On Tuesday, July 7th, members of the "Yame Fukushima Lantern Doll Preservation Society," a nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, visited our university and donated two stage backdrops for a puppet show, created by 20 third and fourth-year students from Department of Fine Arts and Media Sciences Faculty of Art and Design.
At the request of the Yame Fukushima Lantern Doll Preservation Society, our university has been producing backdrops for the puppet shows performed at the Fukushima Hachimangu Shrine's Hojo-e festival since 2014 as part of the "Yame Fukushima Lantern Doll Backdrop Production Project." This is the 12th of 20 backdrops that we have donated.
This year's performance is "Satsuma Hayato Kuniwakamaru's Pilgrimage to Itsukushima Shrine." For the third act, "Scene of the Corridor of Itsukushima Shrine," and the fourth act, "Scene of the Autumn Leaves at Itsukushima Shrine," the students devised designs to make the puppets stand out, and painted them on cotton cloth measuring 3m high by 6m wide.
On the day of the donation, the students received explanations about the structure and movement of the puppets from members of the preservation society in front of a backdrop. They were seen enthusiastically observing the internal structure and even trying to move the puppets themselves.
Hidenori Higuchi of the preservation society said, "The current backdrop has been in use since before the war and has become old, so we are truly grateful to everyone at Kyushu Sangyo University for their cooperation in creating a wonderful new backdrop every year."
Marimo Ogata (Kumamoto Chuo High School), a fourth-year student in the same department who was involved in the production of the third act, said, "It was difficult to get used to the dyes we hadn't used much before, but we were all able to paint a beautiful sunset scene, and I'm glad we were able to deliver such a well-made backdrop."
The backdrop we created will be unveiled to the local community at the Hojo-e festival held at the Fukushima Hachimangu Shrine grounds from September 20th (Sunday) to 23rd (Wednesday).
[Faculty of Art and Design]
