Memories of 100 years in Sakuho
Sakuho Town, Minami Saku County, Nagano Prefecture, is a town adjacent to the south of Saku City, created in 2005 through the merger of Saku Town and Yachiho Village.
A photo exhibition is being held at the town’s lifelong learning centre, Hana-no-Sato Moraikan.
The exhibition is entitled 'Memories of 100 years in Sakuho – visiting old photographs’.
It runs from 23 Feb (Fri) to 5 Mar (Tue), 2024. (The museum is closed on Mondays).
I visited the Moraikan the other day to see the exhibition.
It is held in the lobby and can be viewed freely.
Sakuho Town has started a 'listeners for community stories project’ from 2022. The project is said to be an initiative to gather 'listeners’ from the public and divide them into regions to listen to stories mainly from people in their 80s or older.
The content of the interviews was compiled into a booklet at the end of FY2022 and distributed to the townspeople.
In 2023, the listening activities continued with the themes of 'life with horses’, 'dialect’, 'old photos’ and 'events that are no longer done’. The stories heard were distributed monthly to the townspeople in the form of the 'listeners for community stories newsletter’.
Starting with the first issue in July 2023, it has now been published up to the ninth issue in March 2024.
The newsletters were placed at the exhibition venue and we could take it home.
This exhibition shows the episodes from the interviews on the theme of 'old photographs’, together with photographs.
This is the flyer for the event.
As shown in the figure, several photographs are printed on a single panel, and a piece of paper with a summary of the interviews is displayed underneath. More detailed information is printed and placed in a file on the table, which can also be read.
This display was easy to see.
As well as photographs owned by individuals, there were also materials held by the district public hall and photographs owned by local photo studio.
The photos themselves cannot be uploaded here, but I will write about the ones that left an impression on me.
A photo commemorating the opening of Saku-Hozumi Station.
Saku-Hozumi Station is the current Yachiho Station on the Koumi Line, which was called Saku-Hozumi Station when it opened in 1919.
Apparently, a costume parade was held to celebrate the opening of the railway, and everyone is pictured in virtual costume. This shows that the opening of the railway was a major event for the region.
Photograph of the Hōanden.
(Hōanden is the building that used to house photographs of the Emperor and Empress before World War II.)
This photograph was taken to mark the completion of the Hōanden built on the site of Kaise Elementary School. It was probably taken between 1929 and 1932.
More than two dozen people involved in the construction are shown in front of the building, which was just completed and still has scaffolding on either side. There are a few people in suits in the centre, probably school staff.
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Actually, the activities of the listeners for community stories in Sakuho can also be seen online, as the town has published an official NOTE.
The photos mentioned above and the 'Listener’s Letter’ are also available, so if you are interested, please have a look.
I think it is a very good activity.
Link: note 'listeners for community stories in Sakuho'. (written in Japanese)