Former Mayor's grandson returns as2015 Australia Day Ambassador

Clyde Campbell, founder of the Shake It Up Australia Foundation andgrandson of a former Lismore Mayor, has been announced as the city's 2015
Australia Day Ambassador.
Clyde is named after his grandfather Clyde Campbell, the Mayor of Lismore

The Bamboo Shoots
A local newsletter quarterly issued
Yamato Takada Lismore Sister City Association,Nara,Japan
Auturm Winter Issue,2014

No.164
Contact：
Yamato Takada Lismore Sister City Association
TEL：0745-22-1101
http://www.city.yamatotakada.nara.jp/lismore/

We do hope The Bamboo Shoots born out of the soil of Yamato-Takada will grow up and act as a go-between for the citizens in Lismore and in Yamato-Takada

from 1956 to 1966. Alderman Campbell was the first Mayor to commence
Lismore's Sister City relationship with Yamato Takada in 1963 and was thefirst Mayor to travel to Japan to extend the hand of friendship.
Young Clyde is a successful Sydney businessman who was diagnosed at theage of 44 with Parkinson's disease. The owner of a machinery and robotics
company with 60 staff, Clyde has turned the same determination in building abusiness to raising awareness of Parkinson’s disease, establishing the Shake It
Up Australia Foundation.
“We are so honoured to have the namesake and grandson of a Lismore Mayor
coming to present our Australia Day Awards – I think it will be a very special
moment for both parties,” Mayor Jenny Dowell said.
“Clyde's story is one of courage and determination and he will share thisjourney with us on the day. While I have not personally met Clyde, it sounds
like his grandfather's pioneering spirit and commitment to creating positivechange have certainly been passed down.
“I am very excited to meet Clyde and take him to some of the places in Lismore
that hold his grandfather's memory, especially the Sister City 50thanniversary memorial that was unveiled last year. This was the first Sister
City relationship between Australia and Japan, and it was Mayor Campbell'svision that made such friendship possible.”
Clyde started life as an industrial electronics apprentice in country NSW, andworked his way from apprentice to CEO of Machinery Automation & Robotics
in Sydney.
He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2009 after noticing a tremor in
his left hand as he held notes while presenting at a company meeting. Aftercoming to terms with his prognosis, Clyde set out to learn as much as possible
about Parkinson’s disease and what was being done worldwide to find a cure.
In 2011, the father of three launched the Shake It Up Foundation Australia,
an organisation that partners with the Michael J. Fox Foundation to research
Parkinson's disease, increase awareness in Australia and raise funds towards
finding a cure.

Australia Day in brief

Australia Day held annually on the 26th ofJanuary is an important national holiday forAustralians. The Day, which can be said
National Foundation Day, is widely celebrated incommemoration of the discovery of the continent
in 1788.

On that day the national flags of Australia aredisplayed here and there throughout the country
and fabulous fireworks are set off, along withvarious parades marching down the streets, sothe whole nation is coloured with a festive mood.

“Genki” Week in high spirits“Yamato Takada Genki Week, which is held once ayear as one of the popular annual events, took
place cheerfully and energetically in Yamato
Takada City from November 8 through November
16. During the period a variety of events werepresented here and there in the city. Especially on
the 15th (Sat.), “Bright Future Festival” was heldin the east open space adjoining JR Takada
Station, and a lot of “Yuru-Chraas,”“Yuru-Charas,” or gentle andattractive logo-characters, were gathered together
to meet “Miku-chan,” which is Yamatotakada’ s
mascot logo-character. The stage shows by local
mascots, the gourmet and special cuisine showsand so on were crowded with many people of allages, who very much enjoyed them. Naturally,some of the members of The Yamato Takada・Lismore Association participated in the “WeekEvent” by opening up a booth called “LismoreProducts Exhibition,” selling lamingtons,
makadamia nuts and a bag of popcorn. Theexchange students sent to Lismore in 2014
participated in the event and helped out in thebooth. Quite a few people gathered around thebooth since they called out aloud asking for buying
the Lismore products. The prepared 300 packets
were all sold out by the evening. Lamingtons are
not very familiar with Japanese but the products
gained a high reputation for their good tastes
among those who bought them.

