UoA Students Participate in Kogane Matsuri , "Amur Adonis Festival"

UoA Students Participate in Kogane Matsuri , "Amur Adonis Festival"

The first "Kogane Matsuri" (or "Amur Adonis Festival") was held in the Nakagoya community in Minami-Aizu machi, on April 13, 2014. UoA students participated in it as part of the festival staff. They are members of the team to "Find and Tell Fukushima's Appeal to the World" organized of both Japanese and international students.

The Nakagoya community is located in Yamaguchi, Minami-Aizu Town and is famous for their fields of "Fukuju-soAmur Adonis" (Fukuju-soAmur Adonis in Japanese). The community people cherish the flowers, calling them "Kogane" (meaning "gold"), as one of the charms of the community.

The festival was held on a day in which the fields of Fukuju-so basked in the spring sun while snow still remained on the walking trails. Participants of all ages, including the UoA students all enjoyed the Kogane Matsuri, which truly showed off the charms of the Nakagoya community.

Yukari Sekiguchi, a third-year student on the team, expressed her impression of the festival, saying: "We have visited this area several times and worked together as a team to organize the festival. So I am very happy about the success of this festival. I would very much like to enjoy doing many different hands-on activities with the people of the community, and maintain a good relationship with the people here even after graduation . We would like to do our best to help them continue this festival so that it will make one of the attractive events for which many people regularly come back to this community."

The team, "Find and Tell Fukushima's Appeal to the World" has tried to spread information on "Unknown Charms of Nakagoya" through participation in several different events, including tours to see the home and building architectur e distinctive in to this area and to enjoy the local specialties. At the 2013 Sosho Sai university festival, the team sold steaming Mochi rice cakes and special vegetables from Nakagoya at concession stands together with people from the community, which were both favorably received by visitors.

See the Team's website for details of their activities.