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See Cameo and Ortex Gold
tampons, the same tampon in different
packaging for different countries.
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Anshin
origami menstrual tampon (Japan,
1977) (the same as Ortex in the
Netherlands and,
earlier, Cameo
in Japan)
Irony
as you like it!
The Japanese tampons on this site
surprise you by their originality,
which might have been to avoid
patent conflicts with Tampax and
other applicator
tampons.
I suspect this might be an early
Japanese tampon because of the
English
writing (and Caucasian models) and
because the Japanese seem to much
prefer
pads.
But this is
actually a British tampon - Cameo - adapted to the
Japanese
market just as the packaging for
Tampax has been changed for
markets outside
the U.S.A. I thank a Dutch
contributor for pointing this out
and
sending proof, which I add here. But
the tampon
also appeared under its original
name in Japan, Cameo (gift from
Tambrands)!
A menstrual
melodrama (or something)
and known
as Ortex Gold Soft in The
Netherlands! I'll show proof
of all these claims.
We know how talented the Japanese
are folding paper into interesting
shapes - origami (literally "bending
paper") - and the user of
Anshin got plenty of practice doing
this. It would have helped if she
read
the instructions
first.
Another tampon came with finger cots.
Read some comments about the
Japanese Elldy
tampon.
In 1997 Tambrands gave the box
to this museum as part of an amazing gift
of 450 boxes of tampons dating to
the founding
of the second Tampax company,
1936, plus hundreds of other
items. And thanks
to a Dutch contributor for
pointing out the British
connection and sending
proof.
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Below:
Both large sides of the box are
the same. Note the non-Asian people,
probably
reflecting the original
manufacturer,
an English company. People at the
former Tambrands (which made Tampax)
marked
the box. The box measures 6 1/8" x 3
3/8"
x 7/8" (15.5 x 8.5 x 2 cm).
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Below:
The two long, narrow sides are also
identical. Below this is an
enlargement in case you want to
freshen up your
Japanese.
The blue
characters say Anshin
tampon (actually
taNpon,
I believe) in katakana, one of the
two Japanese phonetic scripts.
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Below:
The ends are indentical.
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Below:
Open an end and pull out a drawer
of tampons in colorful wrappers!
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Below:
When written in Chinese-Japanese
characters (kanji) the name of the
tampon looks like the picture below.
In commerce, companies
sometimes use phonetic symbols
rather than kanji, probably to
eliminate
any question of pronunciation - how
could you
sell something if you couldn't
pronounce it? -, which can confound
even
the Japanese. And you thought
English was bad!
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"AN"
is one pronunciation of
the character at left. In
one of the greatest
ironies
of menstrual hygiene (keep
reading!) it means restful,
easy or cheap -
restful in this case. It
suspiciously comes from
an original Chinese
character created thousands
of years ago showing a woman
sitting on a menstrual pad -
no, really! See more explanation.
"SHIN"
and "kokoro"
are pronunciations of the
character at right and it
means heart
or feelings.
Together, the characters in
Japanese (ANSHIN)
mean peace
of mind or relief.
THIS IS IRONY IN
ITS HIGHEST FORM!
See how you
feel as you read the
instructions!
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© 2006 Harry Finley. It is illegal to
reproduce or distribute any
of the work on this Web site in any manner or
medium without written permission of the
author. Please report suspected
violations to hfinley@mum.org
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