MORIOKA--A local printer has put out a calendar featuring scenic photos of Iwate Prefecture taken shortly before the March 11 disaster, hoping the images will help local residents rebuild their lives.
MORIOKA--A local printer has put out a calendar featuring scenic photos of Iwate Prefecture taken shortly before the March 11 disaster, hoping the images will help local residents rebuild their lives.
Among the photos is one of a cherry tree on a hill commanding a view of the residential area of Rikuzentakata. Another shows Namiita beach lined with parasols in Otsuchi. There is also one of rows of cultivation rafts in the Bay of Yamada.
They were taken by Hiroshi Fujieda, 54, a photographer who lives in Kamaishi.
They were part of a job he did last year for the Kawaguchi Industrial Printing Corp., a printing company based in Morioka.
Fujieda’s photos were subsequently swept away when the tsunami destroyed his house.
With the photo data preserved at their office, the company decided to produce a calendar for 2012 using the photos. Called "Yomigaere Sanriku" (Revive Sanriku), the calendar is intended to help local residents recall what it was like before the Great East Japan Earthquake struck.
Sanriku refers to the northeastern coast of the Tohoku region, including Iwate Prefecture.
The new calendar has already provided encouragement to some residents.
Masaaki Sasaki, a 44-year-old fisherman from Kamaishi, discovered that one of the photos used for the month of October was of his boat when it was decorated with flags for a festival to mark a bumper catch last year. Sasaki said he is grateful that the image of the boat he used for 28 years was in the calendar. The vessel was destroyed in the tsunami.
"I was able to make a living thanks to that boat and buy a house," Sasaki said. "It was like part of my family."
He is determined, he said, to reconstruct his life, starting with a smaller boat. Sasaki hopes to one day take part in the festival again.
Fujieda said the disaster reminded him once again of the importance of photographs as records chronicling people's lives.
"I hope they (the photos) give people confidence in Sanriku and help them develop a positive outlook toward the future," he said.
The photographer is now working to capture images of people in the region rising from the ruins.
The calendars sell for 1,260 yen ($16) each. Kawaguchi Industrial Printing will print 5,000 copies, with part of the proceeds to be donated to rebuilding projects.