Yamashita Elementary

The narrow side street that leads to Yamashita Elementary (Yamashita) is exactly 2.1 kilometers from my doorstep. I can say for sure that there is no other school whose relative location to my house I know better. I owe this peculiar knowledge to the fact that Yamashita 山下, which means below or at the bottom of the mountain, was the half way point on my training route for the Bontan race last year. This is strange considering the large hill leading up to the one hundred and thirty-four year old school and its surrounding neighborhood that goes by the same name.

Of the many aspects that form the character of this school of sixty-three students, I would have to say that the involvement of the community is the most influential. The elders of the darling hamlet attend all of the entrance and graduation ceremonies and, among other things, provide delicious, homemade pickles for teatime at local festivals. The newly graduated students of the elementary school also play their role when they return to their alma mater every year to teach their successors a stick dance, which is deeply rooted in the eclectic tradition of Yamashita.

The Sanjaku Stick Dance



The annual school-wide English lesson held in the newly renovated gynasium



Yamashita’s catchphrase is as deep as its student body is the epitome of youth:

子どもに力を培い、共に伸びよう。
Cultivating strength in our children and growing together.