Dakimakura

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About

Until the editor completes the entry, here is a temporary description by Wikipedia:^[1]. Pictures can be found at Danbooru:^[2]

A dakimakura (抱き枕) (from daki (抱き) “to embrace or cling” and makura (枕?) “pillow”) is a type of large pillow from Japan. The word is often translated in English simply as “hug pillow”. From a semantic standpoint, dakimakura are no different from Western orthopedic body pillows, and are commonly used by Japanese youth as “security objects”. However, from a western perspective, the word “dakimakura” is primarily used to indicate the popularized image of love pillows with graphic illustrations of female characters of a bishōjo style.

[Work in progress]

Originally the large otaku presence on the internet led to a large volume of these dakimakura images to be submitted to and displayed on various anime themed websites. Due to the awkward and bizarre nature of these “comfort pillows” most people have trouble understanding why one would want such an item. Overtime viewers of these images began to create parodies using other characters that relate to internet memes or characters that just seem out of place such as Chell from portal or taking on a certain theme like that of Inception with the image of pillow on the dakimakura pillow.

Notable Examples:

Inception.


Portal.



Interest over time.

Reference

^[1]Wikipedia – Dakimakura / Last edited on 5-21-2011

^[2]Danbooru – Dakimakura / Edited on 5-26-2011 Caution: NSFW