Kawaii Ultraman Monster "Kanegon" 祖師ヶ谷大蔵のカネゴン

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

"Kanegon" statue

Do you know what this is? This is a statue of "Kanegon," a monster of "Ultra Q," i.e., the first series of Ultramen, Japanese fictional superheroes, aired since 1960s.

Kanegon used to be a boy named Kaneo Kaneda before being turned into a monster because of his money grubbing personality. Kanegon has a coin purse head and needs to eat notes and coins of 3,520 yen (about 30 dollars) every day and can tell their authenticity. "Kane" means money while "gon" is a Japanese honorific suffix, showing friendliness like "mon" of "Kumamon," a mascot character for promotion of the Kumamoto prefecture. 

My hubby & Kanegon

The statue is in Soshigaya Okura in Setagaya ward, Tokyo where Tsuburaya Productions producing this Ultramen series for such a long time is located. If you are interested in Japanese superheroes and their lovely antagonists, why don't you go there to see this silly but kawaii monster and Ultra superheroes!

祖師ヶ谷大蔵で出会いました。カネゴンです。リアルタイムで見たことはないのですが名前は有名ですよね。間抜けなイメージがありますがそうなのでしょうか。

Wikipediaで調べたら日に3,520円のお札と硬貨を食べなければならないとのこと。知らなかったです。でもそれも間抜けっぽくてかわいいです。祖師ヶ谷大蔵ってウルトラマン（円谷プロ）の街だったんですね。ほっこりした一日でした。