Kuruminha

Confirmed 110,255

Part of a series on Brazil. [View Related Entries]

About

Kuruminha is the mascot of Brazilian imageboard BRchan. The character is a young indigenous Brazilian woman wearing red face paint and dressed in a loincloth. On BRchan and other imageboards, images of the character have been as reactions, with Kuruminha inspiring memes and fan art.

Origin

In 2006, Brazilian imageboard BRchan was created.^[1]^[2] At some point prior to 2011, an unknown user created mascot character for the imageboard, an indigenous Brazilian woman named Kuruminha. The character is depicted as a half-naked young black-haired woman wearing red face paint and dressed in a loincloth, with two feathers adorning her hair (one of the earliest known images shown below, left).

The name "kuruminha" originates from Tupi word "kurumi," meaning "boy," which led to jokes about the character being a trap. ^[3]

Spread

Prior to 2020, the character saw limited use online, with images originally posted on BRchan and archived by Wikinet^[4] being reused on other imageboards such as 4chan starting at least in 2014.^[5]^[6]

Outside of BRchan, the character has often been used in contexts related to Brazil. Additionally, images of Kuruminha have been used in discussions of sexual interactions between conquistadors and indigenous American population (examples shown below), and in hornyposting.

In late 2020, Kuruminha achieved more widespread popularity on 4chan.

Yotsuba Koiwai

Yotsuba Koiwai is a the main character from the manga series Yotsuba&!, previously featured on the one shot Try! Try! Try!, by Kiyohiko Azuma. Over time, Yotsuba was adopted by 4chan as the site official mascot, appearing in banned users messages, ads, logos, and HTTP 404 messages, leading to the nickname of 404 Girl.