23-foot, fire-breathing robot art

It's three stories tall. It breathes fire. It has a baby's face.

Giant Torayan may be awkward at cocktail parties, but it keeps the conversation flowing. It's certainly one of the most striking pieces of Japanese robot art I've come across.

Sculptor Kenji Yanobe, known for mind-bending installations that incorporate subculture icons, created this titan in 2003 to give kids a thrill. Its "command device," also a baby's head, contains a computer that only responds to children's voices, giving them the reins to a pretty impressive flamethrower. Yanobe calls Torayan "the child's ultimate weapon."

Yanobe's work recently came up in a blog by Robot Museum in Nagoya President Masayoshi Ishiko, who thinks Torayan would be a great ambassador to promote Japanese robot culture in China! Shock and awe indeed.

Ishiko-san has told me about his big plans for robots in Japan on several occasions. Think traveling robot circuses and the like. I hope he branches out to the Tokyo area - his company Gyro Walk also runs the popular RoboCafe in Osaka.

Speaking of Kansai, if Kobe is to get its own giant robot, q.v., Tokyo needs one too. Torayan is perfect.