• ●HONOHON is the official mascot of the 20th Asian Games, held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from 19 September to 4 October 2026.
• ●The name derives from the Japanese word 'honoho', linked to the word for flame; the design is described as a fire burning high and bright in the shape of an ear of rice.
• ●The character personifies the passion of athletes across Asia, and is said to have been born inside the hearts of athletes.
• ●Its ears are those of the Shachihoko - the mythical tiger-headed fish that is the traditional guardian of the Aichi-Nagoya region and crowns Nagoya Castle - and are said to listen for children's laughter and the cheers of the crowd.
• ●The red markings around its large eyes are kumadori, the stylised make-up of Japan's Kabuki theatre. The concept also draws on the Kabukimono, the flamboyant samurai of the region who took to scholarship, martial arts and the arts.
• ●Mascot profile: newly born, of no gender, favourite colour red, curious and hardworking, gets sleepy after working too hard, and can magically produce imagined sounds instead of speaking.
• ●Its stated goal is to learn every sport at the Games, and its mission is to unite people through them - in line with the Games slogan 'Imagine One Asia'.
• ●Designer: graphic designer Yoshiyuki Nakagawa, born in 1973 in Shiga Prefecture and based in Nagakute City, Aichi Prefecture.
• ●Nakagawa graduated from the Department of Design at Nagoya Zokei University in 1996 and opened his own design studio in 2005; he won the Excellence Design Award at the 11th Asian Graphic Design Triennial in 2021.
• ●The design was selected from 264 entries on 11 June 2024 and HONOHON was unveiled on 14 July 2024, more than two years before the Games opened.

Appu, the first-ever official mascot of the Asian Games, introduced at New Delhi in 1982, was which animal?