Sunflower seeds distributed after cancelled Kitanakagusuku festival bloom across Japan

Sunflower seeds distributed after cancelled Kitanakagusuku festival bloom across Japan

Images of blooming Kitanakagusuku sunflowers, received from across Japan (photographs provided)


November 18, 2020 Ryukyu Shimpo
Across Japan, sunflowers from Kitanakagusuku have been blooming. Recently, one after another, people have been reporting that sunflowers have bloomed from sunflower seeds that were distributed free-of-charge in May by three people from a group for revitalizing the Kitanakagusuku Village region. Such joyful reports started around July, and are continuing to come in as of November. The three who distributed these seeds happily stated “We started, thinking that we wanted to help others feel encouraged during the coronavirus crisis, but rather we are the ones being encouraged by others from across the country.”
In an average year, the earliest sunflower festival in Japan is held in late February in Atsuta, Kitanakagusuku Village. However, since the festival was suspended, seeds were distributed free-of-charge.

About 200 bags of seeds were mailed within and outside of Okinawa, and Kitanakagusuku Village began to hear successive reports of the sunflowers, such as “Okinawa’s sunflowers are big” (woman in her 40s in Tokyo) and “They grew up to be 3 meters and 60 centimeters” (man in his 70s in Gunma).

However, on the questionnaire that came enclosed with the seeds, about half of respondents answered that they did not know of Kitanakagusuku Village.

The organizer of the group for revitalizing the Kitanakagusuku Village region, Takashi Yoshida, 34, said “There have been comments about wanting to try to come to Kitanakagusuku, and this inspires me to let others know about Kitanakagusuku and its many charms.”
(English translation by T&CT and Erin Jones)

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