Nagoro, the doll village 名頃 天空の村・かかしの里

If one is not completely attentive, one could believe that some inhabitants of Nagoro chatter while waiting for the bus, while others are occupied with the fields, while the children study studiously in the classroom of the village. However, on closer inspection, its inhabitants are not of flesh and bone, but of fabric and newspaper , frozen in an infinitely repetitive daily life.

We owe these life-size dolls to Ayano Tsukimi. This Japanese woman has returned to live alongside her father in the Iya Valley , on the island of Shikoku after several decades spent in Osaka.

Empty villages

If, during his childhood, the valley was prosperous and the villages full, the closure of the dam, the main provider of employment in the valley, pushed many inhabitants to abandon Shikoku for Tokyo, Osaka or Kobe.

Today, only about thirty people still live in Nagoro , a number which tends to decrease from year to year, and even more since the only school in the village closed its doors .

Dolls repopulate the village

Ayano Tsukimi therefore had the idea of embarking on the design of fabric dolls , just to repopulate his village in his own way. Children, parents, farmers, fishermen… If his preference is to make old people, Ayano Tsukimi gives life to a whole range of dolls, always with the imperative of not making them look too sad or angry. They are today 350 to populate Nagoro, each one representing an inhabitant having left the village or having died .

To read: Awashima Jina, the sanctuary of the dolls

Bring the curious

A good way to raise awareness of the desertification of the Japanese countryside , while infusing it with a little poetry. And the least we can say is that it works. Nagoro has now become a tourist attraction , visitors to Shikoku stop on their way, very curious to come and see these dolls with their own eyes. Ayano Tsukimi is happy to receive them and give them his manufacturing tips .

If you have the eye, you can even find the doll that Ayano Tsukimi made in his likeness!

Discover our driving tour through the island of Shikoku