I can’t wait to share this Rilakkuma with you – it’s La Japonaise Rilakkuma!
Beautiful vivid colors, just like Monet was famous for! And good to finally see a Rilakkuma turning to his right side hahaha
Kiiroitori standing in as the fearsome samurai!
Rilakkuma holds a beautiful red, white, and blue fan – and even the white crescent matches the original art!
A parallel metallic leaf motif, and of course Rilakkuma would be hiding away a dango in his left paw!
Tag art featuring the illustrated Rilakkuma interpretation of the original piece! Looks like Kiiroitori hopped off the kimono for this one haha
Simon also drew this sketch of La Japonaise Rilakkuma today – I love it!
What do you think? Does the Rilakkuma interpretation capture the essence of the original work to you? I think the Rilakkuma version is much more adorable hehehe
This Rilakkuma design is based on Claude Monet’s La Japonaise (above). As I wrote about in a previous post, this Rilakkuma plush is especially exceptional to me because it’s such a subversive take on the Western gaze upon Japan that was so dominant during the era of Japonsime. Besides being exceedingly cute, this plushie design has so many layers to it as a Japanese take on a famous Western piece inspired by Japan.
This plushie commemorates Looking East: Western Artists and the Allure of Japan, an exhibit at the Setagaya Art Museum in Tokyo this summer where Monet’s La Japonaise was displayed! The exhibit will also be moving to Nagoya in January, and I’m guessing this Rilakkuma will be following La Japonaise there as well!
Korilakkuma was summarily left out in the plushie design, but you can sneak a few peaks of her in the background fans of the illustrated version of this design.
In other news, check out the Rilakkuma Store Exclusive line for the Cat Series!
Pull the toy mouse from Rilakkuma’s ear and watch them come back together again! 1,680円.
Kiiroitori is interactive too! 1,680円.
Korilakkuma sadly doesn’t have an interactive component to her, but she does still have a little kitten to play with! 1,380円.
Wow! I love how interactive these plushies will be!
These plushies will be released October 4th. Wow, can’t believe October is so close – guess I have to start looking for a Halloween costume!
In American news, San-X was recruiting for Rilakkuma lolita girls to staff their NYC events on October 10-11! Darn, official Rilakkuma events always seem to be so far away, but one day, I hope to be able to cover an event like this in person to share with all of you!
Whew! I am so glad to be done with that cardiopulmonary exam – what a doozy! Now that I’m in the endocrine/reproductive module, I feel much more relaxed like Rilakkuma!
RilakkumaLifestyle 
I much prefer the keeroy samurai on the bear kimono! Maybe Blizzard and SanX can collab for a Keeroy Jenkins :)
Kiiroitori makes for a pretty friendly samurai, I think!
Beautiful plush, this would definitely look beautiful no matter where you put it! I find this plush looks more like a piece of art than a plush, all you need to do it put it behind glass and shine some spotlights on it!
I’m loving the store exclusive plushes! The Cat Series line is really adorable, eeee! I still haven’t decided if I should get it or not though, really need to save money and stop buying so much plush X_X
I really love this Monet design – I hope San-X does more art-inspired pieces more often; I think they’re really quite breathtaking!
Waaah the Cat Series is really super cute! I haven’t decided what I want from it yet. Since I spent so much this summer, I’m limiting myself to 1 item from the Cat Series but not sure which one that’ll be yet! Looks like a lot of cool designs are coming out from that series, so I haven’t pulled the trigger yet!