This is an antenna shop in Chikushino City operated by the Chikushino City Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It is located within the Tenbaizan Historical and Natural Park. Inside the store, we sell Chikushino City's specialty products and crafts, and in the cafe space you can enjoy food and drinks from local restaurants.
The menu includes a wide selection of eel bowls and carp koku from Koi Hiromatsu, a carp and eel specialty store, as well as light snacks such as curry and udon.The drink menu also offers drinks that make use of local characteristics, such as Futsukaichi Onsen Coffee and Purple Ginger Squash.
How about taking a break at Tsukushi-chan Cafe after a walk or mountain climbing at Tenbaizan Historical and Natural Park?
For families with children, there is a space for breastfeeding and changing diapers. There are also disabled toilet facilities available. We offer a luggage storage service so that customers who are traveling can enjoy walking around the park and climbing Mt. Tenbai. On the second floor of Tenpai Ikoi's building, there is a rental meeting room and a large training room. Please feel free to ask the Tsukushi-chan Cafe staff.
Long ago, Chikushino City was covered with purple grass, a plant that is now designated as an endangered species, and its roots were used as a purple dye for one of the taxes paid to the Imperial Court, and it has a history of being used as a purple dye for the highest rank of the 12th rank in the capital.
The Chikushino City Chamber of Commerce and Industry focused on this, and in 2007 launched the ``Purple Project,'' an urban development and product development initiative that uses the keyword ``purple'', which is the origin of the city's name. At the end of June of the same year, the ``Small and Medium Enterprise Regional Resource Utilization Promotion Act'' was enacted, and the ``Regional Resource Utilization and Commercialization Coordination Activities Support Project'' was created accordingly, and the project was selected under the theme of ``Attracting customers from the Kyushu National Museum and developing special products using purple as a keyword to revitalize Futsukaichi Hot Springs.''
When we first started, we developed 50 types of purple specialty products (raw materials such as green curtains of purple vines, purple potatoes, purple black rice, and eggplants), and held events such as the utilization of local resources such as Mt. Tenbai and Futsukaichi Hot Springs (the Purple Town Expo), and we worked on cultivating purple grass, which grows naturally in Chikushino City, with fields dotted with cultivation.
From now on, while holding up the purple color of Chikushino City as a symbol of history, we will also be looking at Tenpaizan, which takes its name from the story of Michizane Sugawara, who was demoted to Dazaifu (Dazaifu City) and climbed the summit many times to worship the heavens in order to protest his innocence. We hope to contribute to the promotion and development of the region by actively utilizing historical resources such as the Tendai sect's Musashiji Temple, a historic site, Futsukaichi Onsen, the oldest hot spring in Kyushu, which has a history of more than 1,300 years and has been known as a scenic hot spring since the Manyo period, and the Nagasaki Kaido Sugar Road, which has been designated as a Japanese Heritage Site.
On June 29, 2024, we opened the Chikushino City antenna shop "Tsukushi-chan Cafe" in the Tenbai Ikoi building, focusing on specialty products with purple as the keyword. We also operate a cafe that serves food and beverages using Yamaguchi ginger, a specialty of Chikushino City, as well as menus from famous restaurants in the city. Additionally, we intend to make this facility function as a sightseeing base for the above-mentioned historical resources.
Tsukushi-chan, the official mascot character of Chikushino City, was created in 1992 to commemorate the city's 20th anniversary. The model is Rurikohime, the legendary princess of Futsukaichi Onsen. He is a bright, energetic and reliable character who loves Futsukaichi Onsen and supports the future of the city and its children.
In 2024, the characters were renewed with the aim of making them more beloved by children. We conducted a survey of approximately 1,000 junior high school students in the city, and received many opinions, including improvements to the design and the addition of new friends. As a result, a new cat character "Musashi" with a brown tabby pattern has been added.
Tsukushi-chan also has a theme song, ``Tsukushi's Rock and Roll,'' sung by the Chikushino City Chikushi Boys and Girls Choir. This song was produced by the acoustic rock group "Chicken Nuggets".
