When Japanese artist Ayano Tsukimi returned to her village 11 years ago, it wasn’t the place she once knew it to be. There were hardly any people around anymore, so she decided to repopulate the place herself – with handmade 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.
Nagoro is a remote village, 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.
Interestingly, Ayano’s talent in doll-making remained hidden until a year after she moved back home. In the first year, she tried hard to plant seeds, but none of them sprouted. So she decided to make a scarecrow and it actually turned out looking a lot like Since then, Ayano has not stopped making dolls, filling her village with the people she once knew.
Her work was recently covered in a documentary called The Valley of Dolls, made by journalist and photographer Fritz Schumann. He explored Ayano’s world of dolls in detail, examining and explaining her technique and motives. “I never thought it would turn into this,” she said in the film.
