Discovering the “Pokéfuta”!
In Japan there is a form of street art which involves manhole covers, which are decorated with bas-reliefs or colors to tell local stories and culture.
This artistic movement of decorated manhole covers began with the 1975 Okinawa Expo. The goal, at the time, was to counter the resistance of citizens towards the modernization works of the sewer system. This is how decorated manhole covers arrived, functional but also beautiful, with the aim of inducing people to welcome the novelty with enthusiasm.
After more than forty years i manhoru (as they are called) have become part of the urban landscape in Japan.
Do you think that they are so much an integral part of Japanese culture that in 2017 the city of Kawagoe, in the Saitama prefecture, even hosted a festival dedicated to creative manhole covers.
You think, The Pokémon Company could he miss this wonderful opportunity? Of course NOT!
And that was how the advent of gods began Poké Runalso called Poké Lidsthe wonderful Pokémon-themed manhole covers!
In 2018 The Pokémon Companyin collaboration with Japanese local governments, under the “Pokémon Local Acts” project, has begun to design and install manhole covers to be placed in Japanese cities, in part to attract tourists to smaller and more unusual destinations but also to help revitalize cities affected by natural disasters, leveraging the power of the brand.
The first Pokémon-themed manhole cover depicted the Pokémon Eevee and was installed in Ibusuki City in Kagoshima Prefecture on December 20, 2018.
From that moment on, the Pokéfuta phenomenon expanded like wildfire, involving many prefectures throughout Japan.
Do you think that they have become so numerous and famous, that to keep track of them and to allow Poké-tourists to find them more easily, a site entirely dedicated to them has even been created
Arriving on the site, the first thing you come across is the logo of the “artistic movement” of the Poké Lids and the colorful map of Japan, reproduced through a sort of pixel art.
Scrolling further down is the official description of the Pokéfuta, which I report below:
Poké Lids, artistic covers for utility holes, have recently started to be spotted in some cities. I wonder if they are Pokémonopolistic in nature? It appears that not all utility holes are artificial; it is said that Diglett may be responsible for digging holes large enough to be mistaken for utility holes and some artists have taken it upon themselves to “mark” the covers to differentiate them from ordinary ones. Where will the next “brand” be?
By clicking on the various regions on the map, for example by selecting Kantoyou are directed to a sort of sub-menu where you can see the various prefectures of that region, with previews of the various Poké Lids associated with each of them.
(The prefectures that do not currently host one of these decorated manhole covers are shown in grey).
Each manhole cover has a unique design, featuring one or more Pokémon.
In some cases the choice of the Pokémon in the foreground is linked to the position: for example Eevee was chosen for Ibusuki due to a pun (Ibusuki” (Ibusuki, ibusuki) fa rima con “Mi piace Eevee” (I love Eevee, I had a brush)).
In some prefectures, however, a specific Pokémon is always recurring, as happens in Hokkaido, Tottori and Fukushima where all the manhole covers respectively report: Vulpix, Sandshrew / Sandslash and Chansey, since these Pokémon have been designated as ambassadors of those prefectures.
As we have already mentioned before, the site was created both to keep track of the existing manhole covers and to make it easier for tourists to locate them.
For this reason it is structured as follows:
by clicking on the Pokéfuta of interest, for example the one positioned in Yokohama on the occasion of the 2023 Pokémon World Cup depicting Pikachu and Raichu, a screen dedicated to the manhole in question will open where you can access information relating to the Pokémon depicted (e.g. Pokédex number, height, weight, type of belonging, etc.) and clicking on “place” you will be redirected to Google Map with the exact coordinates of where the manhole is located.
A real gem considering that the Pokéfuta are also used as “Pokéstop” in the Pokémon GO game.
These manhole covers have become so famous that The Pokémon Company has also decided to release official products that faithfully reproduce the design of the various manhole covers.
Have you chosen your favorite Pokéfuta yet?
Mine without a shadow of a doubt are those depicting the evolutions of Eeeve, located in the prefecture of Kagoshima, which I reproduce below.
Please stay tuned as you never know where the next Poké Lids will appear!
Until next time!
Laura Villa
(IG: @la_casa_di_pikachu)