Umami

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This is the last collection I designed for my brand Yeaaah! Studio before we decided to stop selling t-shirts (read more about that here).

The theme is umami (うま味) and more widely, Japanese food.

Umami is the 5th basic taste (with saltiness, sweetness, bitterness, and sourness) that was identified in Japan in the early 20th century.

This collection was first put on pre-order in May 2022 and then fully released in July 2022. All the t-shirts and art prints were screen printed in France by L'Atelier du Grand Chic. The stickers were printed by StickerApp in Sweden.

Some pieces of the collection are still available on our website : www.yeaaah-studio.com

Hope you enjoy!

JAPANESE BREAKFAST

The back design of this t-shirt shows a traditional Japanese breakfast composed of many dishes (miso soup, fish, rice, pickles, natto, and omelette) while the front design shows rice balls (onigiri).

The text おはようございます (ohayou gozaimasu) can be translated as “good morning”.
The style of the illustration is inspired by early 20th century commercial designs.

FOOD SIGNS

The word うまい (umai) on the front means “delicious”.

The back illustration is a compilation of hand-painted Japanese restaurant signs. Here are the translations :
ラーメン : ramen / やきとり : yakitori / たこ焼 : takoyaki / 氷 : this kanji is for kakigori (かき氷) / とんかつ : tonkatsu / そば : soba / からあげ : karaage / うどん : udon / 団子 : dango

KAKIGÔRI

The front design of this t-shirt shows a pot of kakigôri, the popular Japanese shaved ice dessert that you can top with all sorts of ingredients : syrup, condensed milk, fruits, wiped cream, etc…
In the back you’ll find our character Mimi the shiba, enjoying his kakigôri at a Japanese festival (matsuri).
The kanji 氷 (kôri) alone means “ice” and is put on flags used by shops and stalls serving kakigôri (かき氷).

BUNBUKU CHOP

This design is inspired by export tea labels from the second half of the 1800's, after Japan started trading with the west.
The character is the tanuki from the Japanese folktale "Bunbuku Chagama" (Bunbuku the tea-kettle).

ITADAKIMASU

You probably already know the bento, this Japanese lunch box that you can bring every day at school, at work, or take for a lunch at the park with friends. But do you know kyaraben?

It is the super cute form of bento that incorporates one or several characters made with food (hence the name charaben/kyaraben). Some parents are so talented that their bento literally look like pieces of art!

The word Itadakimasu is said before starting a meal. It can roughly be translated as “I accept this meal” but it humbly thanks all the people involved in the making of it, from the people who produced the ingredients to those who cooked them.

DONBURI

This design is about a fictional restaurant serving donburi, which is a typical Japanese dish made of rice topped with a wide variety of ingredients depending on your taste.

There are many different kinds of donburi : gyûdon (with beef), katsudon (with breaded pork), oyakodon (with chicken, eggs, and onion), tendon (with tempura), etc…

I named the restaurant “Jūgatsu” (October) as it is my birth month.

RAMEN FOREVER

This is actually a color variant of a design I did for our "Ramen is Love" collection.

It shows one of our original characters inspired by Japanese pop culture and folk tales, Yû, eating a bowl of ramen. Yû is a yûrei, a Japanese ghost, he wears a hitaikakushi (white triangle headband) on his forehead.

Japanese translations :
ラーメンフォーエバー - ramen forever
ずるずる (zuruzuru) - that’s Japanese onomatopoeia for slurping sound
イェーッ！スタジオ - Yeaaah! Studio

CUEILLEUSE DE THÉ

This illustration is a portrait of a Japanese tea picker in her work clothes.

I took inspiration from photos and illustrations from the early 20th century.

DANGO

This illustration is a fake sign for a stall selling hanami dango (花見だんご)🍡, also called sanshoku dango (tricolor dango). This Japanese sweet is composed of 3 balls (made of sweetened rice flour and water) on a skewer and is commonly eaten during the period of cherry blossom viewing (hanami), where this type of dango takes its name from. But you can eat it year-long of course!
The text 一本一〇〇円 indicates the price : 1 skewer for 100 yen.