to the area. The Onosakura farm stage in Kamiyama has 1,500 sliding panel paintings, some dating back to the end of the Edo period. These sliding panel paintings were created by painters who would be invited to the village, staying at the estate of the village head or wealthy landowner and enlisting villagers to assist with the painting. In some sense there was already an AIR in Kamiyama in the mid-19th century. There are still periodic performances at the Onosakura farm stage, using puppets from the Yorii Theater and sliding panel paintings from the Preservation Society. Kamiyama is also home to Shōsan Temple, one of the stops along the Henro pilgrimage route which links 88 temples around Shikoku and is still popular with pilgrims and hikers. Pilgrims arereferred to by the respectful name “Ohenro-san” and are offered food, drink, and lodging by people who live along the route, a long-standing custom called osettai. It is not only in sympathy and support for the people undertaking a hard pilgrimage. Ohenro-san are thought to be accompanied by Kōbō Daishi (the Great Master) and osettai is in part an offering to him. Kōbō Daishi is the honorific posthumous title given to the monk, Kūkai, who founded the Shingon sect of Buddhism in the early 9th century and who originally anointed the 88 sacred grounds in Shikoku where the temples on the pilgrimage route now stand. Deep roots of this culture of osettai remain in Kamiyama, and I am sure that the generosity of the citizens in warmly welcoming