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Murakami Garden – Kakashi Returns!

Japanese kakashi scarecrow wearing white and blue yukata and straw hat standing in a flower garden

This October, returning this year in a new traditional yukata, our resident scarecrow inspired by the Japanese “kakashi” can be found alongside the changing leaves and flowers of the beautiful Murakami Garden.

“Kakashi” (kanji: かかし) is the Japanese version of a “scarecrow” and has its own long history of spiritual connections in relation to the harvest season in Japanese culture, dating as far back as the 8th Century.

Britannia Shipyard’s kakashi is part of the annual Steveston Scarecrow Crawl, where local merchants and heritage sites showcase their talents with creative scarecrows displayed throughout Steveston Village in a friendly competition. The competition is presented by the Steveston Merchants Association – follow their Instagram to see posts of all the entries, or better yet, come and explore the village in person, and enjoy the wide array of shops, restaurants, cafes and museums during your visit.

Visit Murakami Garden to find the kakashi watching over the garden and see if you can spot kakashi’s friend. Also notice the features on the kakashi’s face – they are written in the classic “he-no-he-no-mo-he-ji” style, which uses these phonetic Japanese hiragana letters へのへのもへじ to draw out the facial features.

Try your hand at drawing your own “he-no-he-no-mo-he-ji” face on a mini origami version of a kakashi, with a new activity offered at Britannia Shipyards each Saturday in the month of October!

Choose from any colour to make and decorate your own kakashi to take home and add to your Halloween and fall décor.

Come to the Murakami Boatworks and enjoy this fun family-friendly activity on Saturday, October 7, 14, 21 & 28 , from 12 to 4pm. Admission is free, and you can drop-in any time.

Origami paper kakashi scarecrow with blue body and orange hat held up in front of a kakashi in background
make your own origami mini-kakashi

And don’t miss our Culture Days programs on Saturdays October 7th & 14th, where we celebrate the harvest season in the Chinese Bunkhouse – also free for drop-in visitors, 3 to 5pm.