About Miyatan

Why did Mr.Takai accept to create Miyatan?

The reasons why he decided to design was that he hoped Miyatan would be the symbol of Nishinomiya and also, he wanted him to entertain many people who visit and join some events which was called “*Machitabi-haku”. He always wanted everyone to enjoy and feel happy, cute and beautiful. It was grateful for him to design the mascot characters, because they have got a strong influence. He also thinks that it is not only important to make money, but it is more important to get people that feel happy.

*Machitabi-haku has started since 2011. Nishinomiya Tourism Association wants us to enjoy the events in Nishinomiya. The name has changed “Machitabi”, but it has two meanings which are walking around the city and the experience in the city in Japanese.

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How long did he take to design Miyatan?

He didn’t remember clearly, but he thought it had taken about two or three months. He didn’t usually spend much time on designing characters because he can design a character at least one minute if he drew the character. However, it took a long time to make Miyatan because he needed to know the background information about Nishinomiya-city

What were the difficult things about designing Miyatan?

He said, “Despite creating more than hundred characters, Miyatan is the most difficult character to create.”.Usually, he usually comes up with some ideas of design during the meeting, but at that time, he did not have any ideas. He drew some designs on his sketch books however he thought that these were lacking impact.

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To get over difficulties…

 He studied about Nishinomiya and thought about the concept of the Event. It is that people will be working around Nishinomiya to rediscover the town of Nishinomiya. Moreover, the sponsor of this event wanted to share the goodness of Nishinomiya with residents and non-residents alike. The most important thing when he designed it was to avoid sticking too much to one specific spot.