This book contains the photographs of “Mementos of Happiness,” the 4th series of my Fukushima project. Based on this series, I have made books in several styles, and this is the latest one which I have created as a dummy for future publication.

“Mementos of Happiness” consists of photographs which I took in Okuma in Fukushima Prefecture in 2019 and 2020. Okuma is a small seaside town where the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is located. After the enormous disaster of March 11th, 2011, the town was completely evacuated, and people have not returned.

The town is gradually, continually being destroyed due to decontamination procedures and the construction of radioactive waste treatment facilities. However, there still exist many areas where everything is left just as it was ten years ago.

In these places, it can seem as if the people were suddenly spirited away. Visiting the kindergarten, the elementary school, the junior high school, the care home for the elderly, private houses, and so on, I could clearly see how their daily lives were up until that sudden, complete evacuation.

I felt as if the possessions that were randomly left behind, such as small futons for children, school bags, and family photos, cried out for some kind of explanation. I could not find any answers in my mind – so I simply took many photographs, to prove to myself that I had seen these abandoned objects.

However, as I continued to revisit Okuma, things started to feel somehow different. I thought I began to hear tender voices, speaking of bygone, happy days. On sensing these benevolent voices, I felt somehow that I had crossed a border and joined them on their side, transforming myself from someone who takes photographs to a person or object to be photographed. At that point, I stopped being an observer or auteur, and became an interpreter.

For original prints, I used Kamikawasaki washi, hand-screened Japanese paper which has been manufactured for over 1000 years in Nihonmatsu in Fukushima prefecture. I applied emulsion on the paper and printed in my darkroom. From the warm-toned ecru-coloured paper imbued with the organic energy of its source, the memories of the land seemed to arise gently and naturally. Even when printing and reprinting the same negative, I achieved a different result each time, which may indicate that the memories held in the paper are as numerous as the people who lived in the area.

Published by Studio K
Tokyo, 2024
Edition of 10
24 x 24 cm
62 pages, 28 photographs