16 June, 2022
In fall 2020, IAC’s North Macedonia Fellowship Group involved in a project to make Japanese edition of Macedonian folktales, and in March 2022, a collection book of Macedonian folktales was issued. The books were presented to the public elementary schools and the library in Chigasaki City in April 2022.
The relationship with the Republic of North Macedonia started in April 2019 when Chigasaki City became the Host Town of Team Macedonia in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In fall 2019 Bundankyo (Chigasaki Cultural Conference) introduced some folktales of Chigasaki to Mr. Ivan Karanfilovski, the Charge d’Affaires ad interim of the Embassy of the Republic of North Macedonia in Japan, when he participated in the Cultural Festival in Chigasaki.
In September 2020, Bundankyo asked IAC’s North Macedonia Fellowship Group to join the project to make Japanese edition of 8 books of Macedonian folktales, and we were assigned to work on one of the folktales “the Girl and the Twelve Months”. Having dedicated to the work, we handed in our draft to Bundankyo in October.
In the end of March this year, a collection book of Macedonian folktales including these 8 stories was published. In April, Chigasaki City presented 30 books to all the public elementary schools and the library in the city. IAC also received one as a collaborator of the project.
We also introduced this Japanese edition of “the Girl and the Twelve Months” at the Cultural Festival 2020 held online. Having been requested by Bundankyo to join the festival, we decided to play the folktale in “Kamishibai”, a traditional Japanese theatre in the form of picture card storytelling. We drew and painted the pictures, and practiced the story telling and the sound effects for Kamishibai.
Our kamishibai was recorded at the Mini Hall of Chigasaki Civic Hall in March 2021. Five members of our North Macedonia Fellowship Group took part in the Kamishibai.
Chigasaki City will upload the video of the Kamishibai on YouTube soon.
