The Billiken is a charm doll created by an American art teacher and illustrator, Florence Pretz of Kansas City, Missouri, who is said to have seen the mysterious figure in a dream. It is believed that Pretz found the name Billiken in

Bliss Carman William Bliss Carman (April 15, 1861 – June 8, 1929) was a Canadian poet who lived most of his life in the United States, where he achieved international fame. He was acclaimed as Canada's poet laureate during his later years. In Canada, Car ...

's 1896 poem "Mr. Moon: A Song Of The Little People". In 1908, she obtained a

design patent In the United States, a design patent is a form of legal protection granted to the ornamental design of an article of manufacture. Design patents are a type of industrial design right. Ornamental designs of jewelry, furniture, beverage containers ...

on the ornamental design of the Billiken, which she sold to the Billiken Company of Chicago. The Billiken was monkey-like with pointed ears, a mischievous smile and a tuft of hair on his pointed head. His arms were short and he was generally sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him. Billiken is known as "The God of Things as They Ought to Be". To buy a Billiken was said to give the purchaser luck, but to receive one as a gift would be better luck. The image was copyrighted and a trademark was put on the name. After a few years of popularity, the Billiken faded into obscurity. Although they are similar, the Billiken and the baby-like

kewpie Kewpie is a brand of dolls and figurines that were conceived as comic strip characters by cartoonist Rose O'Neill. The illustrated cartoons, appearing as baby cupid characters, began to gain popularity after the publication of O'Neill's comic ...

figures that debuted in the December 1909 '' Ladies' Home Journal'' are not the same. Today, the Billiken is the official mascot of Saint Louis University and St. Louis University High School, both Jesuit institutions located in St. Louis. The Billiken is also the official mascot of the

Royal Order of Jesters The Royal Order of Jesters is a male fraternal organization, allowing only Shriners in good standing to join. Admission is by invitation only. Formation The original meeting resulting in the formation was held on February 20, 1911, by Shriners ...

, an invitation only

Shriner Shriners International, formally known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (AAONMS), is an American Masonic society established in 1870 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Shriners International describes itself ...

group, affiliated with

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

. The Billiken also became the namesake of Billiken Shokai, the Japanese toy & model manufacturing company (established 1976).

History

The Billiken sprang from the height of the "

Mind-Cure The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought) is a spiritual movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy from ...

" craze in the United States at the start of the twentieth century. It represented the "no worry" ideal, and was a huge hit. Variations appeared, such as the "Teddy-Billiken Doll" and the Billycan/Billycant pair (to drive petty problems away). The Billiken helped touch off the doll craze of the era. At least two Billiken-themed songs were recorded, including "Billiken Rag" and the "Billiken Man Song." The latter was recorded by Blanche Ring. The Billiken, as a good luck charm, appears multiple times in the Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor movie ''

Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at t ...

''. It is employed as a device that both prompts recollections of the male lead, Robert Taylor, and that links several scenes within the movie as the plot unfolds. ''Wizard of Oz'' author

L. Frank Baum Lyman Frank Baum (; May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author best known for his children's books, particularly ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and its sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the ''Oz'' series, plus 41 other novels (not includ ...

kept a Billiken doll on his piano. The Billiken made its Japanese debut in 1908. A statue was installed in the uppermost level of the original Tsutenkaku Tower as it was opened to the public in 1912. When the nearby

Luna Park Luna Park is a name shared by dozens of currently operating and defunct amusement parks. They are named after, and partly based on, the first Luna Park, which opened in 1903 during the heyday of large Coney Island parks. Luna parks are small-s ...

was closed in 1925, the tower's Billiken statue disappeared. In 1980, a replacement statue made its appearance in a new Tsutenkaku Tower that was built in 1956.

Sports mascot

In its heyday, the Billiken enjoyed worldwide celebrity. In the United States he became the athletic

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

of Saint Louis University, because the figure was said to resemble coach John R. Bender. The school's athletic teams remain the ''Billikens'' to this day. A bronze statue of the Billiken stands in front of the Chaifetz Arena on the Saint Louis University Campus. A junior version of the Billiken became the mascot of nearby St. Louis University High School; a stainless steel statue of the Junior Billiken stands adjacent to the Danis Fieldhouse, on the St. Louis University High School Campus. Bud Billiken was a youth-club mascot for ''

The Chicago Defender ''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...

'', and was created in 1923, and is known more contemporarily as the inspiration for the yearly parade of the same name held shortly before the start of the school year. The Billiken was the team nickname for several minor league professional baseball teams, including the

Fort Wayne Billikens A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

of the 1908–1910 Central League, the Montgomery Billikens of the 1910 Southern Association (a Class A league that ran from 1902–1935), the Bay City Billikens of the 1911 and 1912

Southern Michigan League The Southern Michigan League was a Minor League Baseball circuit which operated between 1906 and 1912. It was classified as a Class D league from 1906 to 1910 and as a Class C league from 1911 to 1912. After that, the league was known as the Sou ...

