12  The Purple Town

町章

　

　

   What words do you imagine when you hear or see the color “purple”?

   If you look it up on the Internet, you will find that people all over the world imagine words like elegant, holy, authority, artistic, or dignity.  As you know, “purple” has been known as a noble color in Japan since ancient times.  It has been a very important color to us for a very long time.
      Do you know there is a town that is suitable for such a color?  The name of the town is Shobu Town.  It is in the northern part of Saitama.  The illustration above is the symbol of the town, which was established in 1960.  The bottom part of the symbol is a shira-sagi, a snowy egret. It is the bird of the town.  You can see a lot of them in the town.  The bird is holding 5 lines showing the 5 areas of Shobu Town.  The kanji inside means a flower called ayame(Japanese iris).  It is the symbol flower of the town.

　

     There are many parks with ayame all around the town.  In late  spring, you can see purple ayame in full bloom, and the whole town turns purple.  At the same time, lavenders around the Town Hall are also in full bloom.  They are all purple too.  Also there are lots of wisterias in the town.  Most of the wisterias are purple.  There is a shrine called Shobu Shrine in the southern part of the town.  You can see a 300-year-old wisteria tree there.  It has a lot of big flowers.  They are 180 centimeters long.  Of course, they are all purple!
    Now, you understand why Shobu Town is the Purple Town , don’t you?                                                   (285語)  

　

　

authority   権威のある

artistic   風雅な

dignity    気高さ

establish    設立する、設置する

in full bloom   満開で

wisteria  （植物の）藤

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

菖蒲町 に住む中学生のアオイは、彼女の家にホームステイに来ているジョンと話をしています。
John: Aoi, will you take me to any places I can study about your town?
Aoi: Sure.  We are having the “Blue Festival” near the Town Hall today.
John:  “Blue Festival?”  Where's that?
Aoi: It takes only 10 minutes by bike to get there from my house.  I have two bikes.
John: OK.  Let’s go by bike then.
Aoi: Can you see the Town Hall over there?
John: Yes, but there are so many cars and it’s crowded with a lot of
people. Oh, there are some small shops too. What’s happening?
Aoi: That’s the “Blue Festival”.
Behind the Town Hall there is a big lavender field.
John: I see…  Wow!  There is lavender everywhere!  Everything
is purple!  Not only the flowers but the things they sell
are also purple!  Look!  They have lavender handkerchiefs,
lavender towels, lavender shirts, lavender candles…
Lavender drinks!  Are they good?
Aoi: Of course they are!
John: You can call this festival the “Purple Festival”!
Hey, they even have lavender soba and they are all sold out!
Can you believe it?
Aoi: Why not?  It must be good.

　

　

John: Wait!  There are many purple flowers over there. 
What are they called?  They are not lavenders, right?
Aoi: That's right. They are irises, the flowers of Shobu Town .
We call them ayame or shobu.
John: It’s the name of your town!  They are beautiful!
Aoi: Do you know the flower of your hometown?
John: No, I don’t know.  I want to check it out.
Aoi:  We can look it up on the Internet at home.
John: That’s a good idea.
Hey, look!  I found lavender manju.   Can I try some?
Aoi: Sure.  Go ahead!