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Yeastken is pretty fantastic. I think we can all agree on this. This unique creature seems at first glance to be a synthesis of both bread products and different types of dog in one combo. That’s their whole unique selling point: It’s a bread-y dog or perhaps a dog themed bread, and it’s not always clear which one. In the illustrations of Yeastken (which you can find on their official twitter account), it seems to indicate that these creatures are living among other inanimate bread products in a bakery.
But why? Are they waiting to be purchased and then eaten? Or are they simply lost? Why do some of them look more like food than a friendly canine? Why do they come in so many different types? Thinking about Yeastken raises so many questions both philosophical and practical.
Of course, the true answer to all of this is ‘it doesn’t matter’ and ‘it’s just a cute bread dog plush, relax!’ Which is absolutely true. You probably shouldn’t care about the answers to these questions.
But I do.
So let’s overthink things and investigate.
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In investigating Yeastken to uncover the secrets of this strange being, we have to go back to the start, and consider Yeastken’s origin point. How did they come to be?
There are obviously a lot of possible answers to this, but to get the information from a primary source, here’s a rough translation of some flavour text from Yeastken’s official website:
‘When I laid the dough on the bread, the bread dog "Isutoken" appeared before I knew it.
I don't know if it's yeast or a dog ...
I usually sneak up on bread from a bakery’
Whilst this statement is quite abstract, it communicates a lot about Yeastken’s origins. The official website even states ‘I don’t know if it’s a yeast or dog’ - the central question from which this investigation stems. What we have to isolate in order to reach a conclusion, is how exactly Yeastken ‘appeared before [they] knew it’.
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One thing that is certain is that Yeastken’s existence is intrinsically tied to the act of baking, and bakeries. One theory we can arrive at, therefore, is that a piece of dough may have magically ‘transformed’ into a dog, just before it was about to be fully baked.
Of course, something of the transformation must have left out all the finer details, because although the bread/yeast successfully transformed into a dog, they still maintain a lot of the qualities of bread - a beige exterior, a precise roundness and… a desire to sit still in a bakery?
It’s difficult to say what this explanation of Yeastken yields for us. It certainly explains some of their actions and their appearance, but it doesn’t really answer the question of if they are a ‘bread’ or a ‘dog’. In many ways, this explanation would suggest they are both. Unfortunately, this doesn’t bring us much closer to a decisive answer: if we can’t trace how exactly the dough became a ‘yeastken’, we’re left at a dead end. But perhaps our next theory can help us out more...
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Etymology refers to the study of words and the origins of words. By thinking about ‘Yeastken’, we can come to some meaningful conclusions on what the word ‘Yeastken’ means, and what this might mean for Yeastken as a creature.
The first part of the name is obvious - ‘Yeast’ means yeast, the substance we use to bake wonderful breads. What you might be less familiar with is the ‘ken’ part, which is actually the Japanese term for a dog breed.
Using this knowledge, we can surmise that ‘yeastken’ means a ‘yeast dog breed’, and using basic logic, might be able to further suggest that this means the predominant feature of the dog breed is that it resembles or bears some connection to yeast. Much like the King Charles Spaniel, which was named as such due to its association with that famous King of England Charles II, the humble Yeastken may be named this way due to their ‘bread-like’ features, such as their beigeness. This is perhaps further indication that Yeastken is more on the ‘dog’ side of the scale.
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As the Yeastken series is keen to show us, there are lots of dogs that have a ‘beige’ or ‘lightly toasted’ look to them, such as Shiba Inus, Corgis, Pomeranians and Samoyeds. In the right size and context, it’d be possible to misinterpret a small beige coloured dog as bread, perhaps. This is the foundation of the ‘etymology’ theory - Yeastken must mean a rare type of dog that is simply indistinguishable from bread.
Unfortunately for us, other evidence within the Yeastken franchise itself negates aspects of this theory...
