Described as having the "hands of God," Ruiko Sasahara has the heavenly ability to bring back smiles to the faces of the long deceased.
Described as having the "hands of God," Ruiko Sasahara has the heavenly ability to bring back smiles to the faces of the long deceased.
Her skills have been especially in need after the Great East Japan Earthquake, not only because of the large number of fatalities, but also because many victims were not found for days or even weeks.
She has worked as a volunteer on about 400 bodies related to the quake and tsunami in order to prepare bodies for funerals and cremation. She is one of only a few individuals in Japan with the ability to recreate the faces of the deceased. She practiced on dolls to polish her skills.
In bringing back a smile to an expressionless face, Sasahara, 39, will speak silently to the body and place her hands over the face to bring out the wrinkles and learn the shape of the nose and the position of the eyebrows.
If there is very little damage to a body and it is soon after death, a face can be recreated in about 20 minutes.
However, if a week or so has passed since death, the work becomes much more difficult.
One body that was discovered 43 days after the natural disasters took Sasahara about three hours to recreate for presentation to bereaved family members.
Unlike the 2009 Oscar-winning film "Okuribito" (Departures), which was about work preparing corpses for funerals, Sasahara feels her skill is needed to respond to the various requests of bereaved family members who want to touch or lay by their departed loved one for one last time. The skills she has developed have allowed Sasahara to provide strength to bereaved family members by sharing in their pain and loss.
She has traveled from Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture, to morgues along the coast, and she has posted daily entries to her blog about her activities.
Those who have read the blog have begun providing support. Some have sent in lipstick and blush to Sasahara. An elementary school pupil who evacuated from Fukushima Prefecture to Saitama Prefecture sent in 50 grams of absorbent cotton costing 150 yen ($1.96).
On Jan. 30, Sasahara was chosen as a "Citizen of the Year," an annual award given out by Citizen Holdings Co. for their contributions to society.
"I provided background support when it was time to say farewell. My hope is that the deep sadness of the bereaved family members will turn into courage," she said at the awards ceremony.