Manhole covers celebrating 12 Japanese players currently in Major League Baseball are seen at Tomotetsu Kogyo Co. Ltd., the ironworks company in Hiroshima that manufactured the covers. Below, the covers featuring the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and Lars Nootbaar of the St. Louis Cardinals.
By MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS
Rafu Sports Editor
Major League Baseball launched a unique and colorful celebration of 12 Japanese players currently on MLB teams.
In locations across the country, artistic manhole covers are being installed.
The installations began June 16 with three of the covers being unveiled in the hometowns of each player: Shohei Ohtani (Oshu City, Iwate Prefecture), Yusei Kikuchi (Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture) and Roki Sasaki (Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture).
“Right now, Japanese players are doing things even American players haven’t accomplished. We’ve entered an era where the impossible is finally possible,” said Kazuteru Tomohiro, CEO of Tomotetsu Kogyo Co. Ltd., the ironworks company in Hiroshima that manufactured the covers.
Each commemorative cover is designed by a different artist and depicts the player along with references to their home, their journey to the majors or their ties to local history. For example, the cover to appear in Tokyo’s Arakawa Ward celebrating the Chicago Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki illustrates his famous batting training using an iron pipe and golf balls.
The covers begin with a wooden mold that is hand-carved and then pressed into volcanic sand. Molten iron at a temperature of more than 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit is then poured into the impression. The cooled works of art are then painstakingly painted by hand.
Manhole covers in Japan have long shown a flair for the artistic, with designs tied to local history popping up as a feature of urban streets decades ago. In recent years, covers have themselves become a main tourist attraction, depicting anime characters, film stars or local celebrities.
Though he was born and raised in El Segundo, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar is included in the tribute, after becoming a national star in Japan while playing for that nation in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. His manhole cover is set to be installed June 23 in Higashimatsuyama City, Saitama Prefecture, the hometown of his mother, Kumi Enokida Nootbaar.
The installations are set to be completed by June 29, and those visiting in person will have access to online content that can be viewed by scanning QR codes at each site.
MLB has also announced a collaborative social media sweepstakes with Japan Airlines, with a grand prize for five winners to embark on a trip to MLB games to cheer on their favorite Japanese star. Entries are made by visitors to the covers sharing their in-person experiences on social media.
The schedule of MLB manhole cover installations:
June 16: Shohei Ohtani (Oshu City, Iwate)
June 16: Yusei Kikuchi (Morioka City, Iwate)
June 16: Roki Sasaki (Rikuzentakata City, Iwate)
June 17: Yu Darvish (Habikino City, Osaka)
June 18: Yuki Matsui (Yokohama City, Kanagawa)
June 19: Shota Imanaga (Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka)
June 23: Lars Nootbaar (Higashimatsuyama City, Saitama)
June 24: Seiya Suzuki (Arakawa Ward, Tokyo)
June 25: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Bizen City, Okayama)
June 26: Masataka Yoshida (Fukui City, Fukui)
June 27: Kodai Senga (Gamagori City, Aichi)
June 29: Tomoyuki Sugano (Sagamihara City, Kanagawa)