Funny Culture

Why Does Michael Jackson Look This Good in a Happi Coat?

A 1987 photo of Michael Jackson in a festival happi resurfaces, and everyone agrees he'd somehow out-dance the entire room.

· 6 min · Togetter

What's going on

In September 1987, in the middle of his Bad world tour, Michael Jackson made a stop in Osaka. As part of the welcome, the city draped him in a happi — the short, straight-cut cotton coat that Japanese people wear at festivals and celebrations — and a photo of him in it, beaming among a group of local children, recently made the rounds again.

What struck people wasn't only how good he looked. It was the shared conviction that, even standing in a sea of Japanese faces, he was the one who looked most likely to be brilliant at yosakoi — a high-energy festival dance, born in Kōchi, performed with a pair of small wooden clappers called naruko held in each hand. From there the comments spiral into loving speculation about exactly how he'd pull it off.

And then a second realization sets in, half joke and half cultural confession: Japan seems to put a happi on every famous person who ever visits. It's the easy, universal gesture of welcome — and the running suspicion is that it has never once failed to look good.

Comments

Surrounded by all these Japanese people, and somehow Michael still looks like the best yosakoi dancer of the bunch.
On this day back in 1987 — September 18 [Courtesy visit to Osaka City Hall, and more]: Michael visited Osaka City Hall with Bubbles (his pet chimpanzee), and the mayor presented him with the key to the city. That evening, a reception at his hotel. Dressed in a happi, Michael enjoyed performances by the Ryūjin Taiko drum preservation society and a local boys’ troupe. Later that night, he stopped by a video rental shop near Tamatsukuri Station (a district in Osaka).
It’s basically turned into Team Michael lol
For a second it actually feels plausible (　･ิω･ิ)www
If you told me he was the coach of the yosakoi team, I’d believe it lol
Maiko…

A pun lives in this one. In Japanese, Michael Jackson is affectionately nicknamed “Maikō,” which sounds almost identical to 舞子 (maiko) — a word that literally means “dancing child” and also refers to an apprentice geisha. One word, and it ties his nickname straight to the dancing theme.

He’s raising the ceiling on what yosakoi can even be.
Honestly I feel like Michael would struggle with on-the-beat dancing.
He’d be the only one keeping the rhythm on the offbeat.
Yosa-koi, yosa-koi ♫ Michael dancing away with a naruko clapper in each hand.
Now I can’t unsee razor-sharp Michael busting out yosakoi wwwwwww
I dunno why, but I feel like he’d slip in some serious gliding footwork.
Even doing yosakoi he’d 100% grab his crotch and let out a “Hoo!”
If peak-era Michael danced yosakoi, his moves would be so sharp it’d basically become a different art form.
I genuinely want to see Michael do yosakoi. It’d be cool on a whole other level.
Is it really just yosakoi though? Wouldn’t he be great at every other dance too?
This getup isn’t for yosakoi, it’s for bon-odori! (the communal dance held during the summer Obon festival) Either way, he’d still be the best dancer there.
Just tell him “it’s the dance they do at Japanese festivals” and pure-hearted performer Michael Jackson would 100% throw himself into it (and from everything you hear about him, he honestly wouldn’t have minded one bit).
He’s literally just standing there and somehow he’s radiating this aura.
When your standing posture is this clean, I guess anything you wear looks good.
There’s something beautiful about how he stands — like there’s a core running through him, both feet truly planted. Martial artists have that clean stance too. Compared to that, when I check myself in the mirror I look kind of awkward, like I’m still missing that natural ease.
His posing and the way he stands are just on another level, so everything looks twice as good on him.
That straight spine of his just carries this conviction, like “this guy’s got it — just watch.”
You can tell how insane his core strength is just from the way he carries himself.
A photo that teaches you the importance of core strength. So cool.
It’s kind of mysterious how Michael Jackson looks good in literally anything. I mean, sure, knowing everything he achieved probably biases me. But there’s gotta be something to the way he poses and all — he was deep in the entertainment world from childhood, after all. And the fact that he does it unconsciously, totally naturally, on top of all that.
Him looking super cool in a happi is a given, but the fact that his face is the same size as the kids’ is wild.
When you think they got him to go along with all this, Japan money back then must’ve been no joke (1987 was the peak of Japan’s bubble-economy boom).
Why is this country so determined to put a happi on every historic superstar!
They put one on the Pope too, after all.
It’s like a Hawaiian lei, kind of? It signals the local tradition all by itself, it’s easy, it doesn’t get in the way of the face, and it’s something you wear for happy occasions — so everybody ends up happy.

There’s a quiet pun in that last line: happi (法被), the festival coat, sounds just like the English word “happy.” So “everybody ends up happy” is also, in its own way, “everybody ends up in a happi.”

It’s such a handy item — it gives off a solid “Nippon” vibe while (almost) not caring what the person’s already wearing.
Why does he look cool in everything. At this point it’s just cheating.
Michael… if only the golden age of social media had come a little sooner…
Michael was a man who was born too early and got famous too early.
Right? He’d pull ten million views just from showing up on YouTube for a second. He could’ve cleared his debts with room to spare while he was still alive.
Ever since the movie (the Michael Jackson biopic), I’m having a personal Michael revival — I’ve been watching nothing but Michael videos and photos. Listening to the music nonstop too, obviously.
Just saw the movie “Michael.” We’re never going to get another superstar like him. To think a person with a heart like that actually existed. It’s a miracle.

My take

Which raises the real question — how many famous people are still out there that Japan simply hasn't gotten around to putting in a happi coat yet?

Comments loosely translated for tone.

Source https://togetter.com/li/2711462