On Friday, September 20, students at John Muir Middle School celebrated the eleventh annual Japan Day with visiting students from Rebun Island, renowned stone carver Masaji Asaga and Mami Sone, wife of Japan’s Consul General in Los Angeles.
Burbank Vice Mayor Nikki Perez, Assistant Public Works Director John Molinar, Burbank Landfill Manager Curtis Stone and Muir Middle School teachers and staff were joined by the Rebun Island Student Exchange Program Chair Dr. Akiko Agishi for the event.
Fourteen high school students, two teachers and Rebun Town Exchange Coordinator Taka Fujisawa, from Japan’s northernmost island, spent the day at Muir, their Sister School, as part of an extended trip to the United States. Every year for Japan Day, Muir and Rebun students engage in a Japanese cultural activity and in the afternoon, the visiting students perform the yosakoi fishing dance at school-wide assemblies.
Asaga taught Muir Monument Club members Japanese stone carving throughout the preceding week and helped the school create a granite peace monument “to stand on the John Muir grounds for a thousand years,” explained Japan Day organizer and Muir English and JapanGo! teacher Ted Devirgilis.
Burbank Public Works employees moved a three-ton chert (flint) rock onto the school’s grass field that was used for practice work, along with a smaller granite boulder for the peace monument. The Monument Club will add to Asaga’s carving on the boulder throughout the fall semester to complete the front of the installation. The practice chert will become a large bench for student use.
“Monument Club students showed our guests from Rebun High School how they can carve their part into the stone monument,” continued Devirgilis. “Starting in August, the Muir Monument club created a peace monument design incorporating Mr. Asaga’s design philosophies before his arrival in mid-September.”
During the afternoon Japan Day assemblies, after the Rebun students’ yosakoi dance, the Muir Monument Club then gave a presentation of the to-be-finished Muir Peace Monument.
Muir’s annual Japan Day event accomplished two goals – an educational trip to the U.S. and sharing of Japanese culture for students from tiny Rebun Island and a cultural appreciation day for Muir’s middle school students.
The two-week Rebun International Exchange Program is supervised by Agishi, president of Creative Enterprise International (CEI) Inc and creator of the Aurora Foundation/Japanese Language Scholarship Foundation.
Rebun Island’s fishing industry has been negatively affected by rising sea temperatures, and the exchange program was created to encourage families to stay on the island by giving students the opportunity to learn abroad and take their knowledge and experience back to Rebun, said Devirgilis.
“Once down to two students per grade level, now in part due to this program there are around 20 students per grade level at Rebun High. Muir families also hosted the students in their homes for six nights, following Rebun students’ visit to Joshua Tree National Park,” he added. “The island of Rebun is a national park, so the Rebun group visits different U.S. National Parks each year.”
“This year Muir students experienced Japanese stone carving, yosakoi dance and taiko drums. In previous years, Muir students have learned sushi making, kirie paper cutting, ikebana, shamisen, Japanese calligraphy, tea ceremony, origami and Japanese dance.”
Devirgilis said the inspiration for the 2024 Japan Day stone carving activity came from meeting Asaga in Japan in 2023.
“From March 2023 to March 2024, I took a sabbatical from John Muir Middle School to live in Japan with my wife and daughter, so that my daughter could spend time with my wife’s Japanese family,” he explained. “While living and teaching English at a junior high in Sakuragawa, Ibaraki Prefecture, we met and befriended renowned granite sculptor Masaji Asaga.”
“Almost instantly, I asked if he could sculpt something for a future Muir Japanese garden. He said that he would rather teach Muir students to carve a peace monument – and he insisted we use only local Southern California stones.”
“By December I was writing grant proposals to bring Asaga-san to Muir, and in January I was awarded a Burbank Arts & Education Grant to buy the hand carving tools necessary – in addition to the Japan Day funding we usually receive from the JMMS Fundraising Committee to bring Asaga-san over. During the last few months of my stay in Japan, Asaga-san taught me to carve using the simple hand tools of hammers and chisels.”
“Upon returning to Los Angeles, I had to find a giant granite to carve,” Devirgilis continued. “I visited quarries as far away as Palm Desert, but the perfect solution came from Burbank itself. Melissa Burton, a Muir parent who was working on the future Muir garden, had a connection with Curtis Jordan, the manager of the Burbank Landfill in the Verdugo Hills above Muir.”
“Curtis was incredible! He offered us to take a boulder or two from the site and ask the city to help move the stones to Muir’s lower field. In the end, Melissa and I chose two boulders: a one-ton granite stone to carve with students and a three-ton chert (flint) boulder that would make a wonderful bench in the shade nearby. Michael Smith, City of Burbank Public Works Supervisor, organized the delivery a few weeks ago. It was an impressive display of might and kindness from Curtis, ‘Smitty’ and the Public Works team.”
“Fifteen Muir students were selected out of 50 applicants to be a part of the first Muir Monument Club. The first job for the students was to create a design to serve as a peace monument. They settled on a spiral design that has been seen in the art of ancient cultures around the world. The coil is thought to symbolize the swirling life force inside of us – as well as the stars that the ancient people charted above them at night. This helps us see the interconnectedness of ourselves in the universe.”
“The Monument Club met Asaga-san on Monday, September 16, and learned the basics of carving. They carved the granite with Asaga-san for one week up to Muir’s Japan Day on Friday, September 20.”
“The Rebun students met Mr. Asaga and the Monument Club and carved the Japanese characters for Rebun Island into the granite stone. Just after lunch, the Monument Club stained their carving lines with natural rust to make the lines clear from a distance,” he went on to say. “The Rebun students and four Japanese-speaking Muir students heard Mrs. Sone, the wife of the Japanese Consul General of Japan, give a moving presentation on the resilience needed to overcome challenges.”
Later that day, Sone also spoke at the assemblies on the importance of resilience. She connected that capacity to endure and overcome difficulties to Los Angeles Dodger Shohei Ohtani’s life and story.
“The Rebun students were treated like Japanese idols when they stepped onto the Muir stage and then danced the traditional – and exciting – yosakoi dance for the school at both assemblies. The assembly ended with inspiring words from Mr. Asaga, who reminded the students that peace comes from finding oneself first through meaningful work and inspiring others to do the same.”
“The Monument Club will now continue to work on carving their granite peace monument over the next few months,” Devirgilis concluded. “Granite carving takes a long time, but their work and its message of peace will stand on the lower field for a thousand years.”
