A snow sculpture of "Charlie Chaplin" is currently installed at the entrance of Takano Pottery in the residential area of Hirosaki and Shimizumori.

The same snow sculpture made by potter Hiroshi Takano in front of his atelier. The size is about 3 meters high and about 2 meters wide. In the snow sculpture that made the face of the comedy king Chaplin, Mr. Takano smiles, "I was actually planning to make'Freddie Mercury', but in the process of making it, I changed to Chaplin."

The making of snow sculptures, which has been going on since around 2000, was started to please the elementary school students who lived opposite the atelier. Initially, dinosaurs were made from the snow that had accumulated in front of the garage, but it started with making faces using the snow walls made by removing snow. When I first started making it, I only made people's faces, but I decided to set up a theme so that passers-by could enjoy it. Michael Jackson, who died the previous year, was the first in 2010 (Heisei 22). In the past, he produced John Lennon, such as Saigo Takamori and Kirin Kiki.

Mr. Takano is from Miyagi and graduated from Hirosaki University. While attending school, he met Kazutomo Takahashi, a potter, and went on the path of ceramic art. It was from 1990 (Heisei 2) that the workshop was set up at the current location. In recent years, he has been making apple-shaped figurines such as "decorative apples". "In terms of making three-dimensional objects, I may have made some use of ceramic art techniques, but I like making things," says Takano.

The snow sculpture is shaped with a shovel and shaped with a saw. He says that he sometimes draws sketches when he doesn't understand by referring to his face photo. If it snows or melts, your face will change, so maintenance is done every day. “It's difficult to make because of the temperature and snow conditions. Sometimes the body temperature of your hands hardens the snow,” says Takano.

"I started making snow sculptures to make passers-by happy. I hear that young people don't know Chaplin, so I hope it's an opportunity to get them to know."