The Handkerchief Prince

Here is a picture of a hankie my boss gave me the other day. This present was very kind and unexpected, but also a classic example of how in Japan a phenomenon can be created from thin air.
You see, every summer the National High-School Baseball Finals are televised. This year, one particular played grabbed the media’s attention.
In the rough and tumble world of baseball, this pitcher came across as a mannerly, refined, educated young man. And all because instead of wiping the sweat from his brow with his sleeve, as all the other players were doing, he chose to mop his face with a light blue hanky, just like the one above.
And so the Handkerchief Prince was born. All the news programs carried pieces on him, his face was on the front cover of all the weekly magazines, and the Internet was awash with analysis of his popularity.
He came to represent a type of manners and propriety that most people feel young Japanese have entirely lost touch with. A brilliant academic and social future was plotted for this lad and his parents were held up as role models for child rearing. And all from one little sweat rag. Let’s not forget the hanky!
The company that made the hand towel couldn’t keep up with the sudden surge in demand. Unopened packages went on Internet auction sites for twenty times the regular retail price. Seriously, some department stores even ran special raffles where 1,600 people applied to win one of only 80 such handkerchiefs. Madness, but totally typical of the Japanese market.
I would hate to be a celebrity over here. The mass media is probably the most fickle in the world. They build you up from nowhere in a flash, you are literally everywhere for about a month. Then the next big thing comes along and you are dropped like a hot potato. There is nothing gradual or graceful about it at all. The crash landing must really hurt.
I hope the Handkerchief Prince really does have good, grounded parents behind him. He will surely need them soon. I give him another two weeks in the sun before the media’s attention deficient gaze falls elsewhere.