What is Sento Kun and do you like Sento kun ?

Here is an interesting social debate after the mascot Sento kun.

Today I heard from one of my friend about the funny mascot Sento Kun. I think atleast in Japan, there is no need to ask do you know what is Sento Kun?

The city named Nara was the old capital of Japan. Japan will celebrate the 1300th anniversary of the Nara-Heijyoko Capital. This functionw will be held in 2010. Sento kun is the character selected as a symbolf for the function to celebrate the 1300th anniversary of the transfer the national capital to Heizei, in Nara. To transfer the national capital means “sento” in Japanese language. 'knn' means boy. So this character is called “sento-kun.”

Many Japanese people criticize it because it is not so cute and it is strange looking. Sento kun was selected from 21 plans submitted. It combines the horns of deers, which is the symbol of Nara, and the body of a boy.

Many of the Japanese are happy about the mascot character for the Commemorative Events of the 1300th Anniversary of the Nara-Heijyoko Capital to be held in 2010.
For some Japanese Sento kun is creepy, ugly and for some it is sacrilegious as the face resembles to Buddha. Many had reported saying that Sento kun makes them terrified and they want to see a new character as soon as possible.

Nara citizens started appealing to the public for new character. More 34000 people voted for their favorite characters. However, some people say that new candidates don’t have a great impact than Sento Kun.

The character was designed by a sculptor and professor at Tokyo University of the Arts, Satoshi Yabuuchi, who is one of twelve guest designers invited by the Association for Commemorative Events of the 1300th Anniversary of the Nara-Heijyokyo Capital.

The name SENTO-Kun was selected from more than 14,000 public applicants by the association of the event on April 15th. Ever since the announcement of the official mascot character in February many Japanese, including media and religious groups have expressed their negative opinions about SENTO-Kun.

Japanese people says ‘Nara prefecture has become the laughingstock. .. It’s really grotesque.’ Some even think that it is blasphemous towards Buddha and they blame that ‘People who does not have any problem with this figure must be people who have nothing to do with faith.

Some people have positive views about Sento-kun. They see it as kimokawaii - creepy but cute or even as adorable.

An online community was created on Mixi to call for a withdrawal of the mascot selection by the event association immediately after the debut. Now the community has over 1000 members, and it launched a website called “Sen Sanbyaku-nen Kinen wo Sukuu Kai means The 1300th Anniversary Support Group”. Besides the unpopularity of the mascot character design, the group criticizes the Association of Commemorative Events for spending over 5,000,000 yen in tax money to buy out the copyright from Mr. Yabuuchi. The group gathered petitions on the streets to call for a withdrawal of the mascot character design, and conducted a questionnaire survey on the design.

There’s a hot debate on the inappropriate method of character selection as well.

Neither the Governor of Nara-prefecture nor the Association has any intention of changing the mascot character, and the Association issued a statement asking for support from the public for Sento-kun and for the event.

These debates around Sento-kun certainly helped to attract public attention to the event.

A Nara-based Buddhist group announced that it had created its own mascot to mark the 1,300th anniversary of Nara becoming capital of Japan.

The mascot’s name is Namu-kun, and despite what you may think, he is a boy. He is made to look like Prince Shotoku, a leader whose palace is supposed to have been located in Nara. Some feel that this mascot is more justifiable to Buddhism than the unpopular Sento-kun, an antlered Buddha-thing that the Nara government officially named its mascot back in March.

Watch You Tube Videos of Animated Sento kun Watch Dancing Sento Kun