Henohenomoheji

Henohenomoheji is a face drawn by Japanese schoolchildren using seven hiragana characters as facial features, with two he forming the eyebrows, two no forming the eyes, mo forming the nose, another he forming the mouth, and ji forming the outline and ears. The drawing became popular during the Edo period and is still taught to children today as both an art exercise and a memory aid for hiragana. It is often performed as an ekaki uta, a drawing song, where the characters are sung aloud as each stroke is drawn, turning the doodle into a small participatory game rather than a silent exercise. Because the resulting face reads as deliberately plain and generic, it is commonly used to represent an ordinary or nondescript human face, appearing on kakashi scarecrows, teru teru bozu weather charms, and casual graffiti across Japan. The practice survives in Japanese children's folk culture as an accessible way to combine handwriting practice, singing, and simple drawing skill.