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Last week, I went to Shizuoka, Japan, to attend the World Green Tea Awards ceremony and took the time to visit “Kunozan Toshogu Shrine.” The exquisite architectural decoration was admirable. The main deity worshiped is “Tokugawa Ieyasu.” The offerings were boxes of exquisite toy models, which inevitably aroused curiosity. It`s common to see food or utensils as offerings, but toy models as offerings are rare.
Through an introduction by a local friend, it turns out that “Tokugawa Ieyasu,” besides loving tea, had craftsmen who, with the end of wars, transferred their skills from making weapons to crafting wooden models. These wooden models are the predecessors of plastic toy models.
Shizuoka is famous not only for its tea but also for precision model toys. Companies like Tamiya, Hasegawa, Aoshima, and Fujimi are renowned model makers from Shizuoka. Bandai also started its model business by acquiring the “Imai Science” factory located in Shizuoka Prefecture in its early days. Tamiya is known for its four-wheel-drive and track vehicles. Bandai models are famous for Gundam models.
The craftsmen of old Shizuoka would drink tea while making weapons, but today`s experience in Shizuoka involves drinking tea while making models. By the way, the Zinan Temple in Nantou County uses a “Golden Rooster” as its mascot, while Kunozan Toshogu in Shizuoka Prefecture has “Musha Gundam Mk-II Tokugawa Ieyasu Ver.” as its mascot. Next time you visit Shizuoka, in addition to drinking tea, you can also “request” a “Tokugawa Ieyasu Gundam model” to take home for worship. That`s all I have to share with you today. See you next time.
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