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Supporting Tohoku Through APCAC Hiraizumi Trip to Honor Anniversary of 3.11

Following on the 2012 APCAC meeting in Tokyo, ACCJ provided an opportunity for visitors to observe recovery efforts and support the local Kessenuma and Rikuzentaka economies through tourism.

This ACCJ trip visited the Otokoyama Sake Brewery, which was reduced to rubble in the tsunami and then resurrected through the determination of the kuramoto (owner) who vowed to rebuild and start again. The sake, made in the depths of winter, when the frozen air is at its most pure and rivers are barely flowing, was a special treat. Supporting the local economy, the group then visit Kesennuma Fukko Shotengai, in Kesennuma, one of cities hardest hit by the 3.11 tsunami and earthquake, where they talked with local business people and got a firsthand sense of the magnitude of the situation and how they are progressing on the road to recovery.

The next day, they visited the historic Hiraizumi World Heritage site, a political and cultural center for a hundred years in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, under Oshu Fujiwara, where they saw the famous national treasure, Chuson-ji Temple. When Marco Polo first saw Konjikido, the inner sanctum of Chuson-ji Temple, with its gold-covered, walls, ceilings, and floors, he thought Japan was the land of gold. Chuson-ji Temple houses more than 3000 pieces of Heian art, lavishly decorated with gold, silver, pearls, and jewels, which have been designated as national treasures and cultural properties. Craftsmen demonstrated hand carving the ornate shell inlays and making the gold leaf which covers Konjikido. Nearby Motsu-ji Temple, at its peak, consisted of more than forty halls and pagodas, and over 500 dormitories for the resident monks, and was praised as "unparalleled in all the land."