On 27 February 2001, the kaki tree was planted at Mishima Gakuen Girls High School.
The school has changed its name to Tohoku Seikatsu Bunka University High School in the last decade and has changed a lot – it is now a coed school and the number of students has also greatly increased. The tree planting ceremony was held on 30 October 2010, which was also the 110th anniversary of the former Mishima Gakuen.
The “Revive Time” Kaki Tree Project in SEIBUN – The Harvest of KAKI consisted of three parts. The part 1 was the 10th anniversary ceremony held at the Kaki Tree Square and members of the student council, alumni representatives and the former students who were there when the planting took place 10 years earlier attended. After messages from Principal Tadashi Mitsui and Tatsuo Miyajima, the then-president and the current president of the student council delivered messages as well. Everyone participated in a silent prayer and then collected kaki fruit from the tree, and the participants enjoyed the taste of the fruit of “the seedling of the bombed kaki tree.” The astringency of tannins contained in the fruit was removed beforehand. Then they dug up the time capsule that they buried 10 years earlier. There were messages of the then-students rolled up inside the bottle. Everyone joined the group photo at the end.
Then they moved to the school gymnasium. During the event held at the Kaki Tree Square, all the rest of the students watched the Kaki Tree Project DVD there. The students were informed of the progress of the project in the past 10 years and the 10-year-scroll which was produced every year during the decade was also shown to the students. Tatsuo Miyajima, founder of the Kaki Tree Project, delivered a commemorative speech on the “Progress of the Kaki Tree in the Last 10 Years” in the part 2, and had talks with Teacher Yuya Kuramoto, Teacher Sumiko Ito and the former president of the student council on Miyajima’s works, the projects so far and the Kaki Tree Project in the last decade. At the end, The Harvest choir (consisted of 81 students in the second and third years in child care course) performed “Bell of HEIWA (Peace Bell).” The 110th anniversary event of the school was held in the part 3.
Tohoku Seikatsu Bunka University High School regarded 27 February as the “Day to Think of Peace” and has carried out various activities on the day for the last 10 years including writing messages, putting up a kaki tree map near the entrance of the school, inviting Tree Doctor Nobuo Koike and Freelance Journalist Rei Shiba for a lecture and held Singer-songwriter Yasuyuki Ono’s concert. This year they produced the kaki tree clear folders and cotton cloths to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the planting. The kaki tree planted on the same day 10 years ago at Nijino-oka Community Center has also grown well and healthy.
