30 Creative Customized Manhole Covers in Japan — Japan is a country full of amazing art. Some of it is housed within museums and galleries while about Japan’s peculiar obsession with manhole covers. Just about anywhere in the country you can find stylized manhole covers. The plates that cover the manholes are often painted and decorated with motifs. These motifs mostly represent a specialty of the city where they are installed.
According to Noboru Fujiwara of the manhole association, credit for the
proliferation of patterns goes to a man named Yasutake Kameda, who was
then a ranking bureaucrat in the construction ministry. He encouraged
cities, towns and villages around Japan to develop designs with local
appeal. Custom covers cost on average about 5 percent more than off the
rack designs, but even so, nearly 95 percent of the 1,780 municipalities
in Japan now have a manhole cover design to call their own. Trees and
plants adorn nearly half of the designs, with official flowers being
particularly popular. Animals, birds and local spots of natural beauty
are also popular themes.
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