Hyoutan-Tsugi
Perhaps Tezuka’s strangest and most recognizable creation is Hyoutan-tsugi, a strange little creature which looks rather like a pig with patches stitched on it. Hyoutan-Tsugi actually represents the fruiting body of a kind of Japanese mushroom, and is based on a sketch Tezuka’s sister did when she was very young. This strange little figure has become Tezuka’s signature, in a way, appearing in essentially every work he ever wrote in some strange form or another. The Hyoutan-Tsugi appears most frequently as an expression of emotion. For example, when a character is shocked, startled or embarrassed, sometimes the character’s face will turn into the Hyoutan-Tsugi, or the Hyoutan-Tsugi will drop from the ceiling and hit the character on the head. When angry, a character will often kick a Hyoutan-Tsugi that appears on the ground, or throw one so it bounces around the panel. In addition to its function as an expressive tool, Hyoutan-Tsugi often appears in the background as a symbol - a logo, a decoration in a room, a photograph on a desk, a face on top of a totem pole. Even in Tezuka’s very serious works, the Hyoutan-Tsugi will generally make an appearance, as in Buddha where it is the symbol branded onto a slave, or in Adolf where it occasionally appears to lighten moments in an otherwise intense drama.
In Ribon No Kishi (Princess Knight) The Royal seal is a Hyoutan-tsugi. Although it is only seen in on the document that reversed the law forbidding women to inherit the throne.
The Hyoutan-Tsugi’s most intriguing appearance is as the central figure of a prose novel written late in Tezuka’s life whose title is “Hyoutan-Tsugi” or 'Poison Mushroom'. The creators of recent Tezuka-based works from the Metropolis movie to the Astro Boy videogames have maintained the Hyoutan-Tsugi motif, making it one of the continuing signatures of the Tezuka universe.
MERCHANDISING: plushie, appearances in several figures, pawns in the Tezuka Character Chess Set.