The Ancient Lotus Museum

　There are the Exhibition Room, the Observation Room and Training Room

in this Museum. There are various displays using diorama and movie, such as Gyoda’ s Nature, Ancient Lotus, birds, small animals, insects etc. So, both children and adults can learn these with pleasure.

  If visitors go up to the observation floor, 50 meters (55 yards) above ground, you can enjoy a panoramic view surrounding mountains in Kanto District. If the weather is fine, you can watch TOKYO SKYTREE in the distance.

 People can use Training Room for multipurpose such as studying, orientation, lecture of Tree-planting Campaign etc.   Wi-Fi service is available in this Museum.

(1) Exhibition Room

-1. Twitter of small birds and insects

  Visitors can listen the twitter of the following small animals and insects.

 Azure-winged magpie, large brown cicada, Japanese tit, little grebe, kingfisher and etc.

 -2. Figures of small animals and plants

 Visitors also can see the following small animals and plants in this room.

 Racoon dog, snake, frog (American bullfrog, Japanese tree frog, Tokyo Daruma pond frog), many kinds of butterfly, greater painted-snipe, little egret, weasel, great reed warbler, tortoise, waterfowl, dragonfly(lesser emperor, common skimmer), Oriental turtle dove, sparrow.  

Coffee Break 6:

The Outline of “The Spider’s Thread” written by Akutagawa Ryunosuke

One day, the Lord Buddha was taking a stroll beside the Lotus Pool in Paradise. The  lotus blossoms were the color of precious white jade, and from the golden stamens in their centers an exquisite fragrance wafted into the air. It was morning in Paradise. Presently, the Lord Buddha paused by the side of the pool and chanced to glance down between the lotus leaves, where he caught sight of a man named Kandata in the depth of the Hell. This Kandata was a notorious thief. Once, when he was passing through a forest, he noticed a little spider crawling by the wayside. Kandata was about to crush it with his foot but he did not kill it and had spared the life. As a reward for that single good deed, Lord Buddha decided to rescue him and let down a spider’s thread to the bottom of Hell. Hauling himself up, what did Kandata see way down below but countless sinners climbing up after him on the thread.　“This spider’s thread is mine! Get off!” That’s when the spider’s thread suddenly snapped. When finally Kandata had sunk to the bottom of the Lake of Blood, a look of sadness crossed the Lord Buddha’s countenance as he resumed his stroll. The flowers in the Lotus Pool of Paradise were not in the least affected by any of these events. It was almost noon in Paradise.

(2) At the Observation floor:

 Here we are at the Observation floor. Gyoda is located at almost center of Kanto District, so we can enjoy this panoramic view.

 -1.Oshi Castle

  Gyoda City is a town that was blessed with historical legacies.

We can watch the Oshi Castle at the distance. The castle was built in the second half of 15^th century by the Narita clan that controlled this area.

In the same periods, new Spain was born in Iberian Peninsula and Italian genius, Leonard Da Vinci, completed his famous painting「Last Supper」. 

  The Oshi Castle  has been very famous by a popular movie “Nobou-no-Shiro” (The Block Head in the Castle).

Near Left: Inariyama Kofun

Far Lefu(taller mound): Maruhakayama Kofun 

-2.Four Kofuns (Burial mounds)

We can see two Kofuns (Burial Mounds) at this direction. The far position, higher mound is Maruhakayama Kofun and the near position, lower mound is Inariyama Kofun.

Maruhakayama Kofun is the largest class of circular Kofun in Japan. The strongest Samurai group built headquarters on the mound to attack the Oshi Castle by flood in late 16^th century.

In Britain Island, Queen Mary of Scotland was executed by the Queen ElizabethⅠof England.

The low Inariyama Kofun is the oldest mound in this cluster and keyhole-shaped Kofun. The national treasure, the “Gold-inlaid Iron Sword” was excavated. It was engraved on this sword that this was made in the second half of the 5^th century. So, the year became the fixed point in Japanese ancient history.

The Westrn Roman Empire went into ruin in the same period in Italy. The length of this key-hole shaped mound is 130 yards and this is the same width of the huge stone faces of four Presidents of U.S.A. at Mt.Rushmore in the South Dakota.

Please move your eyes to the left and you can see two more mounds over there. The left burial mound is Futagoyama Kofun. It is the largest key-hole shaped Kofun in Kanto district.

At the near right position, lower Kofun is Shogunyama Kofun. This is also keyhole-shaped Kofun and has an Exhibition Room inside the mound. There we can see how the noble person was buried in the Kofun.             

-4.Waste Disposal Site and TOKYO SKYTREE:

　In this area, very valuable things were found, not only Ancient Lotus out of ground but also national treasure Gold-inlaid Iron Sword in burial mounds, and Bills at waste disposal site in 21 century. You can see a waste disposal site with tall chimney over there. Thirty three hundred and eighty pieces of bill of ten thousand yen (one third of $1M) were found there just before burning.

Several persons claimed that they were their belongings at that time. However, Gyoda city hall realized nobody would be identical to the owner of the bills. So, city hall decided to donate them to a city that had been struggling in disaster by Chuetsu Earthquake occurred in 2004. 

 People in the city in Niigata prefecture thanked Gyoda and later they welcomed members from Gyoda to attend study meeting on countermeasures for earthquake.

Left:  Wild growth pond of Ancient Lotus  by Waist Disposal Site

-5. The  Huge Rice Paddy Art

This is the Huge Rice Paddy Art. We can watch the progress of this art from June and final design until middle November.

  The rice paddy changes designs every year.However, the result of this art depends on the weather. We had very hot days this summer, so the yellow bill of condor is missing this year.

Left:  Theme of 2019 is "RUGBY WORLD CUP JAPAN 2019".

           This is the Final design for this year.