On July 26 this blog introduced the bronze boy and girl in Kojimachi, Chiyoda — a short subway ride from Takebashi. Those children, it turns out, change clothes often and stay quite busy.
First, the June Sanno Festival at Hie Shrine (Nagatacho 2-chome, Chiyoda). It is a colorful parade of mikoshi, and around the festival the bronze children turn into happi-coat figures.
The happi look of the most conspicuous piece, “Natsu no Omoide” (Memories of Summer) by Yoshino Tsuyoshi at the Kojimachi 4-chome crossing, is the photo above. This boy in a straw hat with a fishing rod
actually changes all the time. In April he wears a light-blue shirt and a “traffic safety” sash; in the spring and autumn National Fire Prevention Weeks he wears fire gear = photo right. The fire clothes are made by the student club “Fukubu” at nearby Otsuma Women’s University, at the request of Kojimachi Fire Station, from November 2010 onward each autumn. What began as only the jacket of ordinary turnout gear has “evolved” into rescue-team and special-extinguisher-unit coats.
When the neighborhood planned uchimizu in summer, the rod became a ladle and buckets lined up around him. For the red-feather appeal someone pinned a red feather on him; in graduation season he has been found holding a rose.
As noted before, the Kojimachi District Environment Council — about 140 residents and shops — put bronzes at six spots. Five wear clothes; only this “Memories of Summer” boy stood naked and looked chilly, so a woman in the council office made a costume years ago from leftover festival tenugui. It was a hit, and they have dressed him almost monthly since, delighting not only locals but people who commute to offices in the area.