With an eye on the future...
I started this blog in January of this year, partly to promote an AirBnB. I also wanted to let people know about interesting goings-on in Kofu, to let them know this is a fun city. It’s tough to make plans when all the events are cancelled. And planning is definitely tougher for some. Many people in Yamanashi have work-related visas. If that work disappears, they have to move on earlier than they may have wanted.
On Ginza shopping street, in between the Bicol Filipino Restaurant and Liquor Mountain liquor store
Funenoki Project Website https://hunenoki2nd.wixsite.com/funenoki
*The website spells the project both Funenoki and Hunenoki. I’ve decided to spell it with an ‘f’ as that is closer to how I say it aloud.
Like many happenings in Kofu, I chanced upon the Funenoki Project. I was walking past Ginza Street and I saw two guys working on huge canvases in the middle of the street. So many detailed, traditional scenes, along with very real, very modern-looking faces. The project leader, Sasamoto Masaaki explained that their funding comes from donations. Along with your donation, you send a photo of yourself. Your portrait will be included in the painting. The finished painting will be displayed at Erin-ji, the temple of the Takeda clan, in Koshu city.
Until Sunday, April 5th, artists will work on the painting on Ginza Street. They planned this some time ago. There was to be live painting at the Shingen-ko Matsuri on Sunday. Of course, like so many other events, that festival has been cancelled to try to check the spread of the coronavirus.
Helping out with the project, Damien has been working at a temple guesthouse in Minobu. So busy a few weeks ago, now he has so much free time since tourists started cancelling their trips. When his current visa expires he may not have the opportunity renew, and he’ll have to leave Yamanashi.
Sasamoto-san says the purpose of the project is to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Takeda Shingen’s birth, in 2021. Additionally, visitors to the temple may see themselves the painting. Someday, visitors will see parents, and grandparents, and so on.
I really want people to enjoy what the city has to offer. So it’s difficult to recommend that you come see the project when we all should be trying to stay indoors as much as possible, keeping safe, and helping others keep safe. Still, at a moment when it’s difficult to look past the next few day, when every morning and every evening you’re waiting for updated statistics, it’s nice to think about Sasamoto-san and Damien and others, making something right now while considering next year, the next generation, and the next.
If you’re unfamiliar with Erin-ji, it is classified as an important cultural property of Japan, and it’s well worth a visit. There is a display of Sengoku artifacts in addition to the temple and the gardens. I didn’t notice any English on their website but I was given some English info by temple staff and the Koshu City English pamphlets are some of the nicest I’ve seen. The best way to go might be by car as it’s a little far from Enzan station.
