MOMOYA TV-Ads045-1967-Norihei

Time: 30 sec.

Product Name: SHIITAKE-NORI

Description of Product: SHIITAKE-NORI is a savory preserve made of seaweed, called “Nori-no-tsukudani” in Japanese. It is made with soy sauce, sugar, mirin (rice wine) and also mixed with shiitake mushroom. It is preservable, and often eaten with Japanese rice.

Year: 1967

Advertiser: Momoya Co., Ltd.

Advertising Agency: YOMIKO Advertising Inc.

Production Company: Television Corporation of Japan

Description of Title: Norihei, derived from a real life comedian Mr. Norihei Miki, is an animated character appeared in TV advertisements by Momoya Co., Ltd.

This piece is a composition of an animation and a hand of a real life actress. At the same time, it is an exceptional version of TV advertisement among the Momoya’s “Norihei Anime” series, as there is no line or voice-over by Mr. Norihei Miki though the animated character Norihei appears in frames. In a stage, he moves in a typical way of Kabuki actor along with the narration by female voice and the traditional Japanese music performed in the background. It parodies a part of the male character named Nippon Daemon at the “Inasegawa no Ba” or “Inase River Monologues” in apopular Kabuki play “Aoto Zoshi Hana no Nishiki-e,” also known as “Shiranami Gonin Otoko.” In the latter half, animated image of Norihei is fiddled by the oversized female hand surrealistically.