KENNEBUNKPORT — Through the week of Aug. 4, local high school students will help refurbish the Seashore Trolley Museum’s tiniest international car that came all the way from Nagasaki, Japan. With a grant funded by Maine Humanities Council and Maine Arts Commission, the project will be free for students, according to Katie Orlando, executive director of the museum.

“Local high school students are going to volunteer,” she said. “They’re going to decorate the interior and exterior and learn about woodblock printing. Their art will tell the story of a post-World War II Japan.”

Woodblock printing, originating in China, involves carving an image into the wood, then transferring the image with ink onto a sheet of paper.

“It was the first artistic commodity from Japan,” project manager Ann Thompson said. “It was particularly traded in the United States.”

The student volunteers will be carving with Shina plywood, which is used in Japan, Thompson added, and they will each receive their own set of tools. Local woodblock printer Lyell Castonguay will instruct and assist the students.

“This is an arts integration project that brings together many disciplines,” Thompson said in an email. “The humanities portion of the project will consist of the conversations students will have while the woodblocks are being carved. They will have two Skype sessions with authors and visiting guests with experience of living and working in contemporary Japan.”

This opportunity will give the tram a more prominent spot in the museum, and according to Thompson, the debut of the refurbished tram is set for Aug. 15.

The tram, built in Osaka by the Japan Rolling Stock Company in 1911, and donated to the museum in 1960 by the Nagasaki Electric Tram Company, was meant to symbolize a peace offering, Orlando said, and celebrate the anniversary of 100 years of open trade between Japan and the United States.

“It was after World War II so there was a lot of tension,” she said. “Nagasaki is one of the cities that America hit with the atomic bomb. We didn’t plan this, but the week of the project falls on the anniversary of the bombing, Aug. 9, 1945.”

Orlando said that this is a week for students who take art and history seriously.

“This topic’s a little mature and a little vulnerable,” Orlando added, “so we’re looking for eighth graders to high school students. They have to be interested in art, too. I mean, we’re going to teach them how to do it, but they have to be interested in this kind of thing.”

A maximum of 10 students can participate in the program.

Thompson is a board member of Friends of Aomori, an organization that works on opening the relationship between Maine and the Aomori Prefecture, located in Japan, and while meeting with the trolley museum to collaborate on an educational workshop, she said she thought of the Nagasaki tram.

“Some people know about the tram,” she said. “It’s in storage so it’s not as famous as some other pieces in their collection.”

Thompson also said participating in the project that this will be a great way for students to learn about the history of Nagasaki as well.

“It won’t all be about the atomic bomb, which is what people think of first,” she said. “That’s what it’s most known for, but Nagasaki has a lot of history both before and after the war. It’s supposed to be a fun week, kind of intensive, but students who have gotten involved so far are interested in Japan and drawing and the history.”

The finished car will also be a tool that educators can use to teach about this period of history, Thompson said. The images the students will print will show the life of Wada Koichi, who was an 18-year-old tram driver in Nagasaki during the bombing.

“It’s an opportunity to learn about the Pacific part of the war,” she said. “The European part has been more extensively covered in the past.”

The tram is part of the Seashore Trolley Museum’s international collection, Orlando said, as well as the museum’s only piece from Japan.

According to Orlando, the tram serviced Osaka from 1911 to 1929, and then it moved to Fukuoka until 1953.

“It was transferred to Nagasaki in 1953,” Orlando said. “So it didn’t operate in the city during the war.”

When transported to Kennebunkport in 1960, it became the only streetcar to arrive to the Seashore Trolley Museum in a crate, according to Orlando.

It’s the smallest car in the collection. Orlando said most trolley cars are between 40-60,000 pounds, but this one is only 16,500 pounds.

“It’s adorable,” she said. “When our volunteers operate it, they have to duck their heads because it’s so small.”

— Kennebunk Post Staff Writer Catherine Bart can be reached at cbart@mainelymediallc.com or (207) 780-9028.

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