From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henohenomoheji
(へのへのもへじ) or
hehenonomoheji
(へへののもへじ) is a face drawn by Japanese schoolchildren using hiragana characters.[1]
The word breaks down into the seven hiragana characters: he (へ),
no (の), he (へ), no (の), mo (も),
he (へ), and ji (じ). The first two he are
the eyebrows, the two
no are the eyes, the
mo is a nose, and the
last he is the mouth.
The outline of the face is made by the character ji, its
two short strokes (dakuten) forming the ear. Children use the henohenomoheji as
the faces of kakashi (scarecrows).[1]
This icon has been likened culturally to North America's popular graffiti doodle of "Kilroy" (or in
Britain "Chad", in Canada "Clem," and in Australia
"Mr. Foo"), in
that it often appears in comic books, movies and other media.
Variations
Other versions may have been current in other epochs and places.
Japanese-Brazilians who learned hiragana in
the 1950s, in the State of São Paulo, report that they
were not taught to draw the ji, and thus left the face
unframed, as in the henohenomohe shown at
right.
Other people from the same epoch but from other towns in São
Paulo report that they learned to draw a big no around the
face, instead of the ji (not shown).
Others have drawn the henohenomoheji with an extra
i (い) at the end, which is drawn under the
ji to form a neck or an ear.
Usage
examples
- In Naruto, the
face of the character Kakashi Hatake, whose given name Kakashi
means "scarecrow", is the subject of an entire episode (no. 101) in
which his students try to remove his mask. Against one of them he
uses a scarecrow as a decoy, with the henohenomoheji drawn
on the face. Later he summons eight dogs which have the
henohenomoheji on their backs.
- In the anime One
Piece, Igaram makes dummies with the
henohenomoheji face to impersonate Luffy, Zoro, and Nami.
- In the MSX game Parodius, one of the
bosses is based on this.
- In the Sega Genesis game Crusader of
Centy, a puppet controlled by a boss has this for a
face.
- In Digimon, the
Digimon Nohemon, a scarecrow Digimon, has
henohenomoheji on its face.
- In the Nintendo
DS game Animal Crossing: Wild World, the visitor
Blanca's face is that of a henohenomoheji, and can be
altered to the player's own design.
- In the PlayStation 2 video game Ōkami, characters are represented with a
henohenomoheji icon floating above their heads whenever
they are too far to be seen.
- In the PlayStation 2 video game Chulip, the generic factory workers
all have henohenomohe faces.
- In The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, a
brief scene in episode 11 showed Koizumi's fleet with a crew full
of henohenomoheji.
- In the manga Ranma
½, the title character Ranma Saotome often wears the
henohenomoheji face.
- Mangaka Yuu Watase is often
portrayed in a henohenomoheji mask.
- In the anime Mononoke, the Medicine Seller
briefly wears a henohenomoheji on his blank face during
the Noppera-bō arc before restoring his own.
- In the anime Samurai Champloo, the baseball
catcher doll in episode 23 "Baseball Blues" has a
henohenomeheji on its face.
- In the video game Terranigma, in Matis's final gallery,
he features a henohenomoheji.
- In episode 3 of the anime Hyakko, a slightly different
henohenomoheji can be seen drawn on a cardboard box: it
has no ji, a shi for its nose and another shi for its ear, which
reads out "henohenoshiheshi". Later on in the same episode, a more
classical version can be seen painted on a robot's face, with only
the eyes and the nose (henohenomo) and a speaker for its
mouth.
- In the anime "Toradora", Ryūji is seen hanging a
home-made henohenomoheji out of cloth.
- Henohenomoheji can be seen can be seen on the crew of one of
the ships in the episode "The Day of Sagittarius" of The
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
See also
References
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