He’s one of the world’s most charming figures bred from a natural function of the
human body.
Slapped with a smiling face and two giant oval eyes, a small pile of excrement quickly
shot to international fame, leaving his emoji brothers and sisters behind in a fly covered
stink cloud.
How could this have happened?
At what point did a pile of feces integrate itself into everyday conversation?
Wouldn’t you know, it all started in Japan with golden charms and a beloved character
from a popular manga.
Lucky Poo and Introducing the World to Smiling Feces
Use of excrement in Japanese culture possibly links back to keeping figurines near the toilet
to appeal to privy gods.
Golden charms in the shape of poop were sold as good luck symbols, and while it was a part
of popular local culture, there was still plenty of growth for this unusual imagery
to go through before making it as a cultural icon.
Introduced in the early 1980s, the Dr. Slump manga exploded in popularity, warranting over
300 television episodes and eleven movies.
Throughout her journey, the main protagonist, Arale Norimaki, comes across a race of colorful
excrement whose comic relief proved far more effective than likely expected.
After charming audiences in Dr. Slump, the smiling feces made its way over to Dragon
Ball, appearing in an episode of the anime as a call-back to Norimaki’s adventures.
With appearances in two successful Japanese franchises and its use as a symbol of luck,
the spread of feces wasn’t just going to disappear, but it would take the introduction
of something else before rising to worldwide fame.
The Advent of the Emoji Modern casual communication is all about finding
the right emoji to convey a feeling or thought and it’s all thanks to Shigetaka Kurita,
an employee of Japanese telecom company, NTT Docomo.
During the late 1990’s, NTT Docomo was on the hunt for something that would separate
itself from rivals and aimed to create something new for its pager service.
Enter Kurita, who presented the idea of appealing to a younger crowd with simple cartoon images.
The first set of what would come to be known as “emojis” - literally translated to
image characters - encompassed 176 different symbols and faces, all hand drawn by Kurita.
The feature grew in popularity and attracted the attention of Docomo’s rivals, who would
later adopt the concept.
After the smartphone market erupted with the release of the first iPhone, both Apple and
Google realized that in order to dominate the market in Japan, they would need to include
Kurita’s original creation, and so Apple integrated emojis into a keyboard initially
intended only for Japan users.
Curious minds caught wind of the Japanese phenomenon and started digging, eventually,
unlocking the hidden keyboard and opening the western world up to the idea of smiling
faces and feces.
When the concept of the emoji started to gain popularity outside of Japan, companies like
Google began to look at including them into popular services like Gmail.
The list of approved emojis grew larger, but it became evident that one standout image
wasn’t there – the animated pile of poop that had become an essential part ­of the
­bunch.
Allegedly, Gmail’s higher-ups felt the emoji was offensive, but Google’s Japanese product
manager at the time, Takesha Kishimoto, and software engineer Darren Lewis, pushed hard
to have it included, analogizing it to arbitrarily removing a letter of the alphabet.
It had grown to be a part of the bunch and was as important an emoji to Japan as the
standard smiley.
As you probably already know, the Battle of the Poop Emoji ended in the best way – with
a brown pile of feces working its way into every one of your communication devices; but
that’s far from where this story ends.
The Future of Feces If you happen to find yourself with a complete
lack of feces merchandise in your life, your future may look a little brighter.
Becoming one of the most popular emojis has done wonders for the smiley pile of brown
dung, opening up a series of merchandise that ranges from throw pillows to bean bags to
keychains and other apparel.
Want to start your day with smiling poop in your life?
Then you’ll want the official Smiley Poop coffee mug.
From Etsy to WalMart, your collection of fecal merchandise can start today – and it’s
all thanks to the toilet god, kawaya kami.