Who is Bluedal, the supporter who loves the Kanagawa Philharmonic?

Are you familiar with " Bluedal, " the cute dog character with blue polka dots? You can see him at concerts and on the website of the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra (hereinafter referred to as Kanagawa Phil), so it seems certain that he loves music. Upon investigation, it turns out that Bluedal was created in 2004 by the Yokohama design company NDC Graphics to coincide with the opening of the Minatomirai Line, and is now also active as the official character of the Kanagawa Phil. This sounds intriguing, so we spoke with Koichiro Taga, the public relations representative of the Kanagawa Phil, and Azusa Tanaka of NDC Graphics to hear the story of Bluedal and the Kanagawa Phil.

"With the opening of the Minatomirai Line, the idea arose to create a new symbol that would represent Yokohama. As we brainstormed ideas, we focused on the story that 'in the West, Dalmatians once served as lead dogs for horse-drawn carriages.' Inspired by this, we selected the Dalmatian as a symbol to welcome visitors to Yokohama. The 'Yokohama Blue Dalmatian Project' was launched with the cooperation of the local government, shopping districts, and department stores," says Tanaka.

Indeed, the agile and elegant Dalmatian perfectly matches the image of Yokohama. That's why a Dalmatian adorned with blue polka dots was chosen as the campaign character. However, initially, a real Dalmatian color-transformed using CGI was used as the key visual.

Later, when NDC Graphics held a design exhibition, the idea of "developing a character to promote the Yokohama brand" deepened. A design unit centered around the late Kenzo Nakagawa created the character " Bluedal."
That's right, Blue Dal 's name was derived from "blue," which is Yokohama's image color, and "Dalmatian."

To cultivate the character into one that will be loved for a long time, we first created a picture book. The wordless picture book embodies our hope that it will be enjoyed by a wide range of people, regardless of age or nationality.

This is "Bluedal's Sunday," a four-panel comic strip that was serialized in the Sunday edition of the Kanagawa Shimbun newspaper. It was a popular series that ran from April 2006 until last autumn.
Later, Bluedal 's adorable character and the concept of "regional revitalization" caught the attention of people associated with the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra, and a collaboration began. In 2008, Bluedal was appointed as the Kanagawa Philharmonic's official mascot, and merchandise featuring Bluedal playing musical instruments in a Kanagawa Philharmonic version was released.

"The Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra's mission is to 'create a music culture closely connected to the local community.' Also, classical music has an image of being enjoyable and intellectual, so the Kanagawa Philharmonic's offer was very welcome to us, as we wanted to carefully nurture Bluedal ," (Tanaka).

"Due to reforms to the public interest corporation system, the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra needed to transition to a public interest corporation by the end of November 2013. However, its financial situation at the time was very dire, and it would have been difficult for it to survive as it was. We thought that the only way to continue our musical activities was to ask for support from the local community, so we considered establishing a fund named after Bluedal . We consulted with Mr. Nakagawa, and he kindly agreed, which led to the establishment of the 'Bluedal Fund' ," (Mr. Taga).

Furthermore, Nakagawa wove the establishment of the Blue Dal Foundation into the story of Blue Dal .

The story goes that when Bluedal 's friends "donate" acorns into his tuba, beautiful flowers eventually bloom from the tuba that Bluedal plays.
"Following this story, we had the idea of placing old tubas in concert venues instead of donation boxes. We didn't go through with it because it seemed like it would be a lot of trouble to collect the coins afterward (laughs), but I think it gave us a positive opportunity to take on fundraising activities," (Taga).

Currently, Blue Dal merchandise is incredibly diverse!
In addition to Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse Building No. 1 and Osanbashi Pier, you can also purchase them here .

The most popular item is the button badge. Responding to requests from orchestra members and children, they now have all the instruments for an orchestra. It seems likely that a concert by Bluedal will be held soon.
Bluedal might be a genius?!

This is "Kanagawa's Delicious Water: Forest Harmony," a bottled water manufactured and sold by the Kanagawa Prefectural Enterprise Agency. The bottle features a design of Blue Dal , and a portion of the sales will be donated to the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra.

2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra. Although the first half of the year's concerts were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kanagawa Philharmonic is gradually starting to resume activities following the lifting of the state of emergency.
" Bluedal is a character who lives in the present moment, so I'm sure he's eagerly awaiting the Kanagawa Philharmonic's concert," (Tanaka)

I'm looking forward to the day when I can go to concerts and enjoy music freely!

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