Nagoro is a small village in the mountains on the Japanese island of Shikoku where a child is not born for more than 18 years. It is located at 1,954 meters high in the middle of the mountains of the Iya Valley. Its location makes access to this remote place is not a simple task, so its inhabitants have emigrated to other areas.
60 years ago Nagoro had hundreds of inhabitants, there were workers, children, life but now, they are a little more than two dozen adults living in this earth's redoubt. The elementary school closed its doors in 2012, shortly after the last two students ended the sixth grade. But the curious thing about this town is not the rural exodus that many other areas have suffered. No no. The true curious is the project that Ayano Trukimi began, a neighbor of the 67 -year -old village who also emigrated at the time but returned to the village to take care of his father. It was on his return when he noticed the desolate that his native village was and, in 2003, he decided to return life to the village. As? Planting seeds that never germinated, so he decided to give his agriculture project creating scarecrows.
What began as a scarest project ended up lengthening over time and Tsukimi was creating an entire community of dolls to which he endowed personality, profession and a vital role in Nagoro. Thus, it occurred to him to replace residents with dolls.
The village currently has 379 inhabitants: 29 humans and 350 dolls.
This initiative has returned to Nagoro on the map welcoming strangers, curious and travelers who are received by dolls that are working the field, sitting on a bus stop, thinking, studying at the children's school, cooking ....
The dolls are, in the words of their creator, like their own children.
A curious story that reminds us that non -voluntary loneliness is very hard getting to sharpen our creativity to alleviate it.
60 years ago Nagoro had hundreds of inhabitants, there were workers, children, life but now, they are a little more than two dozen adults living in this earth's redoubt. The elementary school closed its doors in 2012, shortly after the last two students ended the sixth grade. But the curious thing about this town is not the rural exodus that many other areas have suffered. No no. The true curious is the project that Ayano Trukimi began, a neighbor of the 67 -year -old village who also emigrated at the time but returned to the village to take care of his father. It was on his return when he noticed the desolate that his native village was and, in 2003, he decided to return life to the village. As? Planting seeds that never germinated, so he decided to give his agriculture project creating scarecrows.
What began as a scarest project ended up lengthening over time and Tsukimi was creating an entire community of dolls to which he endowed personality, profession and a vital role in Nagoro. Thus, it occurred to him to replace residents with dolls.
"I wanted more children to be because the village would be more cheerful so I did the children," said Ayano.
The village currently has 379 inhabitants: 29 humans and 350 dolls.
This initiative has returned to Nagoro on the map welcoming strangers, curious and travelers who are received by dolls that are working the field, sitting on a bus stop, thinking, studying at the children's school, cooking ....
The dolls are, in the words of their creator, like their own children.
A curious story that reminds us that non -voluntary loneliness is very hard getting to sharpen our creativity to alleviate it.
