Dakimakura – Japanese Pillows for Lonely Nights

26.07.2010 | By: P. D.

Have you ever wanted to lie in bed with your favorite animated hero? Well, now you can!

The expression dakimakura literally means a pillow for hugging.

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Each one of you probably gets lonely from time to time when lying in bed. Maybe you are without a partner , maybe he or she pushes you away, saying you are too hot or that your feet are cold. And then you fold the blanket in half or use an extra pillow to embrace it instead. But like with every other thing in the world, the Japanese have again come up with a solution.

Dakimakura pillows and pillowcases

The Japanese kids have grown familiar with bigger sleeping pillows over the years which they use as a substitute for teddy bears to give them a feeling of safety. The expression dakimakura literally means a pillow for hugging. Because of the various pillowcases they have become extremely popular among the lovers of animated films. In the nineties, the Japanese salesmen discovered a branch that sells and it has become a real goldmine since then. They started selling the dakimakura pillowcases with prints of famous and even not famous heroes and heroins from animated TV series, films and plays, as well as film and TV actors and actresses.

Today the dakimakura pillows are sold in standard measures and the cases show different life-sized characters. The main target group for dakimakura pillowcases are young men under 30 years of age and therefore the heroins are shown in appropriate positions. While most of them are dressed in school uniforms, night gowns or pajamas, the most wanted are of course those in underwear or naked. The principle is ''if they go to bed with you they should at least be appropriately dressed''.

Dakimakura wives

Some lonely lovers are so attached to their dakimakura pillows (with the right pillowcase) that they even call them ''wives''. Mostly in joke, but some do it for real. A Korean lover of Fate Testaross character from a certain animated series married his dakimakura pillow and the cameras followed him to an amusement park and a restaurant where he took his wife. Even though it was a TV wedding, the dakimakura lovers are still wondering whether the dakimakura pillow or the pillowcase was of key importance for the wedding.