Ken-Sama

About

Ken-Sama is a fictional character and copypasta story about an adult American male named Ken who is highly obsessed with the Japanese and Otaku culture. Variations of the copypasta commonly involve different people being obsessed with other cultures and stereotypes in the style of Ken-Sama, with the writing commonly matching to a style associated with it. The original copypasta is commonly combined with a picture of an adult male wearing a Kimono.

Origin

The first archived instance of the Ken-Sama copypasta can be found on a archived /jp/ (otaku culture) thread from July 7th, 2009, that can be found on Archive.Foolz.^[1] The original picture often combined with the copypasta originates from the Nerd Knits blog,^[2] hosted by knitter Marisa Ebers, and was first posted on September 7th, 2005. The person on the photo is the husband of Ebers, Bradon (shown above).

Gomenasai, my name is Ken-Sama.

I’m a 27 year old American Otaku (Anime fan for you gaijins). I draw Anime and Manga on my tablet, and spend my days perfecting my art and playing superior Japanese games. (Disgaea, Final Fantasy, Persona series)

I train with my Katana every day, this superior weapon can cut clean through steel because it is folded over a thousand times, and is vastly superior to any other weapon on earth. I earned my sword license two years ago, and I have been getting better every day.

I speak Japanese fluently, both Kanji and the Osaka dialect, and I write fluently as well. I know everything about Japanese history and their bushido code, which I follow 100%

When I get my Japanese visa, I am moving to Tokyo to attend a prestigious High School to learn more about their magnificent culture. I hope I can become an animator for Studio Ghibli or a game designer!

I own several kimonos, which I wear around town. I want to get used to wearing them before I move to Japan, so I can fit in easier. I bow to my elders and seniors and speak Japanese as often as I can, but rarely does anyone manage to respond.

Spread

Over the course of July 2009, the copypasta was posted numerous times on both the /jp/ (otaku culture) and /a/ (anime & manga) blogs on 4chan and kept being posted after that. As of January 16th, 2013, searching for “Ken-Sama” results in over 200 pages of results on archive.foolz. A blogspot was created for Ken-Sama on October 29th, 2010, but has gone inactive as of November 6th of the same year.^[3] A Facebook page can also be found for Ken-Sama.^[4] Introduction posts for Ken-Sama can also be found on Gametrailers,^[5] Yahoo Answers^[6] and Flashflash Revolution.^[7]

Following the events of the March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan,^[12] numerous posters on 4chan gave their condolences to Ken-Sama.^[13] A record sharing the information of Ken-Sama’s death in the event was also posted on the Google Person Finder in the days following the earthquake (shown below).

A 2-part copypasta story describing Ken-Sama’s final moments before the earthquake and tsunami hit was also created, with the first archived instance of it being from August 1st, 2011.^[14]

The wind blows. It is 7 in the morning, Ken-sama woke up to the cold morning. He got up, and went to the bathroom to wash his face. Ken-sama live in a traditional Japanese house, he only rent a room though. The old couple is nice enough to let him stay in their house.
Ken-sama grepped his kimono and wear it like a proper nihonjin, he walk to a window and smell the fresh nihonjin morning. “Ah, konbanwa anatas. What beautiful morning desu.” Ken-sama zoned out looking at the beach from his room. Ken-sama went downstairs to greet the old couple. “Ah, ohayou ojisan and obasan”. The old couple replied him with a warm smile and proceed with their breakfast while inviting Ken-sama.

Although Ken-sama can not understand them, he easily could read what the old couple is trying to say, he is born with this talent. “Arigato.” Ken-sama said, he then went upstairs to take a few things. He took a bokken and a katana, the katana is hidden in his kimono and the bokken is on his obi, this is to avoid being arrested by authorities as he was warned last time. Ken-sama will be going on his usual morning walk to sightseeing the glorious nihonjin country. “Itadakimasu obasan and ojisan”, they gave him a mixed smile and a slightly confused expression.

Ken-sama reached the park near the beach, he like to watch kids playing as it is a something that can warm his pure heart. Suddenly, a sudden tremor. No, it’s more terrifying than that, it’s an earthquake, a huge one. The ground was shaking and beginning to crack, Ken-sama look at the children, they were running away terrified, “minna san! do not run around! Stay in place!”
The kids couldn’t understand what he was saying, he gestured what he was trying to say, he ordered the kids to stay in the middle of the park as it is too dangerous. But that was Ken-sama’s mistake, he look at the beach from afar. It was huge, a tsunami is coming. Ken-sama widened his eyes and look at the children and yelled every Japanese word he knew “Arigatou gozaimasu! Gomenasai! Run away minna-san!”

The children ran away, the wave is coming, it was at least 100ft tall. Ken-sama was ashamed with himself, he should have anticipated this, if he did the children would be far away by now. “sumimasen mina-san, it was my mistake”, he took his hidden katana and dual wield with the bokken and katana. As he ran towards the tsunami trying to stop it, he uttered his last words. “Arigatou obasan, ojisan. For taking care of me” The wave rise even higher. A shout is heard; “Nippon banzai!”.

On June 16th, 2012, a memorial video^[8] for Ken-Sama was taken down from Youtube after a copyright claim by Marisa Ebers, which she later explained on her Twitter^[9] was due to the picture representing Ken-Sama was actually her husband. Archived threads discussing this can be found on both the /v/ (videogames)^[10] and /jp/ (otaku culture)^[11] on 4chan.