Wikipedia Town Inazawa

July 7, 2024, I (User:Asturio Cantabrio) participated in “Wikipedia Town Inazawa”, held at the Inazawa City Central Library in Inazawa City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

Organizers and Participants

The event was organized by the Inazawa City Hall Commerce and Tourism Division. The lecturer was Professor Kazuto Aoki from the Fukui Prefectural University Regional Economic Research Institute.

There were 16 participants, and in addition to residents of Inazawa City, there were also participants from Ama City and Nagoya City. The participants were Inazawa City Hall staff, Aichi Prefectural Government staff, Tourism Association staff, public library librarians, university librarians, and school librarians.

The destinations on the walk were the Chuko Memorial Hall, the Owari Kokuga Site, Akazomeemon Poetry Monument Park, and the Owari School Site. The Chuko Memorial Hall is a modern Western-style building completed in 1880, while the other three are historical sites related to Akazomeemon, a poet of the Heian period, and his husband, Oe no Masahira.

Chuko Memorial Hall

The Chuko Memorial Hall is the oldest modern Western-style building in Inazawa City, and “Chuko” means Nakajima County Higher Elementary School.
The interior of the Chuko Memorial Hall is open to the public about once a year, so even modern architecture fans rarely have the opportunity to enter the building.

The Chuko Memorial Hall was completed in 1880, but it is unclear what purpose it served in the seven years before it became Nakajima County Higher Elementary School in 1887.

In addition, this building was first built near Zengen-ji Temple, and then moved three times, in 1912, 1940, and 1960, before settling in its current location. Over the course of 144 years, it has been used for various purposes, including a school, town hall, agricultural association, and board of education.

There is no page on the web that summarizes this complex history. Also, the explanations in the paper versions of “Repair Work Report for Chuko Memorial Hall” and “History of Inazawa City” are somewhat difficult to understand. In that sense, I think that creating an article on Chuko Memorial Hall on Wikipedia at this event was very meaningful.

Editing Workshop

After discussing the topic in advance, the organizers and instructors decided to split into three groups to edit Wikipedia articles: “Chuko Memorial Hall” (new article), “Akazoemon Poetry Monument Park” (new article), and “Owari Province” (addition to text). I acted as the facilitator for the Chuko Memorial Hall group.

However, the three Wikipedians in each group agreed that “creating a new article for Akazomeemon Poetry Monument Park would be difficult from the perspective of the guidelines for creating independent articles.” Therefore, the “Akazomeemon Poetry Monument Park” group added articles to “Akazome Emon” rather than creating a new article for the park. The “Owari Province” group focused on adding articles to “Oe no Masahira” rather than adding articles to Owari Province.

Literature used in editing

The Inazawa City Central Library, which was also the venue, prepared the literature used for editing. However, I assumed that the library would only prepare stiff books, so I personally printed out newspaper articles related to the topic from the Chunichi Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun databases and brought them to the event.

Such newspaper articles provide a concise and easy-to-understand summary of the subject. They are also useful for understanding the influence of the subject in modern times. For example, in the book, the Junior and Senior High School Memorial Hall is only described as a building that was once used as an elementary school, but when we read the newspaper article, we learn that it is a building that is still used for exhibitions and other events.

It seems that some groups viewed documents in the National Diet Library Digital Collection during the event and added sources. I don’t know if the Inazawa City Central Library will read the edited article, but it was an interesting event in which many documents that the organizers did not prepare in advance were used.