Henohenomoheji

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Henohenomoheji (へのへのもへじ) or hehenonomoheji (へへののもへじ) is a face drawn by Japanese schoolchildren using hiragana characters.

The word breaks down into the seven hiragana characters he, no, he, no, mo, he, ji. The first two "he" are the eyebrows, the two "no" are the eyes, the "mo" is a nose, and the last "he" is the mouth. The outline of the face is made by the character "ji", with the dakuten forming the ear. Children use henohenomoheji as the faces of kakashi (scarecrows).

[edit] Variations

Other versions may have been current in other epochs and places. Japanese-Brazilians who learned hiragana in the 1950s, in the State of São Paulo, report that they were not taught to draw the "ji", and thus left the face unframed, as in the henohenomohe shown at right.

Other people from the same epoch but from a town report that they learned to draw a big "no" around the face, instead of the "ji" (not shown).

Others have drawn it with an "i" (い) at the end, which is drawn under the "ji" to form a neck.

[edit] Trivia

• In the popular anime Naruto, the character Kakashi Hatake's face is the subject of an entire episode (no. 101), in which his students try to remove his mask. Against one of them he uses a decoy (scarecrow) of himself, with the Henohenomoheji drawn on the face; which is appropriate enough given that his name is Kakashi. Also, Kakashi is able to summon a small pack of nine dogs, all of which have the Henohenomoheji on them somewhere.

• In the PlayStation 2 video game, Okami, characters are represented with a Henohenomoheji icon floating above their heads whenever they are too far to be seen.