(a league that dwelled in several classifications between 1906 and 1912), and the McLeansboro Billikens of the 1910

Kentucky–Illinois–Tennessee League The Kentucky–Illinois–Tennessee League (or ''KITTY League'') was a Class D level minor league baseball circuit that went through six different periods of play between 1903 and 1955. The League hosted teams in 29 cities from the states of Ill ...

("KITTY League"), a Class D professional baseball league that ran from 1903 until 1955. McLeansboro is located in southern Illinois, 116 miles from St. Louis.

Alaska

In 1909, the Billiken began its appearance in souvenir shops of Alaska. In Nome, Alaska, an Inuit carver by the name Angokwazhuk copied a Billiken figurine in ivory brought to him by a merchant. Since that first appearance in Alaska, some Inuit carvers began to include the billiken in the collection of figurines they created. By the 1960s the Billiken was ubiquitous in larger Alaskan cities like Anchorage, and heavily touristed areas. Billikens were often carved from Alaskan ivory and were used in jewelry and knick-knacks. Often these souvenirs were accompanied by printed, romanticized Billiken lore. In Anchorage, the name was also adopted by merchants, as in the Billiken Drive-In movie theater.

Japan

Throughout Japan representations of the Billiken were enshrined. Pre-World War II statues of the Billiken could be found in Kobe city's Chinju Inari and Matsuo Inari shrines. Both of these statues were removed from display for many years at the onset of the war when foreign deities fell out of favor. The most famous representation of the Billiken was in an amusement park,

, in the

Shinsekai is an old neighbourhood located next to south Osaka City's downtown "Minami" area. The neighbourhood was created in 1912 with New York (specifically, Coney Island) as a model for its southern half and Paris for its northern half. At this locatio ...

district of

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

, Japan. In 1912, he was enshrined in the park as a symbol of

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana (music), a genre or style of American music *Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...

and there was revered as "The God of Things As They Ought to Be". Popular Billiken souvenirs in the park included dolls and

manjū is a traditional Japanese confection. Of the many varieties of manjū, most have an outside made from flour, rice powder, kudzu, and buckwheat, and a filling of ''anko'' (red bean paste), usually made from boiled adzuki beans and sugar. ''Man ...

. When the park closed in 1923, the wooden statue of the Billiken went missing. A replica of the statue was placed in the second-generation

Tsūtenkaku , owned by , is a tower and well-known landmark of Osaka, Japan and advertises Hitachi. It is located in the Shinsekai district of Naniwa-ku, Osaka. Its total height is 103 m; the main observation deck is at a height of 91 m. History The c ...

Tower in 1980. The Billiken was a star in Sakamoto Junji's 1996 comedy ''Billiken'' in which the statue is restored to the Tsutenkaku in an effort to revive the popularity of the tower and save Shinsekai.. The statue was a permanent fixture in the tower until September 2005 when it made its first departure and was taken, as an ambassador of sorts, to

Shibuya Shibuya (wikt:渋谷, 渋谷wikt:区, 区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern ...

's Tokyu Hands department store in Tokyo as a part of a fair to promote Naniwa (traditional Osaka) culture. As a part of the cultural exchange, a replica of the statue of Shibuya's most famous dog,

Hachikō was a Japanese Akita dog remembered for his remarkable loyalty to his owner, Hidesaburō Ueno, for whom he continued to wait for over nine years following Ueno's death. Hachikō was born on November 10, 1923, at a farm near the city of Ōda ...

, was sent to Osaka. In October 2008, the Billiken of Tsutenkaku took a journey all the way from Japan to its "home" city of St. Louis, Missouri where it was visited by students of St. Louis University, whose mascot is also the Billiken. Due to wear (particularly to the soles of the feet), the dark, worn statue replica from 1980 was replaced in May 2012 with a new one. Presently he resides on the fifth floor observation deck and has become closely associated with the tower. Each year thousands of visitors place a coin in his donation box and rub the soles of his well-worn feet to make their wishes come true. The Billiken also became the namesake of Billiken Shokai, the Japanese toy & model manufacturing company established in 1976.

Notes

References

* . * . Also reprinted in .

External links

{{Commons category, Billiken
In Search of Billiken's Roots
Well-researched article tracing the history of the Billiken's first mention in 1896 in Canadian poet Bliss Carman's book ''More Songs from Vagabondia''. This was the inspiration of stories by Sara Hamilton Birchall and illustrator Florence Pretz.
What's a Billiken?
Saint Louis Billikens: Official Site

Excerpt of article from ''Universitas'' (a Saint Louis University publication)
Billiken Centennial 1908–2008
Flickr group featuring photographs, ephemera and souvenir images of Billikens from all over the world
What's a Junior Billiken?
Saint Louis University High School's origin of their mascot
Billikens.com
Fan Site of the Saint Louis University Billikens Saint Louis University
The Billiken Man
recorded 1909 by Blanche Ring; available for free download from InternetArchive,Archive.org
''Biriken'' (1996)
motion picture trailer

Picture of Florence Pretz
Dolls Saint Louis University Fortune gods New religious movement deities Missouri culture North American deities