My Identity 〜 Kumano Shrine in Onagawa

April 26, 2011

These photos were printed on the special issue of FOCUS released on April 13.  Climbing the stairs rising from behind the Onagawa-Cho Community Hospital, you arrive at Kumano Shrine where a panoramic view of the Onagawa bay can be seen.  The shrine, as if guarding the town, is a massive structure that fishermen on boats in the sea can spot far away. It’s a symbol of the town.  As a child, this is where I used to take a walk with my grandparents and where my entire family would visit every year on the New Year day to pray for happiness and good health through the year.

This is one of the photos taken by my father who brought his grandchildren living in Sendai to view the Onagawa bay together. As every family does in this town, my father, too, wanted to show” the beauty of Onagawa.”

I learned