SHILLONG: Dr Toshio Katsuki, team leader, Conservation of Flowering Cherry has rued the lack of cherry blossoms in the city. “It is wonderful that such a festival takes place here. But I wanted to see many cherry blossoms,” he said.
The team leader said it was in Tokyo that he first heard about cherry blossoms blooming in Shillong. “Then I met Prof Dinabandhu Sahoo in Delhi University who introduced me to this place,” he added. Sahoo is Director of Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development, one of the organisers of the festival.
Katsuki said the Embassy of Japan is making efforts to improve connectivity with India. “Me and Dr Sahoo are in talks for collaborations with the state government, ICCR, IBSD and Asian Confluence. But the details of which I cannot reveal presently,” he said.
N.Munish Singh, Director, ICCR, said, in a meeting at Embassy of Delhi, many sectors were discussed. “We discussed many sectors like forest, arts and culture, agriculture, education, infrastructure sports, PWD etc. As it was a preliminary stage, these areas will be looked into in future”.
Katsuki delivered a lecture with power point presentations on the history of cherry blossoms, which was appreciated by the audience.
As part of the aim to connect culturally, there were screenings of three Japanese films in the festival-Living Ninja Legend, Water Boys and Swing Girls. Day 4, which was the final day of the festival, saw drummers from Japan playing together with Khasi folk drummers.
Mizuno, the renowned Japanese judo master, had conducted several workshops in Shillong. Day 4 saw him conduct Japanese Judokan with members of Meghalaya Judo Association.
