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Seiei Toyama is Japanese recipient of 2003 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding the board of trustees recognizes his twenty-year crusade to green the deserts of China in a spirit of solidarity and peace. [1] [2]
He was born in Shinkura, Mizuho Village, Minamitsuru County, Yamanashi Prefecture (later known as Shinkura, Shimoyoshida Town, now Shinkura, Fujiyoshida City ) [3] . [4] He graduated from the former Yamanashi Prefectural Hikawa Junior High School (now Yamanashi Prefectural Hikawa High School ), the former Second High School, and the Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto Imperial University . He succeeded in greening 20,000 hectares of desert in China, and is the only person, other than Mao Zedong, to have a bronze statue erected in China during his lifetime in recognition of his achievements . [5]
He was born as the third of six children to a family that lived in the Taisho-ji temple of the Jodo Shinshu Hongan-ji sect of Buddhism . [3] He studied hard from middle school onwards and was accepted into the Faculty of Agriculture at Kyoto Imperial University . After graduating, he worked as an assistant professor at the university. In 1934, at the age of 28, he received an offer from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to study land and agriculture in mainland China. During his studies, the Gobi Desert had eroded farmland, leading to the impoverishment of more than 20 million people who had starved to death. Among the people waiting in a queue of several dozen kilometers for a bowl of rice porridge at a soup kitchen, he refused a request from a local father of several children to buy his 15-year-old daughter for 30 yen (at the time). Two years later, he was ordered to return home after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War . [5]
In 1962, he received his doctorate in agriculture from Kyoto University . [6] His thesis title was "Study on the Special Environment of Sand Dune Areas and Adapted Crops" . He retired in 1971. The following year, in 1972, when diplomatic relations between Japan and China were normalized, he left his family in Japan and visited China alone, spending all his money. The Chinese government was unable to stop desertification, and the site of a village in the 1930s had become a ghost town. In the desert, which is as large as Shikoku and is known as the "land of death" that has produced more than 20 million refugees, he walked dozens of kilometers every day in temperatures exceeding 40 degrees during the day, digging the sand by hand and discovering a water source. After discovering the water source a few months later, he raised donations in Japan and, based on the example of the Tottori Sand Dunes, collected about 70 million kudzu seeds, which can grow in the desert, over the course of eight years. Then, at the age of 80, he visited China with his cooperating staff and planted 3,000 kudzu seeds despite being obstructed by local residents, but even though he begged them on his knees, they were eaten overnight by the local grazing goats and their owners. So they planted poplar trees instead. However, they died due to lack of moisture, so they brought over from Japan a highly water-retaining polymer from Japanese diapers and used it, which proved successful. However, just when they had planted one million trees, the Yellow River flooded and they were washed away. The residents, who had been treating them as spies, were moved, and with the cooperation of the locals, one million trees were quickly planted. One year after the flood, the dead land had become a 20,000-hectare green forest, and the area was successfully converted into farmland. Vegetables were able to be grown, and the residents who had left returned. In this way, Toyama revived what was once a "dead land" . His efforts were featured in the NHK documentary " Project X: The Challengers ."
In 1991, he founded the NPO Japan Desert Greening Association, and since then has worked with volunteers to carry out greening activities, such as planting poplar trees, in the Kubuqi Desert ( Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China ) . [5]
In 1996, the Chinese government erected a bronze statue of him while he was still alive. He is the only person other than Mao Zedong to have one built . [5]
In August 2003, he was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award (in the category of Peace and International Understanding), known as the Asian Nobel Prize, for his achievements . [7]
He passed away in February 2004 in Tottori City due to pneumonia (aged 97) . [8]
In November 2005, the Toyama Masaaki Memorial Room was opened at Kodomo no Kuni in the Tottori Sand Dunes . [9]
His eldest son, Masao Toyama, carried on his father's wishes by starting a reforestation project in Zambia in 1989 (Heisei 1) . [10]
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat regions covered with wind-swept sand or dunes, with little or no vegetation, are called ergs or sand seas. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, but most kinds of dunes are longer on the stoss (upflow) side, where the sand is pushed up the dune, and have a shorter slip face in the lee side. The valley or trough between dunes is called a dune slack.
Tourism in Japan is a major industry and contributor to the Japanese economy. In 2019, the sector directly contributed 11 trillion yen, or 2% of the GDP, and attracted 31.88 million international tourists.
