What happens when you cross traditional supernatural creatures with classic carousel design? These gorgeous enamel pins featuring your favorite Japanese yōkai as classic carousel figures! These were created by a carousel historian, an art historian, and a Japanese mythological novelist, for you to collect the entire carousel set. While the word is often translated “demon” in English, the Japanese term yōkai more accurately indicates a supernatural creature, and the word can include friendly household helpers, bitter ghosts, and scary monsters. We’ve selected some of the most popularly known yōkai in the west to create this collection!
Each pin is a full 2 inches in size and made of soft enamel, giving a beautiful organic texture to the glossy surface. Designs honor classic carousel makers and styles while incorporating yōkai lore. Stickers are 3″ indoor/outdoor vinyl for all your favorite sticker places.
These are in stock. A glitch is making these pins appear to be on backorder, but they are ready to go! We’re working on the bug, but in the meantime, order as usual and they’ll be right on their way.
Namazu
Namazu is the great catfish which causes earthquakes when he thrashes beneath the pillars of the earth. But he also brings opportunity in the aftermath of disaster. Our design includes the kaname-ishi, the stone that pins Namazu in place to prevent devastating quakes, at the top of the carousel pole.
One common trait of the Coney Island style of carving is a raised head, as opposed to animals looking forward or downward. Charles Looff, in particular, created many animals gazing skyward. Our namazu follows this tradition and that of the carousel hippocampus, often depicted with the tail curling under its body
Kappa
The popular kappa was once terrifying, striking from behind to drown and devour those who ventured into dangerous waters, but in modern times he’s become an adorable figure. He enjoys cucumbers and sumo, and he must keep the shallow basin on his skull full of water.
The inspiration for our kappa came from a frog on a Herschell-Spillman carousel, termed a “hop-toad.” Frogs weren’t the most common of menagerie carousel animals, but they were always a hit. Frogs were the only creatures in the Herschell-Spillman catalog which wore human clothing. The characteristic Herschell-Spillman flat saddles became extended vests on the frogs, and ours has become a kappa’s shell.
Tanuki
Tanuki are mischievous shapeshifters are known for their love of sake and music, and the innovative use of their bodies to form anything that’s needed. Tanuki are sometimes mistakenly called raccoon dogs in English, but they are related to neither and are their own species unique to Japan. Our tanuki pin includes a teapot as a nod to one of the most famous tanuki tales about a dancing teapot!
Our tanuki is modeled after a Dentzel panda jumper. The panda is caught mid-leap, its front paws raised as though clapping, which we have replaced with the tanuki holding a jug of sake. Salvatore Chernigliaro, particularly skilled at carving fur textures, did occasionally while working for Dentzel create saddles that emulated fur, hair, or strings: tiger skin saddles, leather hides, fringe trims, even a pair of monkeys supporting a saddle on a lion. Our tanuki’s saddle, in the style of tanuki tales, is also furry…
Kitsune
Everyone loves kitsune! These foxy shapeshifters are known for their tricksy ways. Their kitsune-bi (fox fire) can sometimes be seen on lonely roads, or you might catch them blending with crowds at festivals to enjoy their favorite treats. Our pin includes a pinwheel which our kitsune found at a matsuri (probably a hanami or flower-viewing festival, given the colored dango) and his prized jewel, called a hoshi no tama.
Salvatore “Cherni” Chernigliaro carved for Gustav Dentzel and the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. He introduced many menagerie animals to the Dentzel company during his tenure there, including a carousel cat which inspired this kitsune. Each Cherni cat had an alert, raised head, a waving paw on the non-romance side, and a creature in its mouth, usually a bird or mouse. Cherni was an incredibly skilled carver and headman, and his carved fur textures always added a note of realism and whimsy to his creations.
Tengu
Tengu are guardians of mountains and forests and often appear in the dress of yamabushi, practitioners of shugendō (a syncretic fusion of Shintō and Buddhism).
Carousel birds are a rarity in antique carvings, and the ones which exist are usually roosters and ostriches, running on long legs. Rather than basing our tengu on one of these carvings, we drew inspiration from the work of Marcus Illions and C. W. Parker. One of Illions’s trademarks was “flame manes,” which flow as though the horse were tossing its head proudly and defiantly in the wind. C. W. Parker, whose styles varied over the years, later exhibited some flame manes, though they were much more stylized and less realistic than those of Illions. Using this vertical, organic flow of movement, our tengu’s wing flies upward, while his head is bent down in the style of a C. W. Parker horse.
Nekomata
Nekomata can be recognized by their two tails, a sign to beware! They are best known for eating children, but you might find them wreaking other havoc as well. But still, they’re cats, so who can resist them?
Our nekomata was inspired by a “sneaky tiger” by Charles Looff. Tigers were a common menagerie animal in many carousel workshops, but the “sneaky tiger” was a rarer pose. Most carousel tigers had a proudly raised head, but the sneaky variety had a lowered head, as though stalking its prey. Beware of the tiger and of this nekomata.
The Brass Ringu
This fun homage to a classic horror film based on older traditional Japanese ghost stories makes a great completion to your set!
Did you know? The term “to catch the brass ring” comes from carousels. Many carousels used to have a machine just outside of the ride to dispense a quantity of rings. Mounted riders would lean outward to catch a ring on each revolution. Among the silvery rings was one brass ring, which, when caught, would win the rider a prize, often a free extra ride on the carousel.
