i heard of this japanese town that
replaced humans with
scarecrow-esque dolls known as kakashi
hundreds of them
naturally i had to go and see it for
myself
this is nagoro village
tucked into a valley on the island of
shikoku
the village has developed a bit of a
personality
it's filled with over 300 of these dolls
spread throughout the village they are
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everywhere
some more obvious than others each one
often representing a real person with a
name
age and a personal history
and incredibly nearly each and every one
is handmade by a single person
in 2002 when ayano tsukimi returned to
the village from living in
osaka many of the people she knew were
long gone and in time she found herself
populating the village with these
kakashi
dolls as these things often do
it started with a single doll to stand
as a scarecrow and protect a field
but more on ayano-san in just a minute
as with many places around the world
japan's countryside towns and villages
are struggling to maintain
any sense of appeal to the younger
generation who would all rather live
in the big cities nagoro village is a
shining example of this with only
27 remaining residents all of whom
are close to or past retirement age
and unsurprisingly there are no children
the local elementary school while upkept
has been abandoned for over
20 years now
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we had the chance to enter the gymnasium
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foreign
the scale of this entire thing really
starts to hit you
when you see the gymnasium and when he
points out once again that
all of this is made by a single person
it all becomes vastly more impressive in
every way
the detail that goes into each and every
one of them
is mind-boggling in fact the gymnasium
isn't even the only building in the town
filled with these kakashi dolls
it's almost frightening in a way
this this is amazing
can you imagine being a completely
unsuspecting person just
driving through here the worn down
nearly
abandoned feel of nagoro gives the
village a creepy enough feel
as is
we were offered the opportunity to visit
ayano's house for an
interview and take a look at her in-home
display
but with the world in its current state
we felt it best to limit interaction
in smaller spaces and politely decline
the offer
it was honestly one of the more painful
declines that i've ever had to do
but i stand by it the locals are very
aware of the looming fate of their
village and they're actually quite happy
when people
come out and share their story
nobody wants to be forgotten
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as interesting as this place is it
really serves as
a reminder of japan's dying countryside
lifestyle
i wonder what the country is going to be
like 10 20
30 years from now the town is also quite
small
just around this corner and down a bit
is the start of the town and then
just around this corner up here is the
end of the town
i took a bit of extra time to walk the
streets and really get
a feel for nagoro it's an inspired
little village and more than anything
this visit simply
piqued my interest and made me want to
know more
i hope i can make it back someday i hope
we all can't
and she was an absolute pleasure to talk
to
we talked for probably a good 10 15
minutes
and we got so wrapped up in the
conversation that i completely forgot to
ask her
all the questions that i wanted to or
perhaps i just gave up because i was
enjoying the conversation
i thanked her for her work and she said
she was looking forward to seeing the
documentary
and was even kind enough to invite me
back when the world returns to
some sense of normalcy
i'm looking forward to that and it's
always nice to have something to look
forward to