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Japanese mayor’s face sweater a big hit at annual Sweater Town Council Meeting

Master Blaster Dec 23, 2021
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For this mayor Anytime Knit Day is no sweat…er.

Did you know that the town of Yamanobe in Yamagata Prefecture is the unofficial knitted products capital of Japan?

Of course not, but it apparently is, and the governing body of the area would like to raise awareness of this fact through the Sweater Town Council Meeting, held every year on Anytime Knit Day on 10 December, because the numbers 12/10 can kind of be read as “itsudemo nitto” (“anytime knit”) in Japanese if you want them to badly enough.

This year, Sweater Town Council Meeting kicked off a little early on 8 December and all council members attended the session in their brightly colored and locally made sweaters. However, it was Mayor Naoyuki Endo who stole the show, wearing a sweater with his own face on it.

▼ News report showing the “Mayor of Knit”

That might not seem so impressive at first, until you realize that the photorealistic image of his face is actually knitted into the sweater, not printed on top. The design was done by Yutaka Ura, CEO of Ito Inc., a company that specializes in digital apparel concepts. In the following tweet, Ura shows off the original 3-D model of the sweater.

3Dで... https://t.co/SihLsMgEDX pic.twitter.com/G7APZ6aNFF

— urayutaka (@knit_chen) December 13, 2021

It was made in 2016 as a fun addition to the Sweater Town Council Meeting back then, but it wasn’t until the pandemic forced everyone to wear a mask that people took notice of the fact they can still see the mayor’s face because of his sweater.

Ura told the website Togetter that designing a sweater like that takes only an hour or two but the actual knitting usually takes at least three or four days. It’s made with a version of jacquard knitting that uses six different colors of thread at the same time.

▼ Another sweater Ura made with the face of TV personality Jin Katagiri and a close-up look at the knit-work involved

最終日行けました！
タイミング悪くお話しできませんでしたが...
仁さんと是非 #ヤバニット作りたい‼︎#ニットの浦さん #片桐仁氏#粘土道 #創作大百科展にて https://t.co/moDTHi2fKh pic.twitter.com/UcrJ98YNBE

— urayutaka (@knit_chen) December 20, 2021

With all the stuff we’ve learned about knitting today, I think it’s safe to say that this has been the best Anytime Knit Day ever! If you’d like to learn more about sweater-making in Japan, check out Ito Inc., Yamanobe town, or one of the many articles by our own Seiji Nakazawa during his sweater phase.

Source: Togetter, Twitter/@knit_chen, NHK
Top image: ©SoraNews24
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