Barnorama All Fun In The Barn
“When I make dolls of dead people, I think about them, when they were alive and healthy,” she said. “The dolls are like my children.”
We take for granted that where we grow up will always be there tomorrow, just the way it always has been. No matter how far away you travel, you expect all to be the same when you return. But what if instead of finding what you expect, you came home to find it abandoned, and no longer filled with those you once loved. Well, when this woman had this unfortunate event happen to her, what she did in response was beautiful – and haunting.
Japanese artist Ayano Tsukimi returned to her village 11 years ago, it wasn’t the place she once knew it to be. As there were few of her former friends and loved ones around, she decided to replicate the place herself, with dolls.
These dolls can be seen strewn across the village, on benches, in the street, outside her home, working in farms, and even lounging about the abandoned school compound.
Over a span of 10 years, she has sewn about 350 life-size dolls, each one representing a former villager.
“I never thought it would turn into this. I have a doll based on myself. Every day she watches the pot and the fire. She’s taking a nap now.”
Ayano’s remote village, Nagoro, is nestled deep in the valleys of Shikoku Island. It was once a bustling center with a dam, a big company and hundreds of inhabitants. But the residents moved to bigger cities over the years, in search of better jobs, abandoning the village permanently. Its population is dwindling as the residents left behind continue to die. Today, Nagoro has only 37 living inhabitants, and of course, many times more dolls. Let’s hope that their memories continue to live on for a long time to come.