Post #660414 by bigbrotiki on Sun, Dec 2, 2012 9:37 PM

To sum this all up, I think the Rosebud, the key to the mystery could be finding a living connection to Otagiri Mercantile, as they did the Tiki Bob's mug. But they are a Japanese company that just had reps in the US, and Tiki mugs were just a small side business for them. That's why it burns me to hear that the Spurlin mugs came from the ESTATE of a Otagiri rep - another link died off. I would love to hear how the process of designing a logo mug went - obviously, in many cases, the restaurateur gave the rep something, like a menu, that had the Tiki on it, and the Japanese translated it into a sculpt - yet sometimes Otagiri's designers seem to have came up with the designs on their own.

But I am also not one to be entirely mug-centric in Tiki, I am more interested in the whole picture, the social and historic developments that lead to it happening. I am currently developing a new perspective on Polynesian pop, as I love viewing the phenomenon from new angles: Outsiders always act surprised that I am still at it, after two exhaustive books, but when you delve deeply enough into any subject, it opens up new macro-cosms and facets that you didn't think about yet.