackets. Pictured above is the soundtrack for Princess Mononoke, which comes on two double-sided records containing 33 songs from Jo Hisaishi, the long-collaborating composer behind all of the Ghibli anime music we'll be looking at today, including Spirited Away. The perspective and sense of scale on the 21-song soundtrack's cover makes the bathhouse of the gods look both unsettling and intriguing, which describes the tone of many of the film's scenes. Ghibli's memorable anime architecture is also on display from a fresh angle in the jacket for the 26-piece Howl's Moving Castle soundtrack. Though Hisaishi has composed the scores for just about all of director Hayao Miyazaki's theatrical anime, he worked only one time with Isao Takahata when the late Ghibli co-founder was in the director's chair, making the 37-piece soundtrack for The Tale of the Princess Kaguya a once-in-an-artistic lifetime collaboration between the two. And last, we come to what was supposed to be Miyazaki's last feature-length anime, The Wind Rises, and its 32-piece soundtrack. All of the above soundtracks are two-record sets, although only the Princess Mononoke one uses both sides of both records, with the others using only one side of their second. Meanwhile, the Kiki's Delivery Service Soundtrack Music Collection is a more modestly sized one-disc, 21-piece selection of music from the only anime produced, directed, and written by Miyazaki. And if you want even more beautiful Ghibli record jacket art, it can be found on the covers for the film's 'image albums.' Image albums are what the Japanese music sphere calls musical compositions inspired by the setting, story, and characters of an animated work, but which aren't heard within the anime itself. In the case of the Kik's Delivery Service image album above, for example, Hisaishi's aim was to recreate the feeling of how Miyazaki described the setting to him, 'A vaguely European town, somewhere near the Mediterranean sea,' in musical form, in much the same way that the beautiful cover artwork of Kiki getting ready to depart her parent's house isn't taken directly from the film. That same philosophy is behind the image albums for Spirited Away , Howl's Moving Castle , and Princess Monoke . Each of the image albums are single-record, with 10 pieces of music and priced at 4,180 yen (US$29), as is the Kiki's Delivery Service Soundtrack Music Collection , while the two record soundtracks are 5,280 yen. Several of them were sold out and unavailable until recently, but they're all restocked and can be ordered through the Donguri Kyowakoku online store here. Source: Donguri Kyowakoku Top image: Donguri Kyowakoku Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
SoraNews24
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- SoraNews24
Studio Ghibli releases Japanese sake flask and cup set for anime lovers
Porco Rosso steals the spotlight with a tokkuri and ochoko you won't find anywhere else. Out of all the animated movies Studio Ghibli has ever produced, Porco Rosso remains one of the most underrated. The tale of a pig who flies planes sadly missed its mark with some audience-goers, but for director Hayao Miyazaki, whose been known to depict himself as a pig, it remains a firm favourite — so much so that we can imagine a smile fluttering over his face if he were to see this sweet sake set that honours the film. Called the 'Porco Rosso Tokkuri Ochoko Set Kanpai with Porco', this two-piece set includes a sake flask, known as 'tokkuri' in Japanese, and an ochoko ('sake cup'), which are like no others you'll find in Japan. ▼ The tokkuri is designed to look like the wine bottle seen in the film… ▼ …while the sake cup is shaped like Porco, complete with the character's distinctive moustache and sunglasses. ▼ The set lets you 'kanpai with Porco' ('cheers with Porco'). The wine bottle's label features a motif of the Savoia S.21 Prototype Fighter Seaplane that Porco flies, along with an Italian phrase that translates as 'This is what it means to be cool', and the year of the movie's release. The flask measures 16.5 centimetres (6.5 inches) in height and 5.8 centimetres in width and holds 200 millilitres (6.8 ounces) of liquid. The sake cup masures 3.5 centimetres in height and 5.2 centimetres in diameter and holds 35 millilitres of liquid. Both the flask and cup are made from porcelain and are microwave and dishwasher safe. Initially released in 2018, the set has been out of stock for around seven years but is now available to purchase at Donguri Kyowakoku stores and online, priced at 4,950 yen (US$34.64). Source, images: Donguri Kyowakoku ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
