successful concert. Am I right, Mr. Hirono?
Hirono: As I stated earlier, I was involved in the outdoor musical in Takaoka City. While I was pondering how to revitalize that city, I heard of a French small village, "Le Puy-du-Fou" situated on the Loire River, that annually holds an outdoor play. From Paris, it takes about ten hours by bus to this village. The village, having a population of 4,000, was suffering form depopulation, like many Japanese rural villages. Young people left the village, leaving only older villagers, who made a living by farming. Since there were humble castle ruins, villagers pondered how to revitalize the village and how to keep young villagers in the village, using this castle ruins. As I stated earlier, they placed greater emphasis on rediscovering and reconfirming the village identity, rather than on attracting tourists.
In Europe, particularly in France, performances are often held outdoors. Accordingly, the villagers decided to create a play of their own village and perform it at the castle ruins by themselves. In Europe, it is commonly believed that traditions and cultures should be preserved in public mind and memory, rather than in tangible forms, such as monuments and museums.
About 30 years ago, the villagers of Le Puy-du-Fou gathered every night to discuss what sort of a play they should perform. They decided to perform a play featuring the history of their own village, from ancient times to the present. If the play is not interesting, they thought, it will not last. To make it exciting and attractive, they planned to use fireworks, flashing lights and thundering sounds, as in contemporary popular singers' shows in Japan. They thought that an exciting performance might bring back the young people who had left the village, and that the young people might be interested in playing some roles.
Some villagers went to Paris to ask a well-known playwright to write a play for them. Impressed by their enthusiasm, the celebrated dramatist wrote a wonderful historical play. The villagers decided to ask the best actors and actresses in France to take part in the narration. For sound effects and lighting, they decided to use state-of-the-art technologies.
In this play, over one thousand villagers annually take part. As the stage, the old castle ruins were used, together with a small lake located adjacent to the castle ruins. The main stage in the castle ruins measures approximately 400X300 m. Seats were installed surrounding the stage. Spectators, however, do not focus their attention on the main stage alone. In front of the main stage, for instance, several villagers are walking, driven out form their village by Napoleon's army; in part of the castle ruins far from spectators, a battle is being fought; still another stage floating on the lake has a ballet performance. In this way, many performances are staged simultaneously in more than one place.
The play is participated in by all village circles and clubs: a ballet circle; folk song circle; boating club; equestrian club, and so forth. Although these circles and clubs usually compete with each other, all combine their efforts in this play.
Village women also collaborate in preparing costumes. About 1,500 villagers perform in the play in one year, and another 1,500 villagers (who performed in the previous year) work offstage, helping performers change costumes, dress hair, and so on. In other words, of the village population of 4,000, 3,000 are involved in the play.
The play is performed on Saturday and Sunday evenings during the summer (from June to the end of August). Accordingly, there are about 20 performances annually. Today, the play is so popular that spectators come even from Paris. Tickets are often sold out and therefore very difficult to obtain. One performance is attended by about 8,000 spectators. Since the village has no hotels or shopping streets, tourists stay in the town adjacent to the village. As 8.000 people gather at one performance, the number of spectators totals about 150,000 in one season. In other words, a small village with a population of 4,000 attracts 150,000 tourists every summer.
The play earns income eight times the village budget. Using this profit, villagers have established a foundation, and have used the money to make a history museum, and to construct roads and parking lots near the castle ruins to receive more tourists.
In this way, the foundation, established by villagers rather than the local government, constructs necessary facilities, making the village a sort of autonomous community, since they have no need to depend on the local government. I proposed that residents of Takaoka City create a historical play of their own community, patterned after the annual play in this French village.
Takada: Thank you very much. What especially interested me in Mr. Hirono's comment was that residents should discover valuable assets in their neighborhood. Each time I tell local people such success stories, they always deplore the fact that they have no cultural assets in their hometowns.
Hirono: Actually, the French village I mentioned does not have any special features, although it is true that Napoleon's army once passed through the village. Using this historical fact, villagers created a play.
Takada: In Japan, we have similar towns, two of which I would now like to introduce. One is Ogata Town in Kochi Prefecture, which could boast of only two things: whales, which sometimes appear offshore, and excellent shallots. Since there was much litter washed ashore on the beach, town residents began to clean up the beach. Among the litter, they found many cigarette lighters, cheap ones that cost just 100 yen. I also use such a lighter; although I usually use a transparent one, there are many colorful lighters: red, blue, yellow etc. Having
