It takes 10 minutes by foot to reach KINARE from Tokamachi station. There is a small surprise for those who walk this distance, that is, a geoglyph titled “Choma”.
This story that you stumble upon along the way is somewhat similar to the picture book titled Swimmy. Countless creatures are assembled to form the shape of a large one. What kind of story do you sense from this art?
This picture is drawn using the same material used for the white lines of pedestrian crossings. It is interesting to see that this picture also involves features of roads such as manholes.
And here, the art poses a question to you.
Choma refers to ramie (ray-me).
Ramie is a plant that has existed in Tokamachi as a fabric material for a long time. Although it can be grown almost anywhere, in order to cultivate good quality ramie, there has to be large amounts of rainfall, high levels of humidity and a cold environment, conditions that Echigo-Tsumari fulfills.
Echigo-Tsumari is the only place to inherit the weaving technology known as “Angin” by which cloth and clothing are manufactured using ramie. This is also a valuable tradition that has been carried over from the Jomon era.
