Word: maebashi
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Meek little Mitsuo Handa had never wanted to make a million yen or be a conquering hero. In his home town of Maebashi, a crumbling provincial capital near Tokyo, Handa spent just enough time at his little bicycle shop to keep his wife and two children in rice and modest clothes; the rest of his time he fribbled away in an aimless search for a milder spiritual refuge than the stern Shintoism of his ancestors...
...this summer, balding, 63-year-old Handa decided that his search was over. On the telephone poles in Maebashi's dusty streets appeared placards advertising Warau Kamisama, the Laughing God. Said Handa: "I was fascinated. I have always felt that man is most human when he has a smile on his face...