Mochi — Kawaii Cartoon Shiba Inu, Boutique Entrance, Tokyo

Daikanyama is full of shops that try to look like galleries. This one sells clothes for small children, and the owner wanted the opposite: something a four-year-old would run at from across the street.

The brief

A dog, plump, seated, roughly 1.6 m so that it is taller than the children it is for but shorter than an adult. It had to survive being touched, climbed on and photographed several hundred times a day, and it had to be washable, because a pavement sculpture in central Tokyo is not clean for very long.

Building the cuteness on purpose

Cuteness is a set of measurements, not an accident. We raised the eye line to 62% of total height and widened the gap between the eyes. The head ended up 44% of the whole body height. The legs became so short that the body almost rests on the ground, which is what makes the figure look as though it is settling in rather than standing guard.

The client asked for pink and we argued for it, then lost, then agreed. Blush peach over the body with mint on the ears and chest. The two blush ovals on the cheeks were added in the last review and are the only element on the whole piece that is pure decoration. They are also the element children reach for first.

Finishing for a pavement

Satin rather than gloss, because gloss in a shopfront reads as plastic and shows every fingerprint. Two-pack automotive paint over the fibreglass, then a UV clear coat, which in practice means the piece can be hosed down and still look new. The shop has had it for a full summer now and the colour has not moved.

What it does for the shop

We built it as a sign, and it works as a sign. The owner reports that parents photograph their children next to it and then come in. Nothing about the sculpture says the name of the shop, which was deliberate — a character people choose to photograph is worth more to a shopfront than a logo they ignore.