How one dying Japanese village creepily came back to life
It all started when Tsukimi Ayano returned home: She had moved to Osaka when she was still in school, and she'd gotten married and had children.
It was nearly empty: The village, which once had a dam and a population of 300 people, had dwindled to less than 40.
An aging and disappearing community: With little reason for immigration, as young residents left or old ones passed, there was no one left to fill their void.
Quietude birthed a crazy idea: Ayano had a unique solution for her problem.
She made her first scarecrow around 15 years ago: It was initially to frighten off birds pecking at seeds in her garden.
The first one was in the likeness of her father: People started interacting with the scarecrow, thinking it was actually him in the fields. Ayano's next idea surprised even herself.
She decided to make more: Ayano started creating life-size doll replacements for each of the former villagers.
More than a decade later, she’s still making them: The hand-sewn creations are frozen in time, creating a tableau of daily life.
They're all from her memory: Each doll is placed specifically where Ayano remembers them most clearly, like this perpetually fishing figure.
There are 10x more dolls than humans: Without the warmth of nostalgia, the surreal village often seems creepy.