The hamlet of Nagoro on the south-western isle of Shikoku , inwards Nihon , was 1 time domicile to hundreds of residents. But over the years , Nagoro’s population had fallen dramatically every bit the village's immature inhabitants left to uncovering run in addition to amend lives inwards cities , leaving the really former —the pensioners— every bit Nagoro’s solely residents today.
In the early on 2000s , when Ayano Tsukimi returned to her domicile inwards Nagoro afterward decades living inwards the sprawling city of Osaka , she was saddened to uncovering her hamlet resembling a ghost town. So she started making life-sized dolls , 1 for each resident that had left the hamlet or died , in addition to placed them or in addition to hence the village. Brightly dressed figures crowd exterior a shop; some other bunch wrapped inwards wintertime clothes expect at the motorcoach stop; former ladies sit down past times the roadside in addition to gaze at the fields beyond. The dolls are everywhere , in addition to they outnumber Nagoro’s actual residents past times a component of ten.
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Photo credit: Elaine Kurtenbach
Tsukimi Ayano stitches a scarecrow daughter past times her outdoor hearth at her domicile inwards Nagoro. Photo credit: Elaine Kurtenbach
Photo credit: Fritz Schumann
Photo credit: Fritz Schumann
Photo credit: Fritz Schumann
Photo credit: Fritz Schumann
Photo credit: Fritz Schumann
Photo credit: Fritz Schumann
Photo credit: Fritz Schumann
Sources: Reuters / the Verge / The Guardian