Following from the success of Capcom’s video game 戦国ＢＡＳＡＲＡ, Battle Heroes, (selling over 1,400,000 units) a number of goods and services related to Kumamoto castle, (熊本城), Himeji castle (姫路城) and Hamamatsu castle (浜松城) have become popular.

One item of interest and surprise is the popularity of a brand of mens underwear by a company called Rogin, which depicts the motiff of the popular warlords from the Warring States period. There is a brand for Oda Nobunaga as well as Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Before you rush out to try and buy a pair of these, you should now that sales have been very brisk and they are now out of stock. New stock should be arriving in stores soon. Apparently, sales have been strong with women who are said to be buying the underwear as presents. (or maybe wearing it themselves?)

Priced at around YEN 9,000, these are not a cheap item. They were originally designed to be in the category of 勝負パンツ　(shoubu pants), which are worn for special occasions when you need that extra sense of power and confidence. For example on a first date, or at a special business meeting when you want to land a big contract. For these occasions the extra money spent on such an item may seem worthwhile.

If the small pictures weren’t sufficient to grab your interests here are some extra large ones

Here is a link to a newspaper article about this brand. (Japanese only, but with photo).

and a further article by Excite with some pictures.

Here is a link to the Japanese and English site of the manufacturer where you can order online. They are simply calling the brand line “Samurai” here.