Onagawa Town In Japan Home To Process Technology Danborghini

The president of the packaging company, Hideki Konno (holding Danborghini logo), said he hopes the street will attract many people and enliven both Onagawa and Ishinomaki. Image Credit: NHK World (2015)

Onagawa Town In Japan Home To Process Technology Danborghini

This week marked the revival of a shopping district in the northeastern Japanese town in Miyagi Prefecture devastated by the 2011 tsunami.  Onagawa Town was commemorated with an opening ceremony December 23rd, 2015.
 

A similar model Lamborghini in real life as it was parked on La Brea Avenue near Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, CA., December 23, 2015. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2015)

The mayor of Onagawa Town, Yoshiaki Suda, gave a ceremonial speech on Wednesday to declare the central shopping thoroughfare open. A recent count put Onagawa's population at just under 7,000 inhabitants, down by more than 30 percent from pre-disaster levels. The decline is the steepest among municipalities affected by the tsunami, so this revival event was a significant marker in the region's comeback.

To mark the opening of this shopping street, a life-size cardboard replica of a Lamborghini Italian sports car was placed on display.

The model car (based on a Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4), referred to as the Danborghini, is the work of Konno Konpou packaging company in neighboring Ishinomaki City.

The car has been dubbed “Danborghini,” a portmanteau of Lamborghini and “danbo,” the Japanese word for a 3D cardboard character. The Danborghini weighs around 100 kilograms and took a six-member team six months to complete.

Cardboard tire being removed from the Danborghini. Tire detail complete with groove pattern reproduced by Konno Konpou Inc. staff. on right - Getty Images VIDEO HERE. Image Credit: Konpo75 via Twitter

This excerpted and edited from Asahi Shimbun -

Hot pink cardboard Lambo designed to bring out the crowds in Miyagi
By KENGO HIYOSHI/Asahi Shimbun Staff Writer - December 19, 2015 - ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture

Every last detail of the bright pink life-size Italian supercar Lamborghini going on show at a shopping mall near here was replicated ... in cardboard.

And, it may just serve as a tonic for survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

The cardboard Lambo will go on display from Dec. 23 at an outlet of packaging material firm Konno Konpou Inc., which created faux exotic car.

“We wanted to build a car we worship with our processing technology,” said Hideki Konno, the 43-year-old president of Konno Konpou, who led the project.

After the March 11 disaster, Konno Konpou offered free reinforced corrugated cardboard to shelters to be used as partitions to provide privacy to evacuees.

“Nearly five years have passed since the disaster,” Konno said. “It will be great if the re-created car can help draw a crowd (to the new shopping center).”
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It uses 500 or so parts built with reinforced corrugated cardboard. For a faithful re-creation, Konno’s team refused to cut corners on even the tiniest details, such as parts of the engine and the car’s tires.

The team began the project about two and half years ago beginning with a small scale model. It then spent about six months on the life-size car, on which they toiled during slow work times.

The Danborghini can be seen at the shopping center in Onagawa, a town that was severely affected by the disaster triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake, like Ishinomaki and elsewhere in northeastern Japan.
[Reference Here]

Packaging cardboard processes applied to promotional display is a great way to attract attention and promote the capabilities of packaging technology in an effort to stimulate business ... on several levels.

“We started from the midst of sorrow and despair and completed the shopping street by bringing together the ideas of town residents,” Onagawa Mayor Yoshiaki Suda said at the opening ceremony for the street. “We want to maintain the bustle in the town.”

... notes from The EDJE


TAGS: Danborghini, Onagawa, Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Lamborghini,  Aventador, LP 700-4, The EDJE, Symblogogy, Yoshiaki Suda, NHK World, Konpo75