Kurashiki City offers a volunteer training course called the Sign Language Volunteer Training Course every year.
In recent years, it has been so popular that it reaches capacity on the first day registration opens.
Sign language circles are one of the places where people who want to learn sign language come together.
Six sign language circles in Kurashiki City belong to the Kurashiki City Sign Language Circle Liaison Council (City Council). This year (2024), it celebrates its 40th anniversary.
Here is a report on the discoveries and learning from the commemorative lecture held to mark the City Council’s 40th anniversary.
The information presented was current when this article was published in September 2024. Please note that it may differ from current information.
What is the Kurashiki City Sign Language Circle Liaison Council?
The Kurashiki City Sign Language Circle Liaison Council (hereafter, “the City Council”) is an association of sign language circles active in Kurashiki City.
The following six groups are currently members:
- Kusa no Kai Sign Language Circle
- Kura Sign Language Circle
- Kojima Sign Language Circle
- Sign Language Circle Tamashima
- Sign Language Circle Nishi-Achi
- Funao Sign Language Circle Muscat
Recently, sign language has been appearing more often in TV dramas and other media, and membership in the sign language circles belonging to the City Council is reportedly increasing year by year.
The City Council exchanges information about sign language in cooperation with organizations of people with hearing disabilities, and regularly gathers to hold events using sign language.
What is the Kurashiki City Sign Language Circle Liaison Council 40th Anniversary Commemorative Lecture?
On Sunday, August 4, 2024, the City Council, an association of sign language circles active in Kurashiki City, held its 40th anniversary commemorative lecture in the Plaza Hall at Kurashiki Health and Welfare Plaza.
The speaker at the commemorative lecture was Morita Akira, vice principal of Meisei Gakuen, Japan’s only school for the deaf where instruction is conducted in Japanese Sign Language, and a cast member of NHK E-Tele’s “Minna no Shuwa” (“Everyone’s Sign Language”).
For details, see the image below.
![[Held Sunday, August 4] Kurashiki City Sign Language Circle Liaison Council 40th Anniversary Commemorative Lecture: Experience the sign language of a deaf person featured on NHK E-Tele’s “Minna no Shuwa”](https://media.kuratoco.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/23002404/DSCF4961.jpg)
What happened on the day
On the day, a wide range of people came to Plaza Hall, including City Council members, people with hearing disabilities who live or work in Kurashiki City, and members of the general public interested in the commemorative lecture. The event was well attended, with around 70 percent of the seats in Plaza Hall filled.
The commemorative lecture speaker, Morita, is a deaf person whose first language is sign language. The audience was excited that Morita, usually seen on television, had come to Kurashiki. Since Morita’s lecture was conducted in sign language, an interpretation into spoken Japanese was also provided for hearing attendees who were unsure about understanding the signs.
Interpretation into spoken Japanese means translating sign language into speech. Sign language has many distinctive expressions, so interpreting them into Japanese is extremely difficult. Among the interpreters that day was one whose parents are deaf; they said, “I’m nervous about whether I can interpret it into Japanese that everyone can understand.”
For people with hearing disabilities in Kurashiki City, the City Council is their closest and most understanding ally
Early in the event, the chair of the Kurashiki City Association of the Deaf, an organization representing people with hearing disabilities, attended as a guest and said in their greeting, “Sign language circles are the closest and most understanding allies for people with hearing disabilities.”
Sign language is an important language that people with hearing disabilities use to think and express their feelings, but it is not understood by everyone. In everyday life, they use spoken Japanese, adapting to the hearing majority by lip-reading (understanding speech by reading the shape of the other person’s mouth) or communicating in writing. However, Japanese may be a second language for some people with hearing disabilities, and some are unable to express their thoughts accurately.
They spoke about their experience of being able to talk freely in sign language at sign language circles, regardless of whether people could hear, and told City Council members, “We hope you will become a bridge between people with hearing disabilities and hearing people.”
