Statue of Maidens was added to Your Favorites!
Towada-Hachimantai NP, Aomori
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
Takamura drew on Lake Towada’s mirror-like water: the 2 figures were cast from the same mold, like one person meeting a reflection. Their hollowed eyes seem to catch your gaze from different angles.
Nineteen-year-old Teruko Fujii served as the model, yet friends thought the unveiled faces resembled sculptor Kōtarō Takamura’s late wife, Chieko. He never confirmed the likeness, leaving viewers free to decide.
Despite its name, the Statue of Maidens honors 3 men: poet Omachi Keigetsu, Aomori governor Takeda Chiyosaburo, and local mayor Ogasawara Koichi. Keigetsu praised Lake Towada when it was still little known.
The original plan placed the monument at Nenokuchi, on the lake’s northeastern tip. Objections and a dispute between government ministries shifted it to Yasumiya on the south shore—where it stands today.
The anniversary committee wanted more than a plain stone monument, so it invited Takamura to create original public art. After 7 years living in seclusion, he agreed following a visit to the lake.
A 60-cm trial version began as a single maiden. Chieko’s alma mater, Japan Women’s University, wanted it, but Takamura gave it to Aomori; it spent years in prefectural offices before entering the prefectural museum’s collection.
The space between the figures was not leftover: Takamura said he found it interesting. He also described a triangle formed by extending the lines of their backs as a symbol of infinity.
A separate poem monument stands nearby. Takamura imagines the bronze enduring the ancient forest’s pressure for thousands of years—until it weathers, cracks, and finally crumbles.
The statues were unveiled on October 21, 1953, in the rain. A local account recalls Takamura calling it “a cleansing rain”—a gentle bit of poetry for the day his lakefront work was revealed.
The Statue of Maidens was Takamura’s last completed sculpture. He later began another bust, but illness left that work unfinished.
