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With Principal Ito (holding
flags) and
the Koneta Friendship Doll Group
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As I was riding with Principal Shigehiro Ito on
the way to Saigo Elementary School in Toyohashi City, he explained to me that
people living near the school strongly supported activities related to the
school's doll named Koneta. During my visit to Saigo Elementary, I had
the opportunity to meet several of these people and to learn more about the
many activities they have organized and promoted.
Koneta was found in the school's closet in
1987, and after this time a group of people living near Saigo Elementary
School searched to find information about the birthplace of Koneta based on
the passport that came with the doll in 1927. In 1996, Koneta and several
representatives from Japan went to Wapakoneta, Ohio, from where Koneta was
sent to Japan by the Presbyterian Missionary Society about 70 years before.
As a result of this trip, Northridge Elementary School in Wapakoneta and
Saigo Elementary School became sister schools. At that time this group was
called the "Koneta" Doll Homecoming Committee. In this article, I
refer to the group as the Koneta Friendship Doll Group.
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Original Koneta (center) and
Two Replicas (left and right)
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During the past five years the students at Saigo Elementary have had an active
exchange with the students at Northridge Elementary School. The principal's
office and the walls of the school halls had many photos, dolls, letters,
drawings, and other items related to the friendship between the two schools. In
the five years of their sister school relationship, some students had the
opportunity to visit the other school. Last year the wife of the governor of
the State of Ohio visited Saigo Elementary since she had heard of the
activities between Saigo and Northridge. Saigo's principal mentioned that they
would like to do more activities between the two schools, but sometimes the
difference in languages was a challenge.
Last year the Koneta Friendship Doll Group, in
cooperation with Toyohashi City, decided to hire an expert doll maker to make
two replicas of the original Koneta. One of these replicas was sent to the
children of Northridge Elementary School as a sign of the two schools' strong
friendship. The other replica is displayed at the front entrance of Saigo
Elementary School, where the children can see the doll each day and touch it
without concern about damaging it. The original doll from 1927 is kept safely
in a display case inside the principal's office.
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With Mr. Katsuhiro Natsume
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After lunch I had a chance to talk for some time
with Mr. Katsuhiro Natsume, who has had an intense interest in the Friendship
Dolls since 1987, the year when an article was published in a local newspaper
about the finding of Koneta at Saigo Elementary School. At that time Mr.
Natsume was teaching English to ninth graders, and he was searching for a
theme for a final lesson that would have great impact on his students and
would be something they would not forget later in life. After reading the
article about Koneta, he decided that the Friendship Dolls would be the theme
of the last lesson for his students. He busied himself in research on the
Friendship Dolls to prepare for this final lesson, when he taught to his
students the importance of peace and the value of a life in which one does not
lose oneself even during crazy times, such as during World War II.
Since that class when he first taught the
valuable lesson of the Friendship Dolls, Mr. Natsume has searched actively to
find American Blue-eyed Dolls and Japanese Friendship Dolls. He has been
involved in finding four Japanese Friendship Dolls in the United States. He is
now retired from teaching, and he hopes to complete soon a book he has been
writing based on his extensive research on the Friendship Dolls. Mr. Natsume presented to me one of Eiko Takeda's books on the Friendship
Dolls, and we agreed to keep in touch with each other.
The Koneta Friendship Doll Group provided me with much interesting information about
Koneta, which I hope to be able to add soon to the Friendship Dolls web site.
The group also presented to me a beautifully decorated hagoita (wooden paddle traditionally
used in New Year's game similar to badminton) and a sack of locally-grown persimmons.
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