[Kawachinagano City] Experience the Kawachinagano of the past by making a diorama! A workshop to spark intellectual curiosity at the Hometown History Learning Center
Tanka
A summer to gain the joy of making a diorama, enjoying the process of completion as well
(Diorama wo tsukuru tanoshimi eru natsu ni kansei suru no katei mo tanoshi)
Impressions
The theme this time is the diorama, a three-dimensional solution to the problem that full-scale restoration of historical footprints is very difficult due to funding and labor, and is hard to understand through just pictures or photos. This is a workshop where you can make a simple diorama in one day, rather than the professional-grade ones that experts spend months creating. It was a children's session, so elementary and junior high school students and their parents were participating, and even watching from the side, it was clear that the experience of making something together was fun.
Main Text
While some historical structures like burial mounds and castle ruins still exist, there are many cases where, even though they have already disappeared, various pieces of evidence remain, leading to introductions about what used to be there.
Among these, there are examples where structures that once existed are rebuilt using methods like 'fukugen' (recreating the past appearance) or 'fukugen' (restoration that faithfully reproduces the architectural techniques and materials of the time as much as possible). For example, the Nara Heijo Palace also has its First Daigokuden and Suzakumon Gate restored(external link).
However, rebuilding or restoring things from the past at their original size requires a considerable amount of time and manpower, so it is actually quite difficult to do. The image shows the Shindo Haiji Temple ruins in Tondabayashi, but even here, they can only manage to leave space as a site. This is still on the better side; for example, if the location were someone's private property, even that would not be possible.
In such situations, one way to reproduce and clearly introduce the appearance of the time is through a diorama. The image shows a reproduction of the appearance of Ebotogata Castle at the time, based on historical materials, which appeared at the Osaka Castle Fes 2024, and it gives a good understanding of what the mountain castle looked like back then.
If you go to the Kawachinagano Hometown History Learning Center, dioramas like this, made by the curators, are on display, making it easy to understand what the village looked like at that time.
Among them, there was also a life-sized reproduction of an existing stone monument on display. This is not a diorama, but I thought it was amazing how they were able to brilliantly reproduce even the dirtiness that gives the stone monument its sense of history.
However, I received information that Kawachinagano is not just displaying dioramas meticulously recreated by curators, but is also taking it a step further by holding workshops. It is an attempt to learn while enjoying the experience of making a diorama together.
The diorama making experience has a children's session and an adult's session. Since the children's session (for elementary and junior high school students) was to be held first, I went to the venue, the Hometown History Learning Center, on Sunday the 17th.
Also, there will be an adult session (for high school students and older) on the next Sunday, the 24th, from 13:30 to 16:00. The Hometown History Learning Center mentioned that there might be a few spots left, so if you are interested, please inquire with the Hometown History Learning Center.
So, the diorama making practice was being held using two lecture rooms.
This is the state of the lecture room.
On this day, a hands-on workshop for making this diorama was being held. This is a place that used to be called Koyado, which was located near Kawachinagano Station.
The building in the center here is the main building of Koyado, and it seems it was mainly a facility for lodging and resting for people going to and from Mt. Koya. And the area surrounded by trees on the bottom right is Nagano Shrine. It seems it was once called the Shrine of Koyado, and it was renamed to the current Nagano Shrine in 1868 (the first year of the Meiji era)(external link).
And the location of Nagano Shrine and the flow of the river are the same then as they are now. There is a confluence of the Ishi River and the Amami River nearby, and the place where the apartment building stands now was apparently a lumber yard.
Since the location where Nagano Shrine is enshrined and the flow of the river are the same then as they are now, I was able to guess to some extent where the main building of Koyado was located.
It is thought to have been located near the parking lot of Novaty Nagano, where a CARDAYS event was held in May, right next to Nagano Shrine and where the Ishi River flows immediately after merging.
Now, these materials were distributed to the participants on the day.
The specific instructions on how to build it are written here.
