Horn-kun Portrait and a Nice Review
Setsunai has posted a review of my piece "The Last Festival" that includes some eloquent observations about dying towns in the Northland and poses excellent questions about Hokkaido's history and the mentality of the people who live here.
For those who want a look at Horn-kun, the manic sheep that oversees Utashinai's decline in his official capacity as Town Mascot, his picture is posted below.
For those who want a look at Horn-kun, the manic sheep that oversees Utashinai's decline in his official capacity as Town Mascot, his picture is posted below.
posted by Tim at
7:51 PM
3 Comments:
Hello Tim.
I enjoyed your piece on the dying towns in the north (and Setsunai's comments).
My area in the north of Hiroshima prefecture can feel pretty bleak, but it doesn't match the desolate feelings I had when driving for a week around the Ainu-related areas in Hokkaido one autumn a few years back.
There is a marked contrast between the "pioneer" stories told in the Hokkaido Kaitaku Kinenkan (Historical Museum of Hokkaido) on the one hand, and the various Ainu museums on the other.
Thanks for your comment JH - I haven't been to those museums, but would like to check them out some time. I've lived here for 18 months, and seen only one mention of the Ainu (part of a TV program showing a salmon fishing ritual). It would be easy to miss their story completely.
Horn-kun looks like he's gearing up for some surreal Haruki Murakami-inspired revery. You know, with plenty of music and booze leading up to where everything goes dark. Not a bad metaphor for a dying festival, actually.
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