Yamagata City has illuminated the wisteria trellis in the municipal park at Toka-machi as an homage to the anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Wisteria blossoms play a large role in the anime, as the demons abhor them.

The city also installed in the park the same model of Steam Locomotive that appears in Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train in an attempt to make the park a new tourist hotspot.

The wisteria trellis will be lit up with 8,000 LEDs until March 31 next year.

During the opening ceremony of the illuminations, Mayor Takahiro Sato dressed up as the anime’s main character, Tanjiro Kamado, and said, “I gathered up all my courage and wore (this costume) with ‘Total Concentration Breathing’”, with a smile.

The city is dotted with many historical architectures from the Meiji and Taisho era, which matches the anime’s setting, and it appears that they are trying to use this to attract tourists after the COVID-19 pandemic.

JIJI Press