Jupon-Cheia

Jupon-cheia (Juponese: 朝本後輩; Jupon-cheia; : 조본채아; Jobon-chaea; Seriyedang: 쪼본체이아; Jobon-cheia) is an online character made by JeongmiBall, a firm that creates graphics for, , and. Jupon-cheia was created in August of 2016 by Yu Saiyaka for popular video game SJ4.

Jupon-cheia's name is composed of the name of the country of Jupon, followed by cheia, which is the Juponese honorific meaning "subordinate or younger". The character is depicted as a Juponese male wearing traditional male Juponese clothing and face paint. As of 2018, the current Jupon-cheia character wears red face paint and, as well as a huanptying in the traditional Juponese colors of red, blue, green, white and brown. Jupon-cheia also wears red shimdo, traditional Juponese shoes made from leather and fur. The character wears a konjsh, a traditional Juponese head wrap made from silk.

In early 2019, Jupon-cheia gained popularity on social media such as JeongmiTube and Umanari, mainly in Bangju. Many Juponese celebrities and online personalities featured the character icon in their videos. In November 2020, a Juponese toy company released an official Jupon-cheia plushie, which became immensely popular worldwide. Jupon-cheia is now a well-known icon of Juponese media and culture, and it is common for Juponese people, even those outside of Jupon, to adorn themselves with Jupon-cheia merchandise. Comics now feature Jupon-cheia as well as other JeongmiBall characters, such as Namju-oppa, Tosan-dai and Fusen-senpai.

Jupon-cheia's character design was drafted in December 2015 by Yu Saiyaka of the JeongmiBall Graphic Design Division (JGDD) on behalf of the SJ4 company. In designing Jupon-cheia, Saiyaka did much research on Juponese clothing, and Juponese culture in general. There are four renditions of Jupon-cheia's design, the fourth of which currently being canon.