While the state of Maine seems to still be stuck in the midst of Winter, Spring Festivities in the Aomori Prefecture are approaching – the most notable being that 2017 will be the 100th year of the Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival!
Hirosaki City is located in the Aomori Prefecture and is home to Hirosaki Park and the famously picturesque Hirosaki Castle. The Cherry Blossom Festival in Hirosaki Park has been voted one of the best in the country and is held every year between late April and early May when the park’s approximately 2,600 cherry blossom trees are in full bloom. The festival offers a wide range of activities for visitors, from boat rides along the west moat, to picnics on the park grounds, and to the festival stalls full of seasonal food; with so much to do it’s easy to see why this festival draws over two million people per year!
For more information on the Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival, please visit the following:
April is Volunteer Appreciation Month! Friends of Aomori would be nothing without its dedicated team of volunteers!
This month, we are featuring Volunteer Spotlights on the creative and hard-working people who help make our programs a reality. We asked them to answer some questions for us to tell our visitors more about the work they do!
Volunteer Spotlight: Hannah Hooke
Photo courtesy of the Bowdoin Japanese Program.
Q: Tell us about yourself!
A: My name is Hannah Hooke, and I’m a student of Studio Art and Art History at the University of Maine. I concentrate in Printmaking, and I most enjoy woodcut prints. I have studied abroad in Japan, and am especially enamored with its the rich artistic traditions. I hope to study in Japan again in graduate school. Q: How did you get involved with Friends of Aomori?
A: I got involved with Friends of Aomori as a result of meeting Briar Pelletier, who was interning for Friends of Aomori, while studying abroad in Japan. Due to our mutual love of art, we became fast friends and she graciously shared this opportunity with me.
Q: What kind of volunteer work did you do for Friends of Aomori?
A: I participated in Bath-Tsugaru Culture Day, where I ran a relief printmaking demonstration geared toward cultivating an understanding of relief printmaking for all ages, with Japanese context, and examples of tools and methods used in Japan.
Q: What has been your favorite moment from volunteering?
A: During my time volunteering, I most enjoyed getting to interact with others also interested in Japan, and to talk about printmaking with people who may have otherwise not had an opportunity to get such an intimate overview of printmaking techniques, tools, and possibilities!
What will you take with you from volunteering with FOA?
For me, I feel that this was a really a great chance to become familiar with a wonderful organization, that I feel is doing the important work of cultivating cross-cultural awareness and companionship. I am also grateful to have had an opportunity to share the art of printmaking with others, especially children in hopes that they may grow up interested in and aware of the way creative endeavors can connect people locally and cross-culturally.
We’ve got a brand new look here at maine-aomori.org, and we hope you like it!
Be sure to check our also-just-as-new MAPS webpage for updated information on our ongoing international printmaking exhibition. And, of course, revisit our homepage for current news and events!
Get rid of the midwinter doldrums with a full day of free activities for all ages highlighting Japanese culture and celebrating 25+ years of friendship between Bath and Tsugaru, Japan.
Watch a kyudo (archery) demonstration
Learn about martial arts
See and feel beautiful kimono
Sample some sake
Try traditional woodblock printing
Attend a book reading and signing
Learn some Japanese
Try your hand at writing kanji
Help us swim the distance between Tsugaru and Bath by doing laps at the YMCA–we’re halfway there already
AND MORE!
Activities will take place on Saturday, March 12, at various locations in Bath–the Patten Free Library, Now You’re Cooking, the Bath YMCA, and more.
In March of 2016, Friends of Aomori will host artists from Japan and mount MAPS – an art exhibition at Space Gallery in Portland. Click here to learn more about MAPS, or the donate button below to support our efforts!
MAPS is a multi-stage project, beginning with an exhibition of
ten prints by ten Maine artists in the Aomori Municipal Art Pavilion during the Autumn Citizen’s Celebration in the prefecture.
In March of 2016, Friends of Aomori and Pickwick Independent Press will host a group of four Japanese printmakers for a
week-long residency in Portland, which will coincide with a reciprocal gallery exhibition.
This visit is supported by a grant
Colleen Kinsella, Leviathan I, Octopus
from the Japanese Consulate in Boston to support cultural exchange between Japan and the US.
Throughout the project, both Friends of Aomori and the Munakata Shiko Memorial Museum will build two matching collections of MAPS
prints in Maine and Japan for future exhibitions of local contemporary artists to support education about the sister-state relationship. The long term goal of MAPS is a regular exchange of art exhibitions, exchanges, and residencies between the US and Japan.
Austin, Sacramento, Memphis St. Paul, Cambridge and now Portland. On October 15th, Maine’s urban center becomes one of several American cities to host five Japanese delegates sent by the Japanese government to enhance mutual understanding between Japan and the U.S. as part of the WALK IN U.S., TALK ON JAPAN Program.
The delegates are headed by former Japanese Ambassador to the U.S., Ichiro Fujisaki. Other delegates include Keizo Iijima, a retired CEO of the New York branch of Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank, and three young women: Akiko Takahashi and Karuko Yuda, who work for Japanese companies, and Mai Iida, a graduate student at the University of Tokyo, researching domestic migration. The delegates will each conduct a brief presentation on aspects of the Japanese economy, society, politics or culture from their unique perspectives. The group will take questions and hold an open discussion at the end of the presentations. One topic of interest in many cities has been the status of women in Japan today.
The program is hosted by the Consulate General of Japan in Boston, the Friends of Aomori, and the University of Southern Maine and will be held on Thursday, October 15th from 2:45 to 4:15 in Luther Bonney Hall on the Portland Campus of the University of Southern Maine. The program is open to the public and is free. For more information contact Pat Parker at patriciaparker@mac.com.
The Curtis Memorial Library in Bath will be running a Japan Week theme. Planned activities will include, but are not limited to, Japanese storytelling, origami, calligraphy, manga, and Japanese authors. There will be a display from the Bath-Tsugaru Program as well. The theme will run for two weeks from June 29 to July 12. Please contact the library or check their website for more information as to specific events and displays for each day.
Also, please join Friends of Aomori and other members of the Maine community in celebration on July 4th in Bath, Maine. The Bath-Tsugaru Exchange Program will participate in the Heritage Days Parade and carry an extraordinary Neputa float. The parade begins at 10:00AM at the corner of North and Lincoln Street. For more information about the parade: http://bathheritagedays.com/parade/
We are excited to announce a new membership program that will begin soon. If you are interested in getting involved with the Maine-Aomori Sister-State Relationship, the first step is to become a “Friend of Aomori.” There are the no fees or dues; however, donations are always appreciated.
By becoming a “Friend of Aomori,” you will be placed on our email list and we will contact you when there is noteworthy news about the relationship. In addition, you will be invited to our many programs and functions throughout the year.
More information will be available soon.
Please contact us for more information. Thank you for your help in maintaining the Maine-Aomori relationship.
Friends of Aomori 
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