The Ordos Desert is a desert/steppe region in Northwest China, administered under the prefecture of Ordos City in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. It extends over an area of approximately 90,650 km2 (35,000 sq mi), and comprises two sub-deserts: China's 7th-largest desert, the Kubuqi Desert, in the north; and China's 8th-largest desert, the Mu Us Desert, in the south. Wedged between the arable Hetao region to the north and the Loess Plateau to the south, the soil of the Ordos Desert is mostly a mixture of dry clay and sand, and as a result is poorly suited for agriculture.
Woman in the Dunes or Woman of the Dunes is a 1964 Japanese New Wave avant-garde psychological thriller film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara and starring Eiji Okada, Kyōko Kishida, and Kōji Mitsui. It received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for two Academy Awards. The screenplay for the film was adapted by Kōbō Abe from his 1962 novel of the same name. The film is now considered to be Teshigahara's masterpiece, one of the best movies of 1964, of the 1960s and of the 20th century, as well as one of the best Japanese films of all time.
The Badain Jaran Desert is a desert in China which spans the provinces of Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. It covers an area of 49,000 square kilometers. By size it is the third largest desert in China.
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This page lists Japan-related articles with romanized titles beginning with the letter T. For names of people, please list by surname. Please also ignore articles when listing articles.
Tottori is the capital and the largest city of Tottori Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. As of 30 November 2022, the city had an estimated population of 183,383 in 81,732 households and a population density of 240 persons per km². The total area of the city is 765.31 square kilometres (295.49 sq mi). Most of the city is within the San'in Kaigan Geopark.
Shōji Ueda was a photographer of Tottori, Japan best known for his distinctive, dreamlike black-and-white images with staged figures, taken on the Tottori sand dunes. The term Ueda-chō (Ueda-tone) has been used to refer to his cool and mysterious atmospheric style.
The 88th Emperor's Cup began on September 13, 2008 and ended on January 1, 2009 with the final which took place at National Stadium in Tokyo. As the champion, Gamba Osaka participated in 2009 AFC Champions League.
Desert greening is the process of afforestation or revegetation of deserts for ecological restoration (biodiversity), sustainable farming and forestry, but also for reclamation of natural water systems and other ecological systems that support life. The term "desert greening" is intended to apply to both cold and hot arid and semi-arid deserts
. It does not apply to ice capped or permafrost regions. It pertains to roughly 32 million square kilometres of land. Deserts span all seven continents of the Earth and make up nearly a fifth of the Earth's landmass, areas that recently have been increasing in size.Events in the year 2012 in Japan.
Events in the year 1968 in Japan.
The Sendai River is a river in eastern Tottori Prefecture, Japan. The Sendai is 52 kilometers (32 mi) in length and has a drainage area of 1,190 square kilometers (460 sq mi). The source of the river is in the Chūgoku Mountains. The Sendai flows north through Tottori Prefecture into the Sea of Japan. Under the Rivers Act of 1964 it is designated a Class 1 River, and is managed by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. About 200,000 people live along the course of the river. The Sendai River provides sediment to form the Tottori Sand Dunes, the largest dune system in Japan.
The Mu Us Desert, also known as the Maowusu Desert, is a desert in the northern Ordos Plateau in Inner Mongolia, Northwest China. Its southeastern end is crossed by the Ming Great Wall, and it forms the southern portion of the Ordos Desert. The Wuding River drains the area, and then flows into the Ordos Loop of the Yellow River.
Events in the year 1952 in Japan.
Events in the year 1977 in Japan. It corresponds to Shōwa 52 (昭和52年) in the Japanese calendar.
Xiangshawan, also known as Whistling Dune Bay and by other names, is a AAAAA-rated tourist area in the Dalad Banner of Ordos Prefecture in Inner Mongolia, China. Amid China's general campaign to combat desertification, the mostly unreclaimable site in the Gobi's Kubuqi Desert was developed as the country's first desert-themed tourism resort. It now consists of four "islands" of activities located around the Sand Dune Resort. Mongolian folk culture is displayed, and annual cultural events include an International Photography Week and a sand sculpture festival. Most popular during the summer, Xiangshawan is currently developing a ski resort to attract tourists during the winter months as well.
Arakurayama Sengen Park is a block park located at 3353 Arakura, Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. Installed in October 1959. Located on the hillside of Mount Arakura, it covers an area of about 4.3 hectares.