Japanese Garden, Mural and Owls
Sister city
The Village of Ashcroft twinned with Bifuka, Japan in 1995 in order to promote cultural awareness, tourism and to investigate ways to better link our communities for a long term relationship. In 1997, local artists Jo Petty and Royden Josephson along with a number of Ashcroft Secondary students travelled to Bifuka where they painted a mural reflecting our culture and heritage.
In the year 2000, Japanese artist Kazuhika Nagaki and several students from Bifuka, returned the gesture of cultural awareness by painting this mural. The mural depicts a significant cultural site near Bifuka which is accessible only after an arduous and lengthy hillside climb.
Local residents Don and Marnie Adamski travelled to Bifuka for the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its incorporation On their return, they erected the treasured symbol of Bifuka the owl, above the Bifuka mural in appreciation of the kindness and friendship they experienced while visiting the sister city.
transcribed from sign
Also is a sculpture of two owls on a tall pole that signifies Japanese culture.
Owls, pronounced fukuro in Japanese, owls are symbols of good fortune and luck.
Bifuka (Bifuka-cho)
The Japanese town of Bifuka, in Hokkaido, was twinned with Ashcroft in 1994.
Bifuka is a small community with a population of about 4,800 and is in Kamikawa Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. Bifuka is located in a valley in the north central region of the island of Hokkaido.
It is surrounded by mountains and the Teshio River flows roughly northwest through Bifuka.
One of the major highlights is the Bifuka Sturgeon Museum featuring beautiful aquariums and a small facility which maintains eight species of sturgeon. Sturgeon were found in the Teshio River as far as Bifuka until the Meiji Period is an era of Japanese history which extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912.
In 2016 the population of Ashcroft was 1,558 residents. Ashcroft is located in Thompson Country and borders the Thompson River and is 30 kilometres (19 miles) downstream from the west end of Kamloops Lake where the confluence of the Bonaparte and Thompson Rivers meet.
Ashcroft was incorporated as a village in 1952 and resembles that of desert terrain, due to the near desert conditions in lower elevation areas and has been marketed as sets for the film industry.
There are over 30 movies, TV series, short films, mini series, and commercials filmed in and around Ashcroft, some include: The Andromeda Strain, The A-Team, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Twilight Zone, Bird on a Wire, An Unfinished Life and The X-Files.