A group of Chinese Artist have added excitement to Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games by modelling an animated Samurai for each participating country, and the Nigerian version is named Okocha, Completesports.com reports.
Samurai (or Buchi) were the very reverred warriors in ancient Japan, whose most popular weapon was sword.
However, Buchido (the ways of the warriors) which highlighted the warriors’ admirable discipline and all-round honour are still values still much respected and recommended in modern Japan notwithstanding that the Samurai class has long been abolished.
A group of 15 Japanese artists volunteered to add some dash of excitement to the Olympic spirit by making a Samurai of each country participating in the Tokyo 2020 Games which kicked off on Friday July 23, to run until August 8 2021. They carried out research on each country’s flag before deciding on the elements to make up the respective Samurai designs.
Okocha – the Nigerian Samurai, comes chic with a combination of the iconic green and white colours of the country’s flag in his toga. Okocha is also armed with a designer sword that has a horse’s head and tail at the tip of its Sheath – another important element on Nigeria’s coat of arms. His bandana has an image of an eagle and tails out like the horse’s, while his wavy green warrior’s cap is akin to birds’ king’s head. The shield of the Coat of Arms and its green and white band were also replicated by the Japanese artists on Okocha’s outfit.
The Nigerian Samurai may have been named Okocha, after, obviously one of the most exciting talents the country has produced in sports, Austine ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha – a former captain of Super Eagles and an Olympian who won gold medal in football event with the nation’s U-23 side at Atlanta’96 Olympics.
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Team Nigeria flaunted Okocha the Samurai on Instagram on Friday as Tokyo 2020 officially kicked off, and highlight his virtue, favourite meal and hobbies.
“Japan made Samurai’s from countries flags for Tokyo 2020 Olympics,” Team Nigeria’s post on Instagram reads.
“This is for Nigeria: Nigeria’s samurai is called Okocha. He’s 180m tall, loves pepper soup, plays chess and rides horses, is skilled at guitar and afrobeat and heals sick people just by looking at them. He’s a pacifist.”
The innovative Japanese artists have spoken in glowing terms about their contribution to the Tokyo Olympic Games glamour with Samurais.
“Samurais are unique to Japan and we want everyone to get to know traditional Japanese culture,” creator Kamaya Yamamoto told BBC.
Another artist, Kozo Yamada, added .
“We hope this can be a way for people to learn about other countries. That’s what the Olympics are about,”
“I admit that some of the characters might be a bit stereotypical because they are based on a Japanese perspective of the world,” says Yamamoto.
“We didn’t know that bullfighting is controversial in Spain. We received criticism online, so we changed it.”
By Nnamdi Ezekute
