The Foundation for Kansai Region Promotion held a Kansai Image Illustration Contest for citizens of Korea from January 2 to February 10, 2012. This project was carried out as part of the Kansai's inbound business promotion activities.　In this project, putting higher importance on the views of people overseas, we accepted from overseas applicants illustrations expressing images of Kansai from their viewpoints. Such works will be effectively used for future public relations representing the Kansai region.

　The contest gathered splendid 24 works, a larger number than expected. Of the submissions for the contest, two prize-winning works were selected on February 14, and the prize-winners were invited to take a familiarization trip allowing them to actually experience Kansai.

　The two prize-winners will be requested to submit their works again after experiencing the Kansai trip. The Best Prize will be selected among the total of four works (two prize-winning works and two works submitted after the winners experience the familiarization trip). The Best Prize winning work will be used in design of novelties and public relations.

*Photo at left:
Screening held on February 14

*Photo at right:
Zen sitting meditation during familiarization trip from March 15 to 19

　In March, the Foundation invited six members concerned with school education, three staffers from the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, and one reporter of Sichuan Daily from Sichuan Province, China, a country continuing to achieve rapid economic growth, to Kyoto, Shiga, Fukui, and Osaka to conduct a tour to observe and study tourism materials and visit schools, which will help in organizing educational trips to Kansai, Japan.

　Everything the tour members saw and experiencedtraditional streets of Kyoto, staying in a private home and visiting a school in Shiga, exchanging opinions at a meeting at an educational institute in Fukui, and making takoyaki in Osaka seemed very new for them. Throughout their visit, the heartfelt hospitality extended by Japanese people moved them tremendously. A tour member who serves as a school teacher commented that "Kansai region has many resources suitable for education of the mind which cannot be obtained from desk study," and "I want to return to my country with what I learned from this practical experience in mind to incorporate such experience into my school, and realize an educational trip to Kansai in the near future."

　This year is the 40th anniversary of the normalization of the diplomatic relations between Japan and China. On the occasion of this commemorative year, we sincerely hope that exchanges between young people in both countries will increase and be further promoted.


*Photo at left:
Opinion exchange meeting with educational bureau members at Fukui Prefectural Institute for Educational Research

*Photo at right:
School tour at Ritsumeikan Moriyama Junior & Senior High School, Shiga Prefecture

　The Shikinen Sengu Kinen Sengukan (museum) was opened at the Geku (Outer Shrine) of Ise Jingu (one of the Shinto shrines) in Ise City on April 7, 2012. The museum was constructed to commemorate the 62nd shikinen sengu (the transfer ceremony of symbol of Amaterasu Omi-kami, Japan’s spiritual center like Deity) in 2013. The purpose of the museum is to share the history of shikinen sengu and information about the skills and craftsmanship that are involved in making shikinen sengu possible.

　The word sengu refers to relocating the go-shintai (sacred body of the kami deity) when the shoden, the main sanctuary building of a shrine, is constructed, repaired or rebuilt. The word shikinen refers to a set number of years. In case of Ise Jingu, shikinen sengu takes place every 20 years. The first shikinen sengu was conducted in a.d. 690 (the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Jito). Since then, it has continued over 1,300 years, with the 61st (the latest) shikinen sengu being conducted in 1993 and the 62nd one scheduled to take place next year.
　The museum's most eye-catching exhibit is a 12-meter high, full-scale reproduction of the shoden at the Geku. The exhibit is a faithful reproduction of the right-hand side of the shoden viewed from the front (see the photo on the left, provided by the museum). The thickest column, called the munamochi-bashira, is made from an over 350-year-old Japanese cypress tree grown in the Jingu-rin forest behind Ise Jingu, and its maximum diameter is approximately 75 centimeters. You can see the building’s traditional architectural style up close. In this museum you can also learn what the off-limits areas surrounded by fences look like by viewing a one-twentieth-scale accurate reproduction of the Geku premises (see the photo on the right, provided by museum). Also exhibited in the museum are about 200 items, including replicas of clothing and treasures (such as swords and mirrors) for the gods and a smaller-scale reproduction of a togyo gyoretsu procession leaving an old building for a new one.

　The museum is open daily, except on the fourth Tuesday of each month, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admissions are \300 for adults (visitors of high school age or older), \100 yen for elementary and junior high school students.