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春日井市「柳(やなぎ)に飛びつくカエル」 image 春日井市「柳(やなぎ)に飛びつくカエル」 image "A Frog Leaps at the Willow" from Kasugai (March 5th)
Last Updated 5/MAR/2005


Kazugai is the birthplace of Michikaze Ono, one of the "Sanseki (the three great calligraphers of Japan)." Michikaze was not good at calligraphy at first and even struggled when he was young. Once day, he went for a walk at the riverside for a change and found a frog trying to leap onto a willow branch. The branch was on a high place and the frog was having a hard time reaching it. However, the frog didn't give up and tried over and over, and finally could reach the branch. Michikaze, watching that, realized that he could do anything if he would work hard. From that point, he made further efforts and finally became as great to be called as a master.

The kids from Kasugai handcrafted the frogs leaping at the willow. Each kid made a frog with clay and wrote his/her dream on a strip of Japanese paper shaped as a willow leaf. The completed objet d'art had the frogs hanging from the willow leaves with the kids' dreams.