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Fairly often on the official Yeastken twitter, new artwork is posted. A lot of this artwork is incredibly cute - showing the various Yeastken creatures in their daily lives at the bakery. Notice how I said the ‘various Yeastken creatures’, because there are many different types of Yeastken. This is something that complicates the ‘etymology’ theory that I just concocted, because the variations in Yeastken means it can’t be a singular dog breed. There are some types of Yeastken that clearly can’t even be considered a dog at all.
This is because the different types of Yeastken all have completely different traits, and unfortunately, this de-stabilises all of the (perhaps unnecessary) thought work that we’ve done so far.
For example, let’s take a look at the brand new Yeastken Shiba Cob Choco Cornet Big Plush. It’s indisputably cute, but there’s also a lot to be said about how this is clearly neither bread nor dog, just based on the visual evidence we have in front of us. It’s clearly not just a bread product, as the shiba style creature is poking their head out of the ‘choco cornet’. It’s also clearly not just a dog, either. We must trust our eyes.
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Regrettably, acknowledging the various types of Yeastken brings us right back to the beginning. The samoyed themed(?) melonpan forces us to acknowledge that it could easily be either bread or dog. The burger yeastkens force us to acknowledge that something that is that much like a burger could not, in fact, be a dog. Each new type of Yeastken introduces a new mystery.
This is where our deductive work circles back around to the statements I made at the very beginning of this article. It may indeed not matter if Yeastken is a dog or a bread. Every new piece of information about Yeastken seems to contradict the last, and every new angle on their creation attacks the foundations of any possible theory you could craft.
But perhaps the joy of Yeastken lies squarely within that ambiguity. Perhaps Yeastken is only interesting because they defy such understanding. Like many people, Yeastken doesn’t fit squarely into the boxes we might attempt to ascribe to them. And that’s actually beautiful.
I can’t explain Yeastken to you - at least not exactly - because Yeastken was simply not meant to be explained. Yeastken was meant to be loved.
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 |
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Yeastken is pretty fantastic. I think we can all agree on this. This unique creature seems at first glance to be a synthesis of both bread products and different types of dog in one combo. That’s their whole unique selling point: It’s a bread-y dog or perhaps a dog themed bread, and it’s not always clear which one. In the illustrations of Yeastken (which you can find on their official twitter account), it seems to indicate that these creatures are living among other inanimate bread products in a bakery.
But why? Are they waiting to be purchased and then eaten? Or are they simply lost? Why do some of them look more like food than a friendly canine? Why do they come in so many different types? Thinking about Yeastken raises so many questions both philosophical and practical.
Of course, the true answer to all of this is ‘it doesn’t matter’ and ‘it’s just a cute bread dog plush, relax!’ Which is absolutely true. You probably shouldn’t care about the answers to these questions.
But I do.
So let’s overthink things and investigate.
|
|
|
In investigating Yeastken to uncover the secrets of this strange being, we have to go back to the start, and consider Yeastken’s origin point. How did they come to be?
There are obviously a lot of possible answers to this, but to get the information from a primary source, here’s a rough translation of some flavour text from Yeastken’s official website:
‘When I laid the dough on the bread, the bread dog "Isutoken" appeared before I knew it.
I don't know if it's yeast or a dog ...
I usually sneak up on bread from a bakery’
Whilst this statement is quite abstract, it communicates a lot about Yeastken’s origins. The official website even states ‘I don’t know if it’s a yeast or dog’ - the central question from which this investigation stems. What we have to isolate in order to reach a conclusion, is how exactly Yeastken ‘appeared before [they] knew it’.
|
One thing that is certain is that Yeastken’s existence is intrinsically tied to the act of baking, and bakeries. One theory we can arrive at, therefore, is that a piece of dough may have magically ‘transformed’ into a dog, just before it was about to be fully baked.
Of course, something of the transformation must have left out all the finer details, because although the bread/yeast successfully transformed into a dog, they still maintain a lot of the qualities of bread - a beige exterior, a precise roundness and… a desire to sit still in a bakery?
