Midori Ippai Project Activities LINE 2227th Hollyhock Planting Event at Kamigamo Shrine June 3, 2017 NTT West
On June 3, 2017, a hollyhock planting event was held where hollyhocks grown by their "foster parents" who are employees of NTT West Group were multiplied by root division and planted back in the precincts of Kamigamo Shrine.
Due to changes in the natural environment and particularly damage caused by deer that feed on them, hollyhocks that are used for the Aoi Festival are no longer readily available like before. For this reason, an NTT West Group project was launched in 2011 where employees of the Group and their family members become "foster parents" by adopting and growing hollyhocks from Kamigamo Shrine at their workplace or home. Grown-up hollyhocks are then multiplied by root division once a year and returned to Kamigamo Shrine.
A total of 98 employees and family members of NTT West Group took part in the event this year, who returned a total of 515 hollyhock plants to the shrine. This was about twice the quantity compared to the past year.
Prior to the planting activity, Mr. Kuroda, Senior Executive Vice President of NTT West, expressed in his opening address that in addition to reducing the load of NTT West on the environment, more proactive efforts will also be dedicated to activities like this hollyhock planting event with the aim of conserving biodiversity.
This was followed by a speech by Mr. Tanaka, Chief Priest of Kamigamo Shrine, on the history of the shrine and Aoi Festival.
Also, participants visited the main shrine that is usually out of bounds to the public, and had the rare opportunity to experience planting hollyhocks while surrounded by a sense of magnificence.
After the planting activity, they also experienced gathering fallen leaves for use as leaf mold and also soil cultivation from the leaf mold using a sieve.
Sprinklers that were installed last year to water the hollyhocks came in extremely handy this year, making the wet leaves of the newly-planted hollyhocks glisten vibrantly.
The hollyhock planting event concluded with a closing address by Mr. Sasaki, Manager of NTT West Kyoto Branch, who expressed thanks to both members of Kamigamo Shrine and the participants for being able to plant the hollyhocks in the shrine as with past years.
NTT West Group will continue to engage in activities to protect the global environment and think about the global environment.
We would like to thank everyone at Kamigamo Shrine, AFUHI Project (NPO) as well as all the participants for their support.
- Organizing company
- NTT West
- Participating companies
- NTT West,
NTT West Kansai Regional Headquarters,
NTT West Tokai Regional Headquarters,
NTT West Hokuriku Regional Headquarters,
NTT West Chugoku Regional Headquarters,
NTT Neomeit,
NTT Marketing Act,
NTT Business Associe West,
TelWel West Nippon,
NTT SmartConnect,
NTT-West Business Front,
Kansai Health Administration Center - Venues
- Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto City, Kita-ku, Kamigamo Shrine
- No. of participants
- 98
