Valley of the Dolls

The town of Nagoro, Japan, commonly  is home to less than 40 people, but many more dolls. These dolls are created by Tsukimi Ayano, a woman born and raised in Nagoro, but she spent most of her adult life in Osaka. After moving back to Nagoro her father passed away and as a type of memorial for him she created a doll in his likeness. As Nagoro’s population declined due to death and relocation, Ayano created dolls modelled after the residents that had passed or left, and even poses them in activities the residents regularly did.

Today there are over 350 of these dolls that represent doubles of the residents. These dolls are created to look like specific residents and are posed to look as if they are just a snapshot in time of the residents going about their daily life. These doubles go to school, sit on benches waiting for the bus, “work” the fields, are clothed and accessorized, and are even conversed with by the living residents. On one hand, this can be seen as a gracious, beautiful memorial to those who passed, but on the other hand it can be likened to the horror movie theme of dolls taking over and replacing the lives of living people.

Seeing Doppelgangers in a World of Uncertainty

               As I walk to class, out of the corner of my eye I see one of my best friends from high school. I see the girl that sat on the opposite of the room from me during math class, the boy that sat at the table next to me during lunch, or the friend of a friend that I waved at in the hallway between class. At least, I think I did. Right before I get excited and want to run up and say, “Hey! What are you doing here?” I remember we’re not in Kansas anymore.

               I am from a suburban area between Houston and Galveston, Texas. I was raised in the same house my parents took me home to after I was released from the hospital when I was born and the only time I changed schools was to go to intermediate school and then high school. I saw the same people day in and day out. I had friends I’d met the year before and friends I’d known since pre-K. There was only one other person from my high school that came to OU, and as far as I know, only one other person besides us from our district came here. With all of my friends hours I away, I definitely wasn’t recognizing anyone from home.  

               For the first week or so I was here, I thought I recognized at least 2 or 3 people a day from my high school. Since then, that number has tapered off until I haven’t mistakenly recognized someone in at least 2 weeks. My hypothesis is this: the shock of moving so far away from everyone I know for the first time in my life caused my brain to see people that looked somewhat familiar as people I knew. I believe that this was a type of coping mechanism for being in a completely new environment with strangers. My brain saw doppelgangers of my friends in the people I saw around campus as a way to find familiarity and comfort in a strange place.