The Significance of the Birth of the Koneta Twin Sisters

The Significance of the Birth
of the Koneta Twin Sisters

by Shigehiro Ito, Saigo Elementary School Principal

The blue-eyed doll Koneta served as a matchmaker bringing together Saigo Elementary School and Northridge Elementary School, far across the ocean in America, as Sister Schools in January 1996. Surviving through a complicated series of historical events, Koneta, an ambassador of friendship and peace, has become a symbol expressing the bond of friendship between our two schools. The plan for the creation of the Koneta Twin Sisters emerged as a way for our school to express the hopes of our students who want to share their feelings of friendship, the same feelings of friendship embodied in our Sister School bond.

Thanks to Toyohashi City's "School Dream Project," we were able to repair the original Koneta doll and give birth to the two new Koneta Twin Sisters, one that we are giving to Northridge Elementary School and the other that our school children will be able to play with and hold in their hands. We were deeply grateful to the city for enabling us to give this special dream gift to our pupils

Koneta herself will soon see her seventy-fifth birthday. For the children of Saigo Elementary School, the dolls will act as a bridge connecting our two schools while also spreading the spirit of the Koneta doll in the future. We want to educate our children here at Saigo Elementary School to even be able to have conversations in English with the children at Northridge Elementary School. So students, I hope you will embrace your dreams and grow up to be people who will spread your wings wide to the world.

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Go to Message of Northridge Elementary School Principal

Special thanks to Saigo Elementary School for permission to publish this web page
Source: booklet on The Koneta Twin Doll Presentation Ceremony (February 9, 2001)