The 100-year frog collection museum publishes the book in this month which is titled “The house of Gamasennin” written by Vikki Takayama. Gamasennin means Gama hermit. Gama means a toad. Gamasennin is known as a Hermit living with a three legged toad in the world of Taoism. Vikki wrote about the hermit on the fiction.

The story is outlined as follows: Gamasennin is an immortal person. When he visitted a frog collection house he'd lived for more than 2000 years. But he lost most of his memory. Why had he visited the house?  What had he been doing for such a long time? In the house sisters ware living there. They helped him to get his memory back. In the memory he made Jomon pottery with froggy sculpture in Jomon period, drew frog icons on Bronze bell in Yayoi period, and drew a picture on wall of  ancient tomb in the Tumulus(Kofun) period.He is a long life artist.

This earthen bell cailed dorei in Japanese is a frog shaped bell made of unglazed pottery. It makes a sound clang-clang by a bean-sized ball which is put in the pottery.Earthen bells were folk toys or good luck charms in Edo period.

「１００年カエル館」　http://kaeru-kan.com

「カエ～ル大学」http://kaeru-kan.com/kayale-u

Blogカエルタイムズ https://kaeru-kan.cocolog-nifty.com/vikki/

コトバデフリカエル　https://kaeru-kan.cocolog-nifty.com/kotobadefurikaeru/

This is a frog desighned wooden toy in Japan. She wears a straw raincoat called Mino in Japanese. And she has a baby frog in her stomach. The red cloth under the baby means it is an amulet to avoid danger. It's like Gastric brooding frog which had lived in Australia. It is said that the species became extinct in 1983.

「１００年カエル館」　http://kaeru-kan.com

「カエ～ル大学」http://kaeru-kan.com/kayale-u

Blogカエルタイムズ https://kaeru-kan.cocolog-nifty.com/vikki/

コトバデフリカエル　https://kaeru-kan.cocolog-nifty.com/kotobadefurikaeru/

I consider this frog item made of plastic material Montane brown frog. But I don't know whether it is true or not. It's just

a money box. Currently the species are in spawning season in Japan. The kind of frog has been dedicated to religious services.

「１００年カエル館」　http://kaeru-kan.com

「カエ～ル大学」http://kaeru-kan.com/kayale-u

Blogカエルタイムズ https://kaeru-kan.cocolog-nifty.com/vikki/

コトバデフリカエル　https://kaeru-kan.cocolog-nifty.com/kotobadefurikaeru/

Shibata Masaru(1944‐2015）had painted many kinds of frogs for about 43 years. The 20 artworks we show are that he scheched to bring out the characters of the frogs and toads based on each real ones. We call them Kaeru Artmen. And we also display Maeda Norio's photos of the each one of them.

Period ／April 4(Thu）―14(Sun）　May 3(Fri)―12（Sun), 2024

Venue ／100‐year frog collection museum

2-6Oshikiriminami Kitakata city Fukushima prefecture Japan 966-0096

Hours ／ 13:00ー16:30

Admission ／Adult ￥500　primary school ―high scool ￥100

※Visitors will see the special exhibit with the permanent exhibit (approximately 2300 frog items).

Organized by　100‐year frog collection museum
Supported by　Fukushima Minyu Shinbunsha　Fukushima Minposha 　Yamatokeikokusha　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Cooporation with　Nippon Batrachological Society  Amphibian Research Center  Matsumoto Kaerumatsuri Executive Committee

「１００年カエル館」　http://kaeru-kan.com

「カエ～ル大学」http://kaeru-kan.com/kayale-u

Blogカエルタイムズ https://kaeru-kan.cocolog-nifty.com/vikki/

コトバデフリカエル　https://kaeru-kan.cocolog-nifty.com/kotobadefurikaeru/

I found this ceramic froggy wall ornament made in Italy at a shop in Tokyo Harajuku about 40 years ago. Then I thoght that what a colorful frog it was! I’d never seen fashionable frog item like this. This frog gave me opportunity to make my eyes open world wide.

paper doll frog

clay face frog

tumbling doll frog

We show you folk toy called Shimofusa gangu. Shimofusa means the north area of Chiba prefecture and gangu means toy. It was named by Setsutaro Matsumoto. He passed away in 2004 when he was 101 years old. He had created a lot of Shimofusa toy through his life. He mainly had created paper doll, clay face, and tumbling doll (=daruma) including each frog motif one.

「１００年カエル館」　http://kaeru-kan.com

「カエ～ル大学」http://kaeru-kan.com/kayale-u

Blogカエルタイムズ https://kaeru-kan.cocolog-nifty.com/vikki/

コトバデフリカエル　https://kaeru-kan.cocolog-nifty.com/kotobadefurikaeru/

This frog item is a spining top. The spining top is a folk toy called Edo goma in Japanese which has created since the Edo period in Japan. Masaaki Hiroi（1935－2019）was the outstanding folk toy creator. He had made a lot of attractive spining tops icluding frog motif one.

「１００年カエル館」　http://kaeru-kan.com

「カエ～ル大学」http://kaeru-kan.com/kayale-u

Blogカエルタイムズ https://kaeru-kan.cocolog-nifty.com/vikki/

コトバデフリカエル　https://kaeru-kan.cocolog-nifty.com/kotobadefurikaeru/

The aquarium shows ecological exhibits of frogs and toads living in Japan and abroad.And the latter half of the event we, 100-year frog collection museum show 5 display cases of categorized froggy goods.

1) Froggy specialities made in around Japan.

2) Frog items related on Japanese traditional culture.

3) The relationship on between Japonism and frog items.

4) Stylish frog goods.

5) Froggy gardening items.

Please check it out!

https://www.aquamarine.or.jp/kawasemi/

It seems that gardenning is very popular all over the world. We also enjoy it in Japan. And we can find frog motived planters like these on the photo at a shop. The left one was made in Thailand and the right one was made in Mexico. 

We will display them on the latter term display of the exhibit  "Kaeru"(=frogs and toads) at Aquamarin Inawashiro Kawasemi Aquarium in Fukushima prefecture. You are going to see frogs and toads habitat in Japan and overseas with the exhibit corner of  froggy goods of 100-year frog collection museum in Kitakata city. 

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