HOUONKOU

Yamatotakadaʼs Fabulous Brand “ SAKURA COTTON”

On November 16 (Sat.) “Houonkou,” which is avery important memorial holiday for Japanese
Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, was observed at
Senryu-ji temple with a long history in Takada
city. This holiday is for followers to observe thememorial of Shinran Shonin, the founder ofJodo Shinshu Buddhism. Followers belonging tothe temple gathered at the temple several days
before and worked together in order to cleanly
polish the ornaments decorated in the mainHall of the temple, to do the cleaning in andaround the temple and to wipe the floors.
On the holiday many priests came from othertemples to recite Shinran's hymn, the Shosinge,
in a large chorus. Besides our reciting the sutra
with priests we followers had a good opportunity

to listen to an excellent lecture by a famousand respectable priest. The lecture captured
the hearts and minds of us audience, feelingmuch happier and relaxing ourselves.
After such a typical service for Houonkou, wewere able to enjoy a mini-concert performed bya group band called ‘Iroha,’ consisting of three
wonderful girls, that is, one in charge of niko,or two-stringed Chinese instrument, another oneof piano and the other in charge of shakuhachi,
or a Japanese vertical bamboo flute. Listening
to their elegant performance wishing for world
peace made us calm ourselves and also made us
smile, making us forget something worldly andtroublesome.

Coming-of-Age Day“Coming-of-Age Day” is a national holiday whichfalls on the second Monday of January. On thisday “Coming-of-Age Ceremonies” are held inmany of the local cities and communities tocelebrate the new adults. In Japan all the people
over 20 are prescribed as “adults.” “Coming-of-AgeDay” was created in 1948 and is described as theday when young people become aware of theirachievement of adulthood and they formallypledge their determination to strive for their own
life. By doing so the new adults are given a boost
and are congratulated. In Yamato Takada City,
the celebration ceremony was held this day and themayor gave the 791 new adults his congratulations
and one of them spoke on behalf of the others
their strong will to become good members ofsociety.

In Yamato Takada City, which is located in thelow-rainfall area of the Yamato Basin, rice crops
and cotton started to be raised and harvested byturns in the Edo period. As ‘Yamato Momen’ or
cotton cultivated in the Yamato Basin, wasgetting more popular throughout the country,
the processing technique of dyeing began toshow its great development.
In the Meiji era a spinning factory was built in
Yamatotakada and it made the city flourish in
many ways. In 1977, however, the city began tofall into decline by degrees,partly because theoil crisis occurred and partly because textile
manufacturing companies were forced to berelocated to some countries overseas. Now
nothing remained of the Yamato Cotton Products,
which had flourished in Yamatotakada in the
Edo period.
The members of the Yamatotakada Chamber ofCommerce and Industry decided to start findingout about the local history of the city for thepurpose of having the local community revitalized.
As a result, they finally came to realize that thelocal cotton products had supported thedevelopment of the old town then. So in 2007
the local chamber of commerce, being eager tosee the fields full of cotton as the very local
symbol again, began distributing its seeds andnursery plants widely, their project successfully
resulting in cultivating cotton in and around thecity.

The traditional farming method led to thesuccess in the manual production of theorganically grown cotton, due to every effort
possible made by producers pursuing thesafety-based process of it.
In 2011, in addition to producing organic
cotton, a project was set up to develop some goods
from locally cropped cotton. Well-established local
knitwear companies in Yamatotakada worked
together and succeeded in making some locallymanufactured items from organic cotton in theregion. The fabric involves no chemical
processes but is woven manually and carefully
as well into baby wear, such as pajamas andpants.
Local citizens take pride in Sakura, the cherrytrees, planted along the Takada-gawa Riverafter World WarⅡ,so “Sakura Cotton” is named
after the Sakura tree, which is a symbol referring
to tenderness as well as courageousness in itself.
In June of 2013, local baby wear made fromorganically grown Sakura Cotton began to be
sold at Kyoto Isetan’ s for the first time andgained tremendous popularity among customers
because of Sakura cotton’s being agreeable to its
soft touch to babies’ delicate skin.
With confidence and pride, the city of Yamatotakada has a strong desire to be known not justas a prosperous city in industry but as a town of
textile industry.

Dainippon Spinning Factory in Takada, modern and brick,which had been cultivating the neighborhood industries
after taking over the former Yamato Spinning Factory