Photo/Illutration A map shows the locations of landmark bronze statues of ghosts installed along the Mizuki Shigeru Road. (The Asahi Shimbun)

SAKAIMINATO, Tottori Prefecture—A road lined with 177 bronze statues of Shigeru Mizuki’s manga characters has drawn millions of visitors since it was set up to revitalize this city 30 years ago.

The Mizuki Shigeru Road features ghost figures from works by the manga artist (1922-2015), who grew up in this city and whose tales feature “yokai” (monsters) and the supernatural.

“This place here is themed on the coexistence of humans, nature, and ghosts who inhabit nature,” former city official Tomonori Kurome, 74, said. “The 30th anniversary is a good opportunity for going back to that starting point and propagating that way of thinking.”

Kurome recalled how the idea for the tourist attraction developed 32 years ago.

At that time, Kurome was a section chief in the Sakaiminato city government’s urban planning division.

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Tourists are seen along the Mizuki Shigeru Road in Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture, on Oct. 1. (Shotaro Watanabe)

One day he was summoned to the mayor’s room. The mayor told him to come up with a plan for revitalizing a shopping street.

The street in question, which extends eastward from JR Sakaiminato Station, was once thronged with workers and students who commuted by train. It was also popular with workers at a nearby fish market.

But as private car ownership increased, fewer and fewer people were taking the train. And the fish market was relocated elsewhere around 1980.

The shopping street had become deserted. People referred to it derogatorily as “dogs-and-cats street,” where the only pedestrians were animals.

Kurome wanted the shopping street to become a fun place for a stroll. He considered installing statues along the sidewalk.

He met with a local consultant, who proposed erecting statues with a seaside theme, such as a mermaid and a captain with a pipe in his mouth.

Would that draw people? Kurome wasn’t convinced.

Then he noticed one of the drawings the consultant had brought along. It was an image of Umi Nyobo (sea woman), one of Mizuki’s monsters.

“This is it,” Kurome recalls telling himself. “There is no choice but to take a chance on this one.”

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A statue of Neko Musume (cat girl) stands along the Mizuki Shigeru Road in Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture, on Oct. 1. (Shotaro Watanabe)

Kurome contacted Mizuki and asked him what he thought about installing bronze statues of Kitaro and Medama Oyaji (eyeball man), both from the manga series “GeGeGe no Kitaro.” The shopping street itself would become known as Mizuki Shigeru Road.

“OK,” the artist replied. “You can use my characters any way you like.”

Kurome worked with Mizuki to select 83 creatures that would be cast in bronze.

When Kurome organized a public hearing, local residents assented. Their responses were harmless, nothing more than “Oh, images of ghosts? That sounds fine.”

But the mayor soon faced a flood of complaints.

“Ghosts are not for being installed on the street,” one person insisted.

“The shopping street with a growing number of empty shopfronts would turn into a genuine ghost street if such objects are placed there,” said another.

Kurome was summoned to the mayor’s room again.

“There have been so many phone calls against the plan,” the mayor said. “Do you think it will be all right?”

Kurome asserted: “Mr. Mizuki is so deeply attached to his hometown. It will absolutely be all right.”

But one matter left Kurome unsettled. He thought that the city might have to pay hundreds of millions of yen in copyright fees if it cast the manga characters as statues.

He was braced for the worst when the matter was raised with Mizuki.

The artist’s answer was unexpected and welcome. “I am not taking copyright fees from the city of Sakaiminato,” Mizuki said. “You can do that for free.”

The Mizuki Shigeru Road was unveiled in July 1993. Then the Mizuki Shigeru Museum at its eastern end opened in 2003.

The initiative worked. In 2007 the street drew more than 1 million visitors.

It welcomed 3.72 million people in 2010, when a Mizuki drama was aired on television.

The drama was a morning serial, screened by Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK). “Gegege no Nyobo” (Gegege’s wife) portrayed how hard Mizuki’s wife, Nunoe Mura, worked to maintain the life that she and her husband shared.

As for Kurome, he left the city government in 1998 and set up a community development firm.

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Mayor Kentaro Date, left, and Tomonori Kurome pose by a monument celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Mizuki Shigeru Road in Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture, on Oct. 12. (Shotaro Watanabe)

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