Interest
Crowdfund Starts for Konan City's Own Sasuke Tourism Character
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Publisher Mag Garden's web manga site MAGKAN is working with Konan City in Shiga prefecture to help design and crowdfund an original tourism character named Sasuke. The project's campaign launched on Readyfor.
The character Sasuke is modeled after the ninja Sarutobi Sasuke, a fictional character that appears in the Sanada Ten Braves stories of the Japanese civil war era otherwise known as the Sengoku period (1467–1600). In the 1960s novel Fūjin no Mon by Ryōtarō Shiba, Sasuke is said to practice his ninja techniques at Mikumojōshi, a now ruined castle built on a mountain in Konan City. The castle was built in the late Muromachi period (1336 -1573) and ultimately fell during the Sengoku period.
Illustrator Mine Sidō is in charge of Sasuke's character design. The character's crowdfund campaign is looking to raise 300,000 yen (US$2,700) by April 29. The project includes creating a character illustration on April 30 followed by its inclusion on the sight-seeing application "Burasuke" until May 10. Clear files and posters will also be distributed. Ultimately, the campaign staff hope to publish books featuring Konan City's Sasuke.
The city itself is relatively new. It was founded in 2004 by merging the towns of Kōsei and Ishibe into Konan City. The campaign committee admit on the crowdfunding page that the city has no famous landmark and so are hoping to change that with the creation of Sasuke. Sidō drew four different character design options and the staff let the 626 elementary school and middle school kids of Konan City vote on the design.
Source: Sasuke's Readyfor campaign, Comic Natalie
