TSU, Mie Prefecture--When a photographer and a designer made frequent visits to Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, which was hit hard by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, the will of residents to overcome the tragedy and look toward the future inspired them.
TSU, Mie Prefecture--When a photographer and a designer made frequent visits to Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, which was hit hard by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, the will of residents to overcome the tragedy and look toward the future inspired them. “As we could only listen to them, we developed a strong desire to find a way to return the favor,” said Junji Hashimoto, a 41-year-old Tsu-based designer. Hashimoto and Yutaka Matsubara, a 47-year-old photographer from Tsu, found a way, helping publish a collection of tanka poems written by an 80-year-old local woman after the disaster. The collection by Sachiko Obata, a resident of Otsuchi, who lost her son and home, was published on July 11 under the title “Ikita Akashi" (Evidence of life). The front cover features a portrait of Obata taken by Matsubara, who was deeply moved by the “unyielding spirit” of local residents on his visits to the coastal town of Otsuchi. Hashimoto, Matsubara’s work partner, voluntarily took charge of designing the professionally bound book. “I never expected that I could ever publish my collection,” Obata said. “They helped me publish this book as volunteers from as far as Mie Prefecture, and I truly appreciate their endeavor.” Matsubara admitted he first visited Otsuchi, located 700 kilometers northeast from Tsu, five months after the earthquake and tsunami driven by “curiosity” to check out the devastation. But the locals, despite the loss of their hometown and many longtime residents, warmly welcomed them. The pair has driven to Otsuchi twice every year since then to take pictures of residents and the changing landscapes of the recovering town. As they became regular visitors, locals invited them to pubs, and talked about memories of the tragedy and their hopes for the future. The pair met Obata in April after the collection of her tanka poems was selected for publication by the Otsuchi Shimbun, a local citizens’ paper, in January in the paper’s project to preserve literary works related to the disaster. They offered to voluntarily design the book. The woman lost her 49-year-old son and home in the tsunami, and her despondent husband died from an illness at the age of 81 shortly after the disaster. While she once was in the habit of keeping a diary, she could no longer do so as it became too painful to record her memories after the disaster. While it took her nine months to write her first tanka poem after the earthquake, it helped her express a flurry of her emotions, she said. The 252-page collection of tanka features 587 poems, including many dedicated to her son and husband. It also includes a diary written from the perspective of the family’s dog, Tachi, which helped Obata keep an account of her most poignant memories of the disaster. Obata’s portrait taken by Matsubara graces the front cover, and Hashimoto designed the book’s spine label in pink to express her warm and elegant personality. “It feels such a strong sense of fulfillment to be of help to others. We could finally find a way to return the favor,” Hashimoto said.