★What is Japan Heritage?
Seeking to promote the specific features and attractiveness of Japan’s historical culture and traditions, the Japan Heritage program, supported by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs, is aiming at revitalizing local communities through comprehensive maintenance and showcasing of their tangible and intangible cultural properties by recognizing unique regional “stories” as a Japan heritage.
By 2020, approximately 100 stories are scheduled to be certified by the agency. So far, the Noto Peninsula’s traditional festivals’ culture and Komatsu’s culture of stones were the only Ishikawa Prefecture’s cultural assets to have been designated by the Japan Heritage program.
★The certified story
“Nonpareil spaces recalling the dreams of men who overcame the stormy waves. The Kitamaebune ship-owners’ settlement areas”
Grasping the mountains in splendid sceneries, several scenic port towns still remain here and there along the Sea of Japan’s coastal shores. All over the towns, small lanes leading to the harbor are still adorned with magnificent ship-owners and merchant houses. The temples and shrines around preserve votive pictures and consecrated model-ships. Religious festivals that originated in Kyoto and other distant places are still performed while folk songs from an old distant past have kept being hummed around up to the present time. Those towns were known as port of calls and settlement areas for the merchants and ship-owners of the then thriving northern-bound maritime trade companies. Braving the stormy waves, those men accumulated tremendous fortunes over the centuries, meanwhile bringing prosperity to the areas around the ports they would call in. All those glorious stories recalled create a distinctive atmosphere which has not ceased to mesmerize the visitors of these towns ever since.
The story of Kitamaebune was certified as a joint project between the 11 cities of Hakodate, Matsumaechō, Ajigasawachō, Fukaurachō, Akita, Sakata, Nīgata, Nagaoka, Tsuruga, Minamiechizenchō and Kaga.
HP
tabimati.net/en/kitamae/index.php
23 июл 2019
