KFC and the Curse of Colonel Sanders

[1]

Something that might surprise you is the popularity of KFC in Japan.  I already talked a bit about Kentucky's (ケンタッキー) Christmas craze, but there's more wackiness where that comes from.  Every KFC that I've seen in Japan has a full size statue of the Colonel himself standing watch over his restaurants throughout Japan.  At 1,140 restaurants, there are a lot of Colonel Sanders standing watch throughout Japan. [2]  They even get festive.  A few times during the year they are dressed up to match the holiday.  Most common are Santa Sanders, traditional festival Sanders for the neighborhood festival and if you're really lucky, the spectacle of Samurai Sanders in full armor for Children's Day.


The Colonel's exploits in Japan have even gone a step further on the ridiculous side, taking over the title of most entertaining sport's curse from that Billy Goat in Chicago.  Apparently, when he's not busy cooking with his 11 secret spices, he's been busy cooking up a baseball curse.  His curse affects the Hanshin Tigers from Osaka that play in Japan's baseball league.  The Tigers have not won since 1985, making it only 25 years so far, but Japan's baseball league has far fewer teams (12 compared to 30).  The Hanshin Tigers won in 1985 causing their fans to celebrate.  In the midst of all this excitement, the fans caught up in it took the local KFC statue and threw it into the river.  On that fateful toss, the Tiger's fate would be sealed.  The Colonel not taking a liking to being dumped into the river has dished out his vengeance in a cruel curse over the team which has continued to this day.  As for the reason why he would be thrown in in the first place, fans often jump into the river to celebrate the team's wins.  After their championship, fans were jumping in that matched the appearance of members on the team.  The Hanshin Tigers that year had Randy Bass, an American first basemen on the team.  Osaka in 1985 for the celebration of the local baseball team, lacking a bearded white man decided the best alternative to be Colonel Sanders, which was a big mistake. [3]


Recently, in hopes of appeasing the great and terrible spirit that is Col. Sanders, there have been attempts to recover the statue from the bottom of the river which has met some success.  First findings of the statue happened in 2009 during construction for a new walkway in that section of the river. [4]

The Colonel's watery specter manifests itself and the curse on the team.  [5]

The statue was recovered but its curse is not broken, for there are still his glasses and right hand and fingers missing from the statue (the irony of finger lickin' good probably missed on by the Japanese).  There is a belief by some that if the statue were to be fully restored, the curse would finally be lifted.  So finishes the tale of Colonel Sander's curse.


References:


1. "Top 10 Spooky Sports Curses," Listverse.
http://listverse.com/2009/04/29/top-10-spooky-sports-curses/.


2. "Restaurant Counts," Yum Brands.
http://www.yum.com/investors/restcounts.asp.


3. "Colonel Sanders pulled from river after 24 years." msnbc.com. 
March 11, 2009. 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29629104/?GT1=43001#.Tuc1BVZn2Zc. 
(accessed December 13, 2011.)


4. Ibid.


5. Ibid.