For people with hearing disabilities who need sign language, sign language is a language essential for thinking about things, communicating with others, and understanding one another’s feelings.
Kurashiki City enacted its Sign Language Ordinance in 2021, and in 2023 Okayama Prefecture also enacted the “Ordinance on the Promotion of Sign Language and the Use of Communication Methods According to the Characteristics of Hearing, Visual, and Other Disabilities.”
This article reports on the “Kurashiki Sign Language Festival,” an event that brought sign language users from across Kurashiki City together.
The information presented was current when this article was published in April 2024. Please note that it may differ from current information.
The 2nd Kurashiki Sign Language Festival
The 2nd Kurashiki Sign Language Festival was held as the afternoon session of the regular general meeting hosted by the Kurashiki City Association of the Deaf, at Plaza Hall on the fifth floor of the Kurashiki Health and Welfare Plaza in Sasaoki, Kurashiki City.
The following people gathered for the event:
- Members and supporting members of the Kurashiki City Association of the Deaf
- People with hearing disabilities living in and around Kurashiki City (hereafter, Deaf people)
- Members of the Kurashiki City Sign Language Circle Liaison Council (hereafter, the City Sign Language Circle Council)
- Kurashiki City’s registered sign language interpreters
Program
It was raining that day, but sign language was already being exchanged in the lobby of Plaza Hall.
Opportunities for people with shared experiences to gather are precious.
It seemed that many people were seeing one another for the first time in a while, and lively conversations in sign language were taking place all around.
The program for the 2nd Kurashiki Sign Language Festival was as follows:
- Skit by the city’s registered sign language interpreters
- Quiz and skit by the City Sign Language Circle Council
- Comedy by Kurashiki City’s full-time sign language interpreters
- Sign language songs by the Kusa no Kai Sign Language Circle
- Skit by the Kurashiki City Association of the Deaf
Skit by the city’s registered sign language interpreters
The 2nd Kurashiki Sign Language Festival opened with a skit by the city’s registered sign language interpreters.
The city’s registered sign language interpreters are people who have passed the National Unified Sign Language Interpreter Examination and work as sign language interpreters in Kurashiki City.
One of the interpreters who regularly helps me with both work and personal matters also appeared, which was exciting.
The skit featured familiar situations for Deaf people, such as communication mishaps between Deaf people and interpreters during interpreting assignments, and impressions of event organizers who don’t understand interpreting.
Rather than leaving these situations at “that happens all the time,” the skit also touched on solutions—“Here’s how you can improve things”—so it was full of ideas I could put into practice the next time I encountered something similar.
Quiz and skit by the City Sign Language Circle Council
“City Sign Language Circle Council” is short for the Kurashiki City Sign Language Circle Liaison Council, an organization that promotes exchange among sign language circles in Kurashiki City. It works toward the following four goals:
- Maintain close contact with the Kurashiki City Association of the Deaf and cooperate in each other’s activities.
- Study sign language to communicate with people with hearing disabilities.
- Hold networking events to foster friendship among members.
- Provide information to support members’ activities and pursue learning and research related to that information.
This time, they performed a skit about the differences between “Deaf culture,” the culture of people with hearing disabilities who experience life visually, and “hearing culture,” the culture of hearing people.
For example, sign language does not often use expressions of modesty. So when a hearing person offers a gift and says, “It’s nothing special, but…,” a Deaf person may wonder, “Why did you bring something that’s nothing special?”
As the saying goes, “Language reflects culture.” Sign language is also a language, so Deaf people have a culture that differs somewhat from that of hearing people. The City Sign Language Circle Council’s skit may have been an opportunity for Deaf people to realize, “Oh, so this is how hearing people feel!” and for hearing people to learn, “If I put it this way, we can both feel comfortable!”
Comedy by the city’s full-time sign language interpreters
Kurashiki City has full-time sign language interpreters stationed at City Hall’s main building, Mizushima Branch Office, and Kojima Branch Office, making it possible for people who need sign language to complete procedures smoothly.
I also have a hearing disability, so I often rely on them for my work as a Community Revitalization Cooperator and for official procedures.
The unusual sight of the full-time interpreters, who are usually at their respective branch offices, all gathered together, along with their energetic dancing, made this the most exciting moment of the day.
The skit was about a phone scam. Since the victim was Deaf, the scammer contacted them by email rather than by phone. It’s reassuring to hear a familiar interpreter who is usually at the service counter say, “If you ever need help, come talk to us at the counter.”
Sign language songs by the Kusa no Kai Sign Language Circle
Next came sign language songs performed by the “Kusa no Kai” Sign Language Circle.
They performed three songs: Studio Ghibli’s classic “Sanpo,” the school song “Furusato,” and the children’s song “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”
The latter two songs seem to be staples at sign language song performances by other sign language circles as well, and audience members on the floor were seen moving their hands along with them.
Skit and charades quiz by the Kurashiki City Association of the Deaf
The final stage performance was a skit by the event’s host, the Kurashiki City Association of the Deaf.
The Kurashiki City Association of the Deaf was the only organization in the stage performances made up exclusively of people with hearing disabilities.
The skit realistically recreated the hardships Deaf people faced before sign language interpreting services were established, and how their lives changed after the system was introduced.
I belong to a generation that came of age and left home around the time sign language ordinances were spreading nationwide. As a result, as mentioned above, I can request sign language interpreters whenever I need them, both at work and in my personal life. But these are rights that our Deaf predecessors worked hard to secure for us.
It made me reflect once again on the importance of people with disabilities speaking up, and on wanting to be an adult who helps create an even more accessible society for the next generation.
The performances were deeply thought-provoking, with plenty of humor as well as moments that struck a chord, and every one of them was expressed in sign language without spoken audio.
Another appealing aspect was that, on this stage, the performers frequently used Japanese Sign Language, the form of sign language used in communication among Deaf people, rather than the Japanese-language-based signing (Signed Japanese) that hearing people can generally understand more easily.
Hearing interpreters and members of the City Sign Language Circle Council watched the stage with serious expressions.
From the Writer
The Kurashiki Sign Language Festival, which brought sign language users from across Kurashiki City together regardless of whether they were Deaf or hearing, came to a close amid great success.
The National Gathering of Deaf Women is scheduled to be held in Okayama Prefecture from Friday, October 18, to Sunday, October 20, 2024, with Kurashiki City set to be one of its venues.
It was a meaningful event in terms of strengthening solidarity among sign language users in Kurashiki City.
I hope that the “circle of sign language” will continue to grow even further in Kurashiki City as October approaches.
2nd Kurashiki Sign Language Festival Information
| Name | The 2nd Kurashiki Sign Language Festival |
|---|---|
| Date | Sunday, March 17, 2024, 1:00–3:00 p.m. |
| Location | 180 Sasaoki, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture |
| Admission (tax included) | Free |
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