I suppose I had hoped it was a reflection of something deeper in Japanese culture. I admit feeling a little disappointed to learn that Kin no Unko is such a recent product. The kids set off a hit-product boom, complete with news coverage from around the country. Even so, the line didn't sell well until the spring of 2000, when high-school girls on school trips started snapping them up as silly souvenirs. I wanted to offer an inexpensive product that would make people smile."Īlthough they're made of real porcelain and coated with 24-karat gold, Kin no Unko products retail from just 105 yen for a mini poo to 2,100 yen for the big dump, which sits proudly on a silky red cushion. "Japan was in an economic recession, and the national mood was fairly depressed. I telephoned the company that makes them, Ryukodo, a small Kyoto-based manufacturer of traditional dolls and seasonal display items, and had a friendly chat with Koji Fujii, the company's president, who told me he came up with the idea in late 1999. The product you saw is called Kin no Unko (The Golden Poo), a name that plays on the fact that the Japanese word for poop (unko) starts with the same "oon" sound as a completely unrelated word that means "luck." Japanese enjoy this kind of pun - traditional storytelling is full of them - which may help explain why more than 2.5 million of the lucky little loads have sold in the last seven years. What you're missing is a pleasing piece of word play.
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