Knockin’ on Abe’s door: Japanese PM shows off quirky Canadian souvenir
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/05/2019 (2713 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
LAKE KAWAGUCHI, Japan – A Quebec wood carver was delighted Thursday to learn Japan’s prime minister was proudly showing off one of his creations — a door-knocker featuring a wood carving of a beaver that he brought home from his recent trip to Canada.
In a video posted Thursday to his official Instagram account, Shinzo Abe installs the folksy souvenir at the entrance of his lakeside villa outside Tokyo.
Whimsical music plays as Abe, straight-faced and wearing a button-up shirt, hammers the door-knocker into place. His wife, Akie, laughs as she tests out the contraption.
Jean-Lionel Tremblay, one member of a brotherly duo of wood carvers north of Quebec City, said someone from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office had called the shop looking for a carving.
But he didn’t know it was going to be given as a gift to the Japanese leader.
“It makes me happy,” the sculptor said in an interview, when told about the video. The brief clip has already been viewed more than 109,000 times on Instagram and shared widely on other social media.
Tremblay and his brother, Denis, describe themselves as the biggest producers of wooden ducks in their country.
Their factory, which produces all sorts of wood carvings, is located in a small town on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River called L’Islet-sur-Mer, about 100 kilometres north of Quebec City.
Tremblay was convinced the carving he sold the prime minister’s office was of a loon. “I’m sure it’s a loon we gave them!” he said.
But after hearing a more detailed description of the animal in the video — a brown, mammal-like creature with a black tail, he changed his mind.
“Oh, yeah,” he replied, “I guess it’s a beaver.”
