Increasingly, young people are leaving villages for big cities in search of prospects and a better life. Only old people remain in the deserted villages, who gradually also leave their homes, moving to another world. The same fate befell a Japanese village on the island of Shikoku. A local artist created human-sized dolls to fill empty houses with them.
Dead souls: the artist "populated" the deserted village with dollsThe sight that opens up to those who have looked into this village is quite creepy. The entire Japanese village of Nagoro is filled with human-sized dolls.
Dead souls: the artist "populated" the deserted village with dollsThey are waiting for public transport at the bus stop, sitting on benches in the park and digging in the beds in front of houses.Dead souls: the artist "populated" the deserted village with dollsAmong them there are even "workers" repairing roads.
Dead souls: the artist "populated" the deserted village with dollsWhen the artist's father died, and the seeds sown by him in the garden began to sprout, the woman decided to make an effigy similar to him.Dead souls: the artist "populated" the deserted village with dollsAfter that, the artist began to reproduce in dolls the images of all the departed inhabitants of the village. She made human-sized figures out of straw, fabric and old clothes and placed them where their prototypes usually spent most of their time.Dead souls: the artist "populated" the deserted village with dollsSome dolls "live" in houses, drink tea, prepare for a wedding or look at the world, leaning on a fence.Dead souls: the artist "populated" the deserted village with dollsOthers are doing the housework, cleaning the stables, fishing or going home from the store.Dead souls: the artist "populated" the deserted village with dollsThe abandoned classrooms at the local school were again filled with students and teachers — rag dolls.Dead souls: the artist "populated" the deserted village with dollsNow there are 10 times more dolls in Nagoro than there are people.Dead souls: the artist "populated" the deserted village with dollsThe 67-year-old artist knows that the day will come when she will remain the only inhabitant of her village surrounded by dolls-copies of those people with whom she was familiar.Dead souls: the artist "populated" the deserted village with dollsWhen making figures, a woman thinks about those whom they symbolize, imagines them alive.Dead souls: the artist "populated" the deserted village with dollsMany tourists come here from different parts of Japan to see the unusual village of dolls.Dead souls: the artist "populated" the deserted village with dollsIt is impossible to return the departed irrevocably, but you can always remember them. The memory embodied in dolls is the only thing that the villagers have left. And this memory will be alive as long as its rag keepers live.