"Sado Island" 👹 Estimated 1955-1964, Published by Niigata Kotsu Co., Ltd. Sado Office
[Introduction to Niigata Ephemera] 🧐
"Sado Island" 👹
Estimated 1955-1964
Published by Niigata Kotsu Co., Ltd. Sado Office
A comprehensive guide to Sado Island created by a sightseeing bus company, featuring a mask on the cover that has been passed down at Hiyoshi Shrine in the Hachioji district of Niibo Village (now Sado City) for about 300 years 📃
Every time this single sheet of paper is unfolded, a different face of Sado appears.
The act of turning the pages itself becomes a journey of discovering Sado 😌
[Content and Commentary] 🧐
⚫︎ The greatest appeal of this guide lies in how it unfolds.
When folded, it is a palm-sized booklet showing only the mask on the cover. Opening it once reveals a page on folk songs and dances. Opening the left and right sides like a gatefold reveals detailed explanations of nature, dialects, industry, exiles, and cultural assets. When fully opened into a single sheet, it displays a Sado chronology, a list of cultural assets, and a bus route map for the island.
It is a single-sheet, accordion-folded piece with 16 panels in total.
The structure, where topics change in an orderly fashion each time you open it, is designed so that the order of reading itself is an experience of "entering the island" of Sado.
⚫︎ Published by the Sado Office of Niigata Kotsu Co., Ltd.
Despite being a guide from a sightseeing bus company, the academic depth of the content is remarkable.
It is compiled as a comprehensive encyclopedia of the island that goes beyond tourist information, covering "Sado's Nature," "Sado's Dialects," "Agricultural History and Industry," "Exiles to Sado," "Sado's Cultural Assets," "Folk Songs and Dances," and a "Sado Chronology."
⚫︎ The commentary on the cover states, "The mask is one passed down at Hiyoshi Shrine in Hachioji, Niibo Village, and has been appraised by authorities as a rare masterpiece from about 300 years ago," capturing the essence of Sado's festival culture on the cover alone.
This sheet, opened to the sound of Onidaiko drums, draws travelers into the time of Sado.
⚫ The "Sado's Cultural Assets" section includes a list of nationally and prefecturally designated cultural properties.
There are also detailed explanations of intangible cultural assets such as Bunya puppetry, Noroma puppetry, Hanagasa dance, and the small lion dance.
The Japanese crested ibis (Toki) is also mentioned in detail as a special national natural treasure.
⚫︎ The "Exiles to Sado" chapter explains historical exiles such as Emperor Juntoku, Nichiren, and Zeami. The "Sado Chronology" covers the period from 544 to the Showa era, recording the transitions of gold mines, exiles, transportation, and administration in a chronological format.
⚫︎ The "Sado Dialects" page is a three-column comparison table of terms, usage examples, and standard Japanese, listing actual examples of the island's language.
The island bus route map (color-coded for regular buses, regular sightseeing buses, and walking paths) is a unique feature of the Niigata Kotsu Sado Office, allowing one to see the island's transportation network in the 1950s and 60s at a glance.
📖 A "cross-section of history" told by paper—a 300-year-old mask stares from the cover, and as you open it, folk songs, nature, exiles, cultural assets, and a chronology appear in sequence.
The thickness of the island's time is folded directly into this single sheet of paper. Whether you held it before your trip or looked at it after, every time you unfolded this paper, you were likely taken deeper into Sado 😌
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