Things were simply becoming creepy.
Nagoro is a steadily vanishing town in Shikoku, Japan, filled with frightening dolls that appear to be real. Shikoku is one of Japan’s four main islands, and it would have remained an unnoticed dot on the map if it hadn’t been for Ayano Tsukimi, a skillful doll maker.
Her thriving residential neighborhood was losing its allure, so she began producing life-size dolls to fill her hamlet, whose population has been diminishing over the years. Although there have been rumors of other Japanese villages where artists have built scarecrows or dolls to liven them up, Nagoro has piqued the tourists’ interest.
Ayano created the first doll in the likeness of her father, and then she had the notion to replace the other members of her family with identical dolls. Her work is still going on ten years later. Every doll is placed in the location where she would look like that individual. Several fictitious characters were also introduced.
She chose to recreate the good times using dolls reflecting life in her town after seeing that the population in her community was rapidly declining due to elderly passing away, schools and businesses closing, and young people relocating to larger cities for better possibilities. Isn’t it inventive? But it’s also really strange.
The now-closed Nagoro local school is one of Ayano’s works that has attracted widespread attention. Along from parents, instructors, and other people acting out their roles, there is a room full of doll pupils listening to their doll teacher.
Her designs can also be found in buildings that have been abandoned. There were also dolls at grocery shops, bus stops, and other public areas where many people congregated.
Each life-size doll takes her around three days to build, according to her. To build the dolls, which are subsequently dressed in old clothing, newspapers, cotton, buttons, elastic fabric, wires, paint, and a variety of other things are utilized.
Ayano makes a livelihood doing this. Along from that, she also teaches how to manufacture these ‘kakashi’ and how to produce the various looks on their faces. Anybody may participate in one of her workshops to make these dolls.