Nobu Shirase was the explorer born in Akita. He had had great ambitious for a polar expedition from his early days in Akita famous for its heavy snowfall. On January 16th, 1912, Shirase landed on Antarctica and headed to the South Pole together with four of his team members. Unfortunately, they had to give up a chance to reach the South Pole because of lack of food and so on, but, one of the glaciers in Antarctica was named “Shirase Gracier”.
In addition to Nobu Shirase, Akita Silver Coin features the unique traditional folk event and ritual observed through Oga Peninsula in Akita. It is called “Namahage” , and in this event, men wearing eerie demon masks and holding scary but fake tools made of wood make house-to-house visits in a settlement to ask each family, “Who is a crying child, who is a lazy child?”