By TAKAYUKI SEINO/ Staff Writer
February 19, 2025 at 18:01 JST
Tottori Governor Shinji Hirai, left, puts on a gold "kabuto" headpiece, presented by Tomoya Hanafusa, president of Ningyouno Hanafusa Co., in Tottori on Feb. 19. (Takayuki Seino)
TOTTORI—Donning a matching gold “kabuto” headpiece to the one gifted to U.S. President Donald Trump made a Japanese political leader here feel empowered to start issuing his own executive orders.
At the request of reporters, Tottori Governor Shinji Hirai tried on the headdress on Feb. 19 that was presented by the local company that made it.
Laughing, Hirai said, “This makes me want to issue a presidential order now.”
“I feel like I can do anything,” he said.
Ningyouno Hanafusa Co., a traditional doll company in Tottori city, presented the same headpiece ornament that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba gifted to Trump at their Feb. 7 summit in Washington to the Tottori prefectural government.
Tottori is Ishiba’s home prefecture and the doll company received an order for the ornament, named “Amairo odoshi manten kinboshi kabuto,” priced at 168,000 yen ($1,110), from the Foreign Ministry.
The company president, Tomoya Hanafusa, handed the headdress to Hirai.
Tottori Prefecture is known as “Hoshi(star)-tori Prefecture” because of its pristine starry night skies where the Milky Way and shooting stars are easily observed.
Citing this nickname, Hanafusa said, “The gold star on the head of (this headdress) is suitable for Hoshi-tori Prefecture.”
He said he hopes the kabuto to be used as a tourism resource to help boost the prefecture as a whole.
Hirai presented a letter of appreciation to Hanafusa in return.
The gifted headdress will be displayed at the Tottori Okayama Shimbashikan, a prefectural antenna store in Tokyo, from Feb. 22.
The prefecture will also consider exhibiting the kabuto at the Osaka-Kansai Expo, which opens in April.
According to the doll company, inquiries and orders came in from around Japan after the summit presidential gift was reported.
However, it takes more than two years to deliver the product because it is handmade and difficult to mass produce, the company said.
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