▲Appropriately so, since she brought them all to life and tends to them regularly.

▲They actually live much shorter than humans, wearing out quite quickly and lasting up to three years maximum.

▲It was initially to frighten off birds pecking at seeds in her garden.

▲At a quick glance, Nagoro seems to have never lost those that died or abandoned the village, as they're just waiting at bus stops and lingering around empty houses.

▲Though it appears Ayano does most of the real work in town.

▲She had moved to Osaka when she was still in school, and she'd gotten married and had children, but Ayano returned to her village in 2003 to take care of her father. What she found surprised her.

▲Putting dolls at the entrance of the valley was a strategy to get people interested and to attract some attention towards her village.

▲The hand-sewn creations are frozen in time, creating a tableau of daily life.

▲People started interacting with the scarecrow, thinking it was actually him in the fields. Ayano's next idea surprised even herself.

▲She says she doesn't make these scarecrows because she's lonely, and she doesn't think of them as a project or as art.

▲Regarding the dolls, yes, but the hit it took from inhabitants flocking to cities for work actually affects many villages in Japan's countryside, and often leaves mostly the retirees behind.

▲Each doll is placed specifically where Ayano remembers them most clearly, like this perpetually fishing figure.

▲"Every morning, I just greet them," she says. She adds that she never gets a response, but that it doesn't matter or deter her from doing the same the next day.

▲The school population dwindled to just two students and one teacher. Now, it’s a full class every day.

▲Its dwindling numbers are representative of the entire country, whose population has been falling for a decade.

▲The regional government sponsors a Scarecrow Festival for tourists each October, though many foreign visitors find Ayano on their own.

▲The village, which once had a dam and a population of 300 people, had dwindled to less than 40. Most of the residents, much like Ayano, had left for bigger cities.

▲In the documentary, Ayano says she doesn’t like making weird dolls, but rather prefers to create people who blend into the scenery.

▲Ayano, too, passes through the village like a ghost while her doll watches the pot and the fire.

▲Only made even slightly more creepy with the human-like figures swaying lifelessly in the wind.

▲

It takes 90 minutes to get to a proper hospital from Nagoro, but Ayano is comfortable with the fact that she may very well die there. “I’ll probably live forever,” she jokes.

Sources: (Vimeo) (NY Times)

▲Without the warmth of nostalgia, the surreal village often seems creepy, pairing dead silence with hundreds of button-made eyes trained on you.

▲In a documentary titled 'The Valley Of Dolls,' Ayano says that when she makes dolls of dead people, she envisions them when they were alive and healthy.

▲It was a way to enjoy her time in the quiet village.

▲Ayano started creating life-size doll replacements for each of the former villagers.

▲Made with straw, fabric, and old clothes, Ayano never tires of repairing or making new dolls.

▲For Ayano, the biggest struggle is creating the dolls' facial expressions. The lips in particular are very difficult, because a little tweak can make them look angry.

▲Ayano had a unique solution for her problem.

▲With little reason for immigration, as young residents left or old ones passed, there was no one left to fill their void.

▲The remote mountain village of Nagoro on Shikoku Island in southern Japan, like most remote villages, has faced a rapidly declining population. However, there seems to be the same number of bodies around town, working in the fields, studying in classrooms, and waiting at bus stops.

Check out this gallery to find out more about this unique and unexpectedly beautiful story.

How one dying Japanese village creepily came back to life

The eerie stuff of nightmares wrapped in one woman's nostalgia

19/09/24 por StarsInsider

TRAVEL Curiosity

The remote mountain village of Nagoro on Shikoku Island in southern Japan, like most remote villages, has faced a rapidly declining population. However, there seems to be the same number of bodies around town, working in the fields, studying in classrooms, and waiting at bus stops.

Check out this gallery to find out more about this unique and unexpectedly beautiful story.