Kamijima Town Tourism Office
Buildings adorned with mango murals illuminate the sea front in Takaikamihima
On a small island in western Japan is underway a bold experience to avoid extinction: turn it into a global mango center, and make it a pilgrimage site of fans of the iconic Japanese graphic soap operas.
With a population of only 11 people, the remote island of Takaikamishimain the Ehime region, in Japan, it is betting everything on the comic – that residents expect to change their luck.
In April, the small island of 1.34 km² opened a mango school, hoping to be revitalized-through what is one of the more iconic cultural exports From Japan.
Twenty -three students of basic and secondary education from other parts of the municipality of Kamijima – which includes Takaikamihima – have already signed up at school, a report from the Japanese newspaper.
The initiative marks the culmination of a eight -year effort Led by two mango enthusiasts – determined to give the island a second life.
Non74 years old, one of the remaining residents of the island, joined forces with Osamu Hasebea 76 -year -old medical corporation executive in the municipality of Yamanashi, to bring the project to life. Both dream of making Takaikamhyima a Pilgrimage place for mango fans from all over the world.
“If students here become professional artists, I think this will become a kind of Sacred place for the sleeve“Hasebe told the school’s opening ceremony to the newspaper.
The Mango Center now occupies the former island’s former primary and secondary school, which ended in 2023. Renewed and reused, the installation includes three classrooms and a mango reference room.
The program offers Six Intensive Courseseach with full -day classes held twice a month between the end of May and the end of July. The curriculum covers everythingfrom the construction of plots to the illustration of characters, backgrounds, robots and machines.
The bribe to each course, which costs 80,000 yen, about 550 eurosincludes instruction, accommodation and meals. Up to 30 students per course can be enrolled, with candidacies open to aspiring sleeve artists across the country.
Naruto Maegamistudent of secondary education from another island in the municipality of Kamijima, says that the lessons were easy to follow. “It was fun. The teacher’s explanations were easy to understand. ”
Supervising the launch of the school was Masanori Babawhich also directs the association of residents on the island. He moved to Takaikamishima in 2022 with his wife and two daughters, increasing the population to 11.
Baba now hopes to see this number triple during your lifetime. For this to happen, The island needs an economysays Baba – and the mango school could be the beginning of something larger. “I hope we are flooded With people who want to move here, ”he said.
The manga has been gradually changing the island in recent years. Public buildings, including the community hall, They became screens for colorful murals. More than 30 mango characters adorn now the buildings of the island’s sea front, transforming the riverside area into an outdoor vibrant gallery.
Takaikamishima had about 300 residents in the 1950smost of which lived from fishing and agriculture. But its population had shrunk to only 51 in 2007 – the same year Hasebe first visited and began looking for ways to lock the island’s decline.
The island is one of About 256 inhabited “remote islands” which are officially recognized in the light of the Japan Remote Islands Development Law – intended to support isolated communities and ensure the nation’s territorial integrity.
Although these communities are home to less than 0.3 % of the population From Japan, they play a disproportionate role in safeguarding the nation’s maritime borders and economic zones.
“It’s hard for people living on these islands to find ways to develop their community,” the mayor of Kamijima tells The Mainichi, Toshiyuki Uemura. “That have decided to implement this mango project is a WONDERFUL DEVELOPMENT – In which we would never have thought“.
