Ginowan City begins crowdfunding for funds to restore the Okinawa Peace Prayer Statue prototype

Ginowan City begins crowdfunding for funds to restore the Okinawa Peace Prayer Statue prototype

Ginowan Mayor Masanori Matsugawa (front row, center) calling for crowdfunding to restore the prototype for the Okinawa Peace Prayer Statue at Ginowan City Hall


June 14, 2019 Ryukyu Shimpo

Ginowan – “Peace from Futenma.” Ginowan City in Okinawa announced June 13 that they have begun crowdfunding on the internet to raise the money to restore a prototype for a peace statue stored in a studio in Futenma, in order to eventually display the statue to the public. The statue itself was made by the late master artist Shinzan Yamada, and is stored at the Okinawa Peace Hall in Itoman.

Shinzan Yamada lived through the Battle of Okinawa, where he lost two sons, and spent 18 years building a prototype for a statue to mourn those lost in battle as well as to pray for world peace, completing the prototype in 1975. The estimate for restoring the prototype is around 500 million yen. The city hopes to raise around 3.5 million yen per year for each of the seven years until the proposed date for displaying the prototype publicly in 2025, for a total of 25 million yen. Additionally, on the crowdfunding site there is a “hometown choice,” which will run for 3 months from June 21 through September 20. Using the “benefit-your-locality” tax scheme, residents outside of Ginowan can use part of their residential tax to make a donation of over 10,000 yen.

The prototype for the Okinawa Peace Prayer Statue built by Shinzan Yamada, stored in a studio in Futenma, Ginowan (photograph provided by Ginowan City)


The prototype display is part of the “MCAS Futenma area town-building project,” and the city plans to register it as a cultural asset. For questions, contact the city planning office at 098 (893) 4461 (telephone).

(English translation by T&CT and Sam Grieb)

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