“Wikipedia Nyaun Vol.8② Cultural Properties × Wikipedia”

On Saturday, October 18, 2025, “Wikipedia Nyaun vol.8② Cultural Properties x Wikipedia” was held in Kyotango City, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan.

Event Overview

The event was organized by “edit Tango,” a local group active in the Tango region. The group aims to share valuable local information with people outside the region and future generations by adding information from local materials held by public libraries and other institutions to Wikipedia. The event coincided with the popular “Komaneko Walk” event at the Komaneko Festival, and in the afternoon, participants of “Wikipedia Nyaun Vol. 8②” moved to a separate venue to edit Wikipedia.

This event was a workshop commonly known in Japan as “Wikipedia Town”. “Wikipedia Town” is a Wikipedia editing workshop organized by libraries, local governments, civic groups, and other organizations, with the aim of enriching articles about local history and culture “by the hands of local citizens.”

Chuzenji village

Every year, students from Fukuchiyama Prefectural University serve as guides for the “Komaneko Walk”. By learning in the field, rather than in a classroom or library, students deepen their understanding of the region. Participants also gain exposure to the students’ open-minded thinking and are inspired to consider the significance of having a university in the area. Professor Mototaka Koyama has been involved in cultural heritage surveys of shrines and temples for many years, and is himself a member of “edit Tango.”

A stone monument, “Ah, Great Earthquake Monument,” stands at the entrance to the Chuzenji village. Chuzenji village was one of the villages that suffered severe damage in the Kitatango earthquake that occurred on March 7, 1927, with 29 of the 30 houses collapsing. This stone monument was erected on March 7, 1928, exactly one year after the earthquake, and is said to be the earliest monument erected related to the Kitatango earthquake.

In 2019, the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan established a new map symbol for the Natural Disaster Memorial Monument. The current topographic map also marks the location of this stone monument with the symbol. This is an attempt to share records of disasters throughout society by visualizing past natural disasters that are difficult to see on a map. However, since the “Ah, Great Earthquake Monument” is a stone monument that is often overlooked in everyday life, I try to pay attention to historical sites like this when I have opportunities to actively learn about local history, such as this one.

Enjoji Temple

At Enjoji Temple, we learned from the head priest about the history and characteristics of the principal image, as well as the religious significance of the “Goshuin” (temple seal).

The name “Yoshimura Isuke” is inscribed on the incense burner and tamagaki fence at Enjoji Temple. Yoshimura Isuke served as mayor of Mineyama and a member of the House of Representatives before the Pacific War. The fact that Isuke’s name is engraved as the first of the donors speaks to the Yoshimura family’s economic and social centrality in the region at the time.

Yoshimura Isuke was also featured in “Wikipedia Nyaun Vol. 7: Tango Manufacturing” in October 2024. Because edit Tango targets the specific region of Tango, each event does not end as an independent entity, but rather builds up regional knowledge through mutual connections.

Wikipedia Edit

The editing topics chosen for this event included “Chuzenji village” and “Enjoji Temple”, with participants using literature they had collected in advance to edit. Additionally, one of the participants this time wanted to edit articles about the area where she lives, so we asked her to work on editing an article about her own area. While edit Tango events focus on topics from the Tango region, it is also welcomed that the event will encourage editing activities to spread to other regions, and this development itself speaks to the value of holding this event.

At this event, a new article about the Chuzenji village was created. After being recommended and selected by Japanese Wikipedia , the article was published on the main page of Japanese Wikipedia on October 21st. Approximately 100 new articles are created on Japanese Wikipedia each day, and from these, articles with particularly rich content or carefully cited sources are selected, with 3-5 articles published per day on the main page.

The main page of the Japanese Wikipedia boasts 500,000 hits per day. When our newly created articles are posted on the main page, it not only gives more people an opportunity to learn about the subject matter, but also increases the chances that typos and expressions will be corrected. The experience of knowing that an article we have written will be read by an unspecified number of third parties will motivate you to write higher quality articles.