Rice Ball Babies

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Part of a series on Photo Fads. [View Related Entries]

mina @flammin16 Follow インスタの隣赤ちゃんおにぎり」をチェック!手できゅっと包んだ赤ちゃんが可愛くて癒される~v @candypot.jp -. Candypot.jp/summaries/5907 1:33 AM - 2 Jul 2015 わ다5 , 6

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About

Rice Ball Babies (赤ちゃんおにぎり in Japanese) is a photo fad that involves squishing a young child's face into a triangular shape to resemble the outline of the traditional Japanese food rice balls.

Origin

On June 17th, 2015, Japanese comedian Masahiro Ehara tweeted several photographs in which he is shown squishing his children's faces into a triangle (shown below).^[1] Within six months, the tweets gained over 70,000 retweets combined.

エハラマサヒロネ @eharamasahiro Follow むぎゅ 9:05 PM-17 Jun 2015 다 35,996 69,666

エハラマサヒロ @eharamasahiro Follow 9:08 PM- 17 Jun 2015 다 27,359 52,092

エハラマサヒロ 2 FolloW ちなみにうちの子全員このオニギリ大好き。 2歳にもなると恍惚の表情がわかるね(笑) 2:24 AM 18 Jun 2015 わ 다 7,330 19,150

エハラマサヒロ @eharamasahiro Follow 長女による、いいオニギリと悪いオニギリ。 1:23 AM 19 Jun 2015 わ다 2.138 , 4.691

Spread

In the coming months, other Twitter users posted similar photographs in which children's faces are squeezed into a triangle shape (shown below).

猫助 @nekosuke_18 Follow @eharamasahiro 可愛かったので便乗してうちの子もやってみたらしかめっ面になってしまった('·ω·) ごめんねー11でも頬袋が可愛いwww pic.twitter.com/wE4kJPMBHA 8:15 AM-19 Jun 2015 わ 다 57 143

,、おっこ y Follow @okko_okkon 今はやりの赤ちゃんおにぎり 6:10 AM-30 Nov 2015

On July 8th, the Japanese variety show Disco Star (ディスコ☆スター) aired a segment on the photo fad (shown below, left).^[2] On July 9th, Ehara posted a photo in which he is shown attempting to squeeze his adult friend's face into a triangle shape (shown below, right). On December 9th, 2015, the news sites Mashable,^[5] BuzzFeed^[3] and Metro^[4] published articles about the photo fad.