EmojiTerra

What the $&** is a moai?

Well … moai is a type of rock carving found on Easter Island in Polynesia, dating back to the year 1250. They are monolithic creations, with the faces of deified ancestors; the oversized heads are the largest feature of the figures.

The origin of this emoji is a bit clouded, as some claim it was suggested by Japan in reference to a statue referred to as Moyai at the Shibuya Station in Tokyo, Japan, something of a landmark. Moyai looks a bit like the Easter Island moai statuary, with the long broad nose and pronounced brow. But, the similarity ends there.

The Moyai statue, a gift in the 1980s to the district from Japan’s volcanic Nii-jima Island, has very full lips (moai are thin) and the carving implies a mane of hair, which is not a feature of the maoi carvings. Nii-jima is home to numerous volcanic rock carvings of large faces and heads, called Moyai, which means ‘to work together in effort’ in the local dialect. They are like the younger cousins of Polynesia’s ancient carvings.

The emoji, in our opinion, more closely resembles the Eastern Island relics. But some feel Japan sought the Moyai emoji as an accompaniment to other emoji, such as the Japanese flag and the Tokyo Tower. Others think the Polynesian relics are so distinctive and historic, that they deserved the emoji treatment.

That said, the emoji was approved as part of Unicode 6.0 in 2010 under the name “Moyai,” not “moai,” and added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015.  It’s unclear when the spelling changed to “moai.”

Most platforms’ version of this emoji present a reasonable representation of actual moai, also spelled mo‘ai because we had to add another name just to confuse you … although most of the ancient carvings of the actual statues include bodies as well.

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