If you happen to see cars or scooters on streets bearing images of cartoons, manga or online computer game characters, it’s quite possible that the driver is a fan of itasya (痛車).
Itasya is a Japanese term referring to cars decorated with cartoon or manga images on the outside — a subculture that has been popular in Japan for the past decade.
A fan of Japanese manga and itasya, 28-year-old Liu Chien-liang (劉建良) founded the Taiwan Itasya Culture Promotion Association in February with a few friends.
PHOTO: HSIEH WEN-HUA, TAIPEI TIMES
SEVEN EXAMPLES
At the moment, there are seven itasya in Taipei, Kaohsiung and Tainan, including Liu’s own itasya with “Kokagami,” a character from the manga Lucky Star on the doors, hood and roof.
It took him three attempts before Liu managed to paste Kokagami’s images onto his car.
Liu said that he’s very attracted to Kokagami because she looks cold outside, but is actually just shy on the inside.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
He said it makes him proud when he drives in the car because it makes him the focus on the road.
The term itasya comes from the Japanese word ita (痛), which means “to hurt” or “painful,” while sya (車) means “car.”
As for why an itasya is called an itasya, Liu said that there are three different explanations.
The first goes that, under Japanese traffic regulations, one has to pay extra fees to put exotic decorations on the outside of a car, and thus it “hurts” to pay the extra money.
The second explanation says that itasya is how the Japanese calls Italian cars, and since they believe Italian cars to be the best decorated ones, the Japanese then chose to call cars decorated with manga characters’ pictures itasya.
The third explanation, Liu said, goes that since the rich decorations on itasya are so colorful, they would “hurt” viewers’ eyes.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
RSS