Category Archives: Others

  Kotaro Yamada – Junior Tour Guide Training Program at Tomioka Silk Mill – (Tomioka-shi, Gunma Prefecture) The city of Tomioka in Gunma Prefecture is now offering its first course targeting local children who are interested in becoming junior tour guides at a new World Cultural Heritage, Tomioka Silk Mill. The program aims to provide children with thorough knowledge of the history and cultural importance of the mill and let them have opportunities to lead visitors. “How big is the mill?” asked a student. “It’s three times bigger than the Tokyo Dome or seven times bigger than a soccer stadium,” answered Takatoshi Sato, 74, a veteran guide who is also … Continue reading →

Kotaro Yamada – Murasaki (purple) Project (Chikushino-shi, Fukuoka Prefecture) – Residents of Chikushino-shi, Fukuoka Prefecture, are trying to boost the development of the city by restoring old traditional coloring methods that uses lithospermum erythrorhizonor, which is called Murasaki-so (purple plant) in Japan. Murasaki-so, also called Murasaki in a shorter form, had been cultivated all around the city as a plant to make natural purple colorant. Some years ago, the city, which uses a Chinese character for Murasaki (purple) in its name, decided to take on a challenge to grow this old coloring plant again in order to make it a new local specialty. “It was an unforgettably impressive moment when … Continue reading →

Kotaro Yamada – Tsukagoshi Flower Festival (Chichibu-shi, Saitama Prefecture） In the Tsukagoshi district of Kamiyoshida, Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, there is a traditional spring festival called Hana Matsuri (flower festival). It’s literally a flowery festivity to gather flowers from around the village and scatter them in the local shrine. That way, people celebrate the birth of Buddha but the festival itself is all carried out by local children. The tradition has actually been handed down from the Edo period by children in the village. Hana Matsuri is held in early May every year. This year, it was prepared and performed by 14 local children. They decorated a Hanamido portable shrine with … Continue reading →

  Kotaro Yamada On March 11, three years after the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, a man was visiting a memorial monument in Ukedo in the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, to pray for the victims of the disaster at 2:46 p.m., the time when the earthquake struck the area. Chimneys of the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, some 6 km away from the monument, can be seen standing in the distance. Ukedo still remains designated as an evacuation zone after the outbreak of the nuclear crisis, restricting people from entering or living in the area, hampering restoration from the disaster. In the nearby fields, which used to be … Continue reading →