This is the resin used for the base. You use a hot wire cutter to cut this and create mountains. Since the cutter itself heats up and melts the material while cutting, it cuts cleanly and produces very little debris. You then place the cut pieces on top to represent mountains. Similarly, you use the hot wire cutter to melt and create depressions for the river.
I also heard something interesting about the shape of the mountains. Since mountains themselves have complex natural shapes, even if you make a mistake during the initial cutting, it is not fatal. In other words, even if there are differences in the shape of the mountains depending on the participant, it is not a problem because those differences have their own charm.
And items like these are provided. These are the houses and shops to be placed inside the diorama, which you cut out and glue together.
It is very detailed work. You can see how small the houses used for the diorama are when compared to tweezers or a child's hand.
A certain level of dexterity is required, but I thought that perhaps children might be better at it than adults.
In this way, the houses and buildings are made and placed into the diorama.
Next, you paint the base. The instruction is to first paint the lowest part, the river, then paint the soil areas avoiding the roads, and finally paint the roads. However, you do not paint the soil color directly onto the base; instead, you paint the soil color onto sand, place it, and let it dry to fix it in place.
You can see sand in the upper right of the image, and adding sand gives the diorama a sense of realism. Finally, you paint the mountain parts green.
Using a paper plate as a palette, you paint with mountain green, river blue, road white, and soil color.
The way of applying the colors also differs depending on the participant, and watching them, I felt that it reflects each person's individual sensibility.
For the trees, they use sponge for dioramas (diorama material) to give them a realistic look. The trunks of the trees are made using wire, and the sponge material is attached to them to recreate the trees.
In this way, the trees to be attached to the mountains are made one after another. I felt it was a very patient task.
It is important not to use just one shade of green for the trees, but to include some yellowish-green material to create realism. As an advanced application, if you add yellow, orange, or red trees, you can recreate the autumn foliage season, and if you use pink trees, you can recreate cherry blossoms.
Then you make the people of the town, and this is an interesting method.
You place plastic sheets (with pictures drawn on craft plastic boards) on parchment paper and put them in a toaster to heat them. They then shrink to about half their size.
They shrink to this size. You then place these inside the diorama. Once you install the buildings and trees you made earlier, the Koya-do diorama is complete.
When I visited, it was at the stage before finishing. Parents were participating in the diorama making alongside their children, and they seemed to be having fun. It is a task that requires patience, but I felt it was a workshop that stimulates intellectual curiosity.
I was able to talk a little with a child who came from Sakai. When I asked for their impression of Kawachinagano,"Sakai is full of shops and houses, but Kawachinagano has forests."They had a very positive impression.
There were 6 staff members from the Hometown History Learning Center on this day, and I was told there are 3 other staff members enrolled. Since each has their own area of expertise, they were helping each other with diorama making and assisting with this diorama workshop by complementing each other's strengths. By the way, the children's session had more applicants than the capacity, so it was decided by lottery.
I left at this point so as not to get in the way of their work by staying too long.As I mentioned at the beginning, there are only a few seats left for the session for high school students and adults (13:30–16:00) to be held on the 24th.If you are interested, please contact the Hometown History Learning Center (0721-64-1560).
Finally, I viewed the diorama of Kanshin-ji Temple. This was made over half a year, but the basics are the same as this diorama workshop. However, even looking at the small auxiliary temple buildings called 'shoin' one by one, other than the original buildings like the Kondo Hall and the Tatekaketo Pagoda, is amazing. If you look closely, even smaller walls are attached, and each garden surrounded by walls has unique trees with different charms planted in them. The more I looked, the more I felt how elaborately it was made.
Hometown History Learning Center
Address: 2230-5 Takamukai, Kawachinagano City, Osaka Prefecture
Access: 8-minute walk from the Michi-no-Eki Oku-Kawachi Kuromaro-no-Sato bus stop, 15-minute walk from the Shimo-Takamukai bus stop
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