I am extremely honored to have been chosen as a member of the Group of 100 Devotees of Koyasan and Kumano. Thanks to the hard work of Wakayama Prefecture and numerous involved individuals, Koyasan and Kumano were registered as World Heritages in 2004. I’m particularly familiar with Koyasan because I was born and raised in a mountain village in Arida District, Wakayama Prefecture. At the time, village residents had to cross a mountain in order to visit Koyasan. My uncle trained at Koyasan and became a Buddhist priest. When I was little, my mother read the picture book Ishidomaru to me, and the tragedy it described made me cry. Koyasan and Kumano, which illustrate the deep connection between human life and nature, are exactly the sort of heritage of which the world should be proud, but the question of how we can take advantage of that legacy in the future is an important one. I believe that it will be important to take advantage of the characteristics of Wakayama Prefecture not only to promote it as a tourist destination, but also to develop it as a place that will play a central role in establishing Japan as a cultural superpower by spreading scholarly, artistic, and other activities. I look forward to doing my own small part in this effort as a resident of Wakayama Prefecture.