It’s difficult to say what this explanation of Yeastken yields for us. It certainly explains some of their actions and their appearance, but it doesn’t really answer the question of if they are a ‘bread’ or a ‘dog’. In many ways, this explanation would suggest they are both. Unfortunately, this doesn’t bring us much closer to a decisive answer: if we can’t trace how exactly the dough became a ‘yeastken’, we’re left at a dead end. But perhaps our next theory can help us out more...
|
|
|
Etymology refers to the study of words and the origins of words. By thinking about ‘Yeastken’, we can come to some meaningful conclusions on what the word ‘Yeastken’ means, and what this might mean for Yeastken as a creature.
The first part of the name is obvious - ‘Yeast’ means yeast, the substance we use to bake wonderful breads. What you might be less familiar with is the ‘ken’ part, which is actually the Japanese term for a dog breed.
Using this knowledge, we can surmise that ‘yeastken’ means a ‘yeast dog breed’, and using basic logic, might be able to further suggest that this means the predominant feature of the dog breed is that it resembles or bears some connection to yeast. Much like the King Charles Spaniel, which was named as such due to its association with that famous King of England Charles II, the humble Yeastken may be named this way due to their ‘bread-like’ features, such as their beigeness. This is perhaps further indication that Yeastken is more on the ‘dog’ side of the scale.
|
As the Yeastken series is keen to show us, there are lots of dogs that have a ‘beige’ or ‘lightly toasted’ look to them, such as Shiba Inus, Corgis, Pomeranians and Samoyeds. In the right size and context, it’d be possible to misinterpret a small beige coloured dog as bread, perhaps. This is the foundation of the ‘etymology’ theory - Yeastken must mean a rare type of dog that is simply indistinguishable from bread.
Unfortunately for us, other evidence within the Yeastken franchise itself negates aspects of this theory...
|
|
| |
Fairly often on the official Yeastken twitter, new artwork is posted. A lot of this artwork is incredibly cute - showing the various Yeastken creatures in their daily lives at the bakery. Notice how I said the ‘various Yeastken creatures’, because there are many different types of Yeastken. This is something that complicates the ‘etymology’ theory that I just concocted, because the variations in Yeastken means it can’t be a singular dog breed. There are some types of Yeastken that clearly can’t even be considered a dog at all.
This is because the different types of Yeastken all have completely different traits, and unfortunately, this de-stabilises all of the (perhaps unnecessary) thought work that we’ve done so far.
For example, let’s take a look at the brand new Yeastken Shiba Cob Choco Cornet Big Plush. It’s indisputably cute, but there’s also a lot to be said about how this is clearly neither bread nor dog, just based on the visual evidence we have in front of us. It’s clearly not just a bread product, as the shiba style creature is poking their head out of the ‘choco cornet’. It’s also clearly not just a dog, either. We must trust our eyes.
|
Regrettably, acknowledging the various types of Yeastken brings us right back to the beginning. The samoyed themed(?) melonpan forces us to acknowledge that it could easily be either bread or dog. The burger yeastkens force us to acknowledge that something that is that much like a burger could not, in fact, be a dog. Each new type of Yeastken introduces a new mystery.
This is where our deductive work circles back around to the statements I made at the very beginning of this article. It may indeed not matter if Yeastken is a dog or a bread. Every new piece of information about Yeastken seems to contradict the last, and every new angle on their creation attacks the foundations of any possible theory you could craft.
But perhaps the joy of Yeastken lies squarely within that ambiguity. Perhaps Yeastken is only interesting because they defy such understanding. Like many people, Yeastken doesn’t fit squarely into the boxes we might attempt to ascribe to them. And that’s actually beautiful.
I can’t explain Yeastken to you - at least not exactly - because Yeastken was simply not meant to be explained. Yeastken was meant to be loved.
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