Hikonyan, Japan's beloved samurai helmet-wearing cat mascot, turns 20

Hikonyan, Japan's beloved samurai helmet-wearing cat mascot from Hikone in Shiga Prefecture, turned 20 on Monday, with a special commemorative event held at the city's landmark castle to mark the occasion.Widely regarded as having sparked Japan's "yuru-kyara" local mascot boom, Hikonyan has become one of the country's most popular regional characters.The mascot is modeled on a cat that, according to legend, beckoned Ii Naotaka, the second lord of the Hikone Domain in western Japan, to a temple gate, saving him from a thunderstorm.Wearing a red helmet that recalls the Ii clan's symbol during…READ FULL ARTICLE