 Kyoto monks set up an Article 9 project Public figures and Buddhist priests in Kyoto have launched a new effort to create waves of public opinion in defense of Article 9 of the Constitution under the name "Article 9 Message Project (K9MP)". On September 21, Project Leader Anzai Ikuro, professor at Ritsumeikan University and director of the Kyoto Museum for World Peace, called a press conference in Kyoto City to announce the project. Founded in response to the "Article 9 Committee", the project will call on the public to submit artistic works such as poetry, tanka poetry (31-syllabled verse), paintings, and music expressing anger at war and demands for peace, and will publish them in a booklet and organize a concert. More than 100 items have already been given to the project. Anzai said, "Constitutional revision advocates actually seek to change Article 9 in order to dispatch Japan's Self-Defense Forces abroad. We are now tested on what to do to create peace." Rev. Oshima Ryojun of Ohara Nenbutsu-ji Temple said, "More than 100 soldiers from the Ohara district of Kyoto were killed in action during WWII. We won't make the same mistake that dishonorably goes down to posterity." Hoashi Masaki, Japanese flute player of Noh (traditional masked dance-drama), said, "Our cultural activities were regulated during the past war. I know the importance of peace through my own experience." (end) |