A new, cute and immensely popular Bruckner-Ikonographie in Japan

The six composers in the new pins series designed by Kazuo Ozawa and issued by Bookunion in Japan

The popularity of Anton Bruckner among classical music fans in Japan has never been in doubt, but how immensely popular it is is sometimes out of everyone's expectation. The six pins shown above are to be issued on 1 December 2012, but pre-orders for the Bruckner pin are in so overwhelming amount that this item had to be de-listed soon after it appeared on HMV Japan's online shop. However, all the other 5 pins are still available at the time of writing. If we assume that all the six different pins are issued in the same quantity, then Bruckner appears to be more popular than Beethoven or Mahler here. And if we speak of the 3 B's, traditionally referring to Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, this pins series has taken the position to replace Brahms with Bruckner. This may only be a tongue-in-cheek explanation. The official introduction has given the reasons for the choice of composers: 3 "kings of composers", namely Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, and 3 "modern" composers popular in Japan, namely Bruckner, Mahler and Shostakovich.

These are small nickel plated pins measuring H26 X W13-16mm and 0.7mm thick. The listed price is 630 Yen (tax included). The designer/illustrator is the famous cartoonist on classical music in Japan, Kazuo Ozawa (小澤一雄).