orita hikoichi (statue)
折田先生像 (Orita Sensei's Statue / Mr. Orita Statue)
Orita Hikoichi (折田彦市, 1849-1920) was an educationalist active in Meiji period Japan and and the first principal of the 3rd Higher School, one of predecessors of Kyoto University.
The motto of the university, "academic freedom" is based on his philosophy.
His statue was settled in front of the building of the Faculty of Liberal Arts (now the Faculty of Integrated Human Studies) of the University in the 50's.
Since around 80's, Mr. Orita was painted, defaced and the statue "cosplayed" as random characters when the university has an event like the entrance exam.
In 1994 the college started posting signs saying:
折田彦市先生は、第三高等学校の校長として京大の創設に尽力し、京大に自由の学風を築くために多大な功績を残した人です。 どうかこの像を汚さないで下さい。
総合人間学
As a school principal of the 3rd Higher School, Mr.Orita Hikoichi assisted in the founding of Kyoto University, and is a person who has left behind many achievements in pursuit of academic freedom at the University. Please do not mess up the statue.
Faculty of Integrated Human Studies
Since then, when Mr. Orita was painted, its parody text was posted by this statue.
In 1997, the statue finally left the campus basement. Immediately after that, however, a fake statue was set up where the real one stood. Since 2002, Mr. Orita's fake statues appeared in front of the Library of the Faculty of Integrated Human Studies almost every year around entrance exam season.
The college once commented favorably to these acts on their official webpage in 2008.