Whitchurch Silk Mill, Hampshire: the town where British collectors have gathered for Sylvanian Families conventions. Photo Chris Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (Geograph). No free image of the figures themselves exists — they are Epoch’s designs.
Calico Critters
What it took directly
- documentedSylvanian Families took from a new technical process for simulating animal fur, which Epoch came across in Japan"the product was born in Japan in 1985 (and, like most toys, is now made in China), after Epoch, a successful toy and games company better known for its video games, came across a new technical process for simulating animal fur." Eric Clark, The Daily Telegraph (October 2012)
- documentedSylvanian Families in Britain took from Peter Brown of Tomy UK, who saw the toys at the 1986 Tokyo Toy Fair"The Elysian atmosphere and attention to detail attracted an Englishman touring the Tokyo Toy Fair in 1986. Peter Brown was the managing director of the UK arm of the Japanese toy firm Tomy." Eric Clark, The Daily Telegraph (October 2012)
- documentedCalico Critters comes from Sylvanian Families, renamed for the United States"In the US, retitled "Calico Critters", it was a copper-bottomed hit" Rhodri Marsden, The Independent (March 2015)
What it learned to do
- statedSylvanian Families learned from Epoch's rule that every piece be detailed enough to look expensive"the quality had to be more than toys" Michihiro Maeda, Epoch's president, to Eric Clark, The Daily Telegraph (October 2012)
- documentedSylvania learned from Epoch's second rule: the world would be a utopia"the Sylvanian world would be a utopia. So Sylvania has a policeman – but no crime." Eric Clark, The Daily Telegraph (October 2012), on what Epoch decreed
- statedSylvanian Families learned from one concept held since launch: animal families and friends living happy, loving lives in a forest rich with nature (our gloss)"発売当初から変わっていないのは、シルバニアファミリーのコンセプト。自然豊かな森の中で、さまざまな動物たちが家族や友だちと愛に溢れた幸せな暮らしをする、という世界観はずっと変わっていません。" Epoch's press office, to FRaU / Kodansha (Japanese; our gloss)
The tradition it sits in
- statedSylvania's period setting comes from the past, on purpose"the old days are always beautiful" Michihiro Maeda, Epoch's president, to Eric Clark, The Daily Telegraph (October 2012)
- documentedSylvania's houses and props took from Western houses, exotic to Japanese children in the 1980s"The houses and props would be Westernised because that made the toys seem more exotic – in the 1980s travelling abroad was only a dream for most Japanese." Eric Clark, The Daily Telegraph (October 2012), reporting Michihiro Maeda
- documentedSylvanian Families comes from a rural English idyll, offered to children growing up in high-rise Japan"Sylvanian Families was the brainchild of an executive at the Japanese toy firm Epoch, who reckoned that a simulacrum of a rural English idyll would enchant Japanese children who spent most of their lives in high-rise buildings." Rhodri Marsden, The Independent (March 2015) — note Epoch's president describes the setting as deliberately placeless (see below)
- statedSylvania comes from nowhere in particular, deliberately"It is indefinite – somewhere in this world, but no one knows where or when it is." Michihiro Maeda, Epoch's president, to Eric Clark, The Daily Telegraph (October 2012)
- documentedSylvanian Families comes from the dolls' house: Epoch released it as one in 1985 (our gloss)"シルバニアファミリーは、1985年にエポック社から発売されたドールハウス。" Internet Museum (アイエム), report on the 2019 Sylvanian Families exhibition at Matsuya Ginza (Japanese; our gloss)
- inferredSylvanian Families' English-village feel in Britain comes from its British team as much as from Epoch"They began to come up with their own ideas for figures and accessories, a pattern that continues." inferred — The Telegraph documents Peter Brown's team at Tomy designing their own figures and accessories, and The Independent's shop source says the later British range was 'anglicised'; that this is where the Englishness comes from is our reading
Where the whole form comes from
- documentedSylvania's woodland comes from the countryside that city-dwelling Japanese families' ancestors knew"It was decided that the setting would be woodland ('sylvan’ meaning of woods or forests), Maeda says, because city-dwelling Japanese yearn for the countryside of their ancestors." Eric Clark, The Daily Telegraph (October 2012), reporting Michihiro Maeda
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