TOYAMA -- In the midst of rice paddies in Oyabe city, Toyama Prefecture, stands a building in the style of a University of Oxford dormitory or the Yasuda Auditorium at the University of Tokyo. Built in 1984, it is the main building of the municipal Otani Junior High School, in front of which stands a gate that resembles the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
The city has 35 schools, community centers and other public buildings that were built from 1976 to 1992 to resemble famous structures from around the world, including the Palace of Versailles and Notre Dame cathedral. These "fairy-tale buildings" were the brainchild of former Oyabe Mayor Masao Matsumoto. He was an official of the now defunct Construction Ministry and was a first-class registered architect.
Matsumoto, who died in 1986, said he "wanted to give dreams to children." Yet his projects were criticized for their high construction costs, and many people found them jarring and out of place.
Over the years, young people have continued to leave Oyabe. About 20 stores that had stood vacant for more than a decade in the Isurugi shopping street in the central part of the city were recently torn down.
Of the about 100 stores that remain, about another 20 are empty now, as the hollowing out of the area has progressed.
Takayuki Shimazu, 46, the owner of a Japanese restaurant in the shopping street, and others racked their brains to come up with an idea that would bring young people to the city.
They eventually decided that Oyabe, with its fairy-tale architecture, could become a popular spot for taking photographs.
Shimazu and the others started to look at the fairy-tale buildings with fresh eyes after a comment by a female cosplayer who enjoyed dressing up like characters in anime and video games. With fads now spreading by Instagram and other social media, the number of tourists visiting Oyabe to take pictures of the fairy-tale architecture increased.
The city's first cosplay event was held in October 2016 and was attended by about 100 people, who had a good time taking pictures in front of the fairy-tale buildings dressed like characters from a story.
Seven empty stores in the shopping street were refurbished to serve as photography spaces. Temples, shrines and a 90-year-old ryotei Japanese restaurant in the city also offered themselves as photography venues.
"We want the temple to be a place where people gather like in old times," Genri Shaku, 39, deputy chief priest of the Koganji temple, which took part in the event, said hopefully.
Now each event attracts about 2,000 people, including tourists. In fiscal 2006, the city got about 540,000 tourists. In fiscal 2017, this figure had more than doubled to 1.21 million.
Emi Endo, 33, from Toyama, and Kana Hama, 35, from Kanazawa, who opened a studio specializing in cosplay photography in the city last year, said they were grateful for the support of the local community.
"We thought we could make it in a city that understands cosplay," they said, adding that residents have donated some of the tools they use in their photography.
For the next event on June 17, local farmers planned to sell processed food products inspired by fairy tales.
"At first it seemed like a gathering of strange people, but I now see this is a special place where young people from all over the country will come," said Koichi Takafuji, 60, chair of the Oyabe council that promotes local agricultural specialties.
Current Oyabe Mayor Morio Sakurai also said he was enthusiastic about working with the movement and planned to hold related events.
The fairy-tale buildings are aging. This year, a kindergarten is slated to be torn down, followed by seven day care centers two years later.
"Buildings will disappear as time passes, but we want to create a city where the people who gather can give expression to fairy tales," Shimazu said.
Going forward, their activities will seek to take the fairy-tale theme beyond the framework of cosplay.
Using unique buildings
Other areas are using unique public facilities in community vitalization efforts.
Soma city, Fukushima Prefecture, has since 2010 been using a unified Japanese-style design in its public buildings in the central parts of the city. Schools, public housing and other facilities are built with kawara tile roofs, plaster walls and other traditional features. The goal is to create the historical feeling of a castle town surrounding Soma Nakamura Castle, enhancing the charm of the city.
Every three years, Daichi no Geijutsu-sai (Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale) is held in Tokamachi city and Tsunan town in Niigata Prefecture, in which lodging facilities, theaters and other sites become the venues for artworks.
These works by domestic and foreign artists have raised the profile of the area and increased tourism.
The last event in 2015 was attended by about 510,000 people. This year's event is from July 29 to Sept. 17.
Oyabe city, Toyama Pref.
Oyabe is an important transport hub for the Noetsu, Tokai-Hokuriku and Hokuriku expressways, and has developed into a bedroom community for Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, and Kanazawa, the capital of neighboring Ishikawa Prefecture. The Tonamiheiya plain that spreads over the southeastern parts of the prefecture is a rich rice-growing area. Its population as of the end of May was 30,223.
Sporting goods company Goldwin Inc. was founded and still has its legal address here. The Kurikara Pass on the city's border with Tsubata town, Ishikawa Prefecture, was the site of a major battle at the end of the Heian period (794-late 12th century), in which warlord Kiso Yoshinaka of the Minamoto clan defeated a large troop of the Taira clan in a surprise attack.
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