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.