The City Council and the Kurashiki City Association of the Deaf regularly attend each other’s events and deepen their exchange. As a result, many people know one another, and at this lecture too, hearing City Council members and people with hearing disabilities could be seen all around the venue happily catching up after a long time.
Original City Council certificates made of denim fabric
To mark its 40th anniversary, the City Council made matching T-shirts, which members wear like uniforms at its events. The design was chosen from ideas submitted by City Council members. The designer was introduced at the commemorative lecture, and the City Council presented them with a certificate and a commemorative gift.
The certificate was made from denim fabric, a specialty product of Kojima, Kurashiki City. It was such a stylish certificate that the recipient said, “I want to send a certificate to the person who designed this one, too!”
You can spot the City Council T-shirts at sign language-related events around Kurashiki City. See if you can find them.
Working in sign language-related jobs among the majority
Finally, it was time for the much-anticipated commemorative lecture by Morita Akira.
The title was “Working in sign language-related jobs among the majority.”
Morita is proud to be a deaf person whose first language is sign language.
Deaf people whose first language is sign language are a minority in a society where people who use spoken language are the majority. For this reason, when sign language is featured in the media and elsewhere, Morita is mindful of passing on sign language without giving hearing people the impression that “people with hearing disabilities are pitiful.”
Morita said this approach is kept in mind not only when working in majority-dominated fields such as the media, but also in educational activities as vice principal at the private Meisei Gakuen, where sign language is the first language.
Morita’s consistent philosophy has taken root not only among the young children, children, and students, but also among the hearing teachers who work at the school. A video was shown that made clear how all the children take pride in having sign language as their first language: “Just as hearing people speak using their voices, and English speakers speak English, deaf people speak in sign language. That’s all there is to it, so we are not pitiful.”
Morita also proposed forms of self-expression unique to sign language, such as sign-language wordplay and sign-language poetry, which cannot be expressed in Japanese.
The joy of jokes and wordplay lies in the moment when associations in your mind connect, and even an explanation afterward rarely brings the same laughter as experiencing it in real time. Similarly, the fun of sign-language wordplay can be cut in half when it is conveyed through an interpreter.
At the venue, people who understood Morita’s sign language without it being translated into Japanese laughed heartily, while people who spoke spoken languages—who would normally be part of the majority—sometimes seemed to fall behind in the conversation.
I have a hearing disability myself, so I can understand Morita’s sign language without translating it into Japanese. I was able to enjoy the wordplay in real time, and was repeatedly amazed: “I didn’t know you could express things that way.” At the same time, I was concerned that the hearing attendees were not laughing in the same way.
However, after the lecture, a hearing attendee told me, “It was a valuable opportunity to get a little sense of how people with hearing disabilities feel when they can’t keep up with what we’re saying.” I realized that it had been a lecture that people who can hear and people who cannot could each enjoy from a different perspective.
From the Writer
I am a person with a hearing disability who moved to Kurashiki from the Kanto region in December 2023. When I first moved, I had no friends or acquaintances in Kurashiki City who knew sign language, but by visiting sign language circles belonging to the City Council, I have gradually expanded my circle of friends and acquaintances with whom I can communicate in sign language.
People with hearing disabilities and people who can communicate in sign language are both minorities, so I am supported by the time I spend talking freely with others at sign language circles. I look forward to seeing activities that bring the City Council and people with hearing disabilities in Kurashiki City together continue to grow.
Kurashiki City Sign Language Circle Liaison Council 40th Anniversary Commemorative Lecture Information
| Name | Kurashiki City Sign Language Circle Liaison Council 40th Anniversary Commemorative Lecture |
|---|---|
| Date | Sunday, August 4, 2024 9:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. (registration: 9:00 a.m.–) |
| Location | 180 Sasaoki, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture |
| Admission (tax included) | Kurashiki City Sign Language Circle Liaison Council members and family members under 18: Free Non-members: ¥500 |
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