Chinese papercutting Totoro T-shirts make their way to Japan【Photos】

Previously exclusive to Ghibli specialty shops outside of Japan, five designs featuring Totoro and No Face make their Japan debut.

In addition to cute figurines and charming housewares, Studio Ghibli specialty shop Donguri Kyowakoku also offers Ghibli-themed fashion items. More than just simple pieces of key art slapped onto cheap fabric, they’re stylish, comfy, and high-quality ways to incorporate your favorite Ghibli characters into your wardrobe, and the latest example is this artistic Totoro T-shirt.

If you’re thinking the aesthetic looks Asian, but not necessarily Japanese, that’s because the design draws inspiration from jianzhi, traditional Chinese papercutting. In fact, these T-shirts were originally exclusive to Donguri Kyowakoku’s handful of stores elsewhere in Asia, but are now available through Donguri Kyowakoku Japan as well.

The shirt comes in two color-swapped white-and-navy versions, with contrasting trims around the waist and sleeve hems.

They also each have a red “to” hiragana phonetic character, short for “Totoro,” if anyone needs an additional hint as to whose silhouette that is.

While the hem trim loops all the way around, it doesn’t contain any Totoro visual references itself. Don’t worry, though, fellow fans will still know this is a Ghibli shirt whether you’re coming or going, thanks to the presence of a pair of Soot Sprites at the nape of the neck.

Three other shirts previously exclusive to outside-Japan Asian Donguri Kyowakoku stores are also now available in Japan, two of which feature Spirited Away’s No Face.

These ones aren’t exact palette-swaps, as the white shirt actually has a few additional streaks of purple in No Face’s facial features, matching his in-anime coloring.

Finally, rounding out the new-to-Japan shirts is one more My Neighbor Totoro design.

This one is the least abstractly artsy of the bunch, but you don’t really need to be all that clever when you’re this cute, right?

▼ The visible tag on the sleeve displays the anime’s title in Japanese.

The papercutting Tototo shirts are priced at 6,380 yen (US$43), while the others are all 5,720 yen. However, while they’re now available to Donguri Kyowakoku shoppers in Japan, they’re not being stocked at the chain’s physical stores in the country, and are instead being offered through its online store, with the order pages for the papercutting shirts here, No Face here, and the My Neighbor Totoro design here.

Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Top image: Donguri Kyowakoku
Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
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