Billiken

Osaka

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Ever-smiling (and a bit creepy looking) Billiken sits, toes out, like a golden Kewpie doll on a pedestal reading 'The God of Things as they Ought to Be' in English. He was created in the early 1900s as a good-luck charm by an art teacher in Kansas City, Missouri, USA (hence the English slogan). This is the most well-known, but there are many others around town. Billiken debuted in Osaka for the opening of the Tsūten-kaku in 1912.

A Billiken figurine is said to bring good fortune to its purchaser, and better fortune if received as a gift.

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