| |
On April 21, 2013, the writing contest New "A Brief Message from the Heart", the 10th such event , was held in the Maruoka gym in Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture.
For this year's contest, the theme was "Thank You", and total 63,745 entries were received from contestants located throughout Japan as well as six countries worldwide. Of these entries, 218 contestants received prizes with 56 winners eligible for the Sumitomo Award and the opportunity of attending the ceremony.
At the beginning of the ceremony, 110 students from both the Maruoka Junior High School and Maruoka Minami Junior High School all sang together a song called "Thank you" in which the lyrics were written by poet Mikio Sasaki, who serves on the contest selection committee, while singer-songwriter, Mr. Hitoshi Komuro composed the music for the occasion.
The winners read their submissions by themselves and then Mr. Komuro, together with others composed music for each of them to be played as he introduced them. Each of the winners were awarded the honorable certificate, which is made of woven Echizen (Japanese paper) and individually wrapped in beautiful Echizen cloth as well.
At the end of the ceremony, all attendees sang the memorial song together and with a signal, each of them released a balloon simultaneously with their appreciation or "Thank You" on a strip of paper attached. It was a beautiful sight of colorful balloons soaring into the sky until they each slowly disappeared into the horizon.
|
 |
Scene of award ceremony
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
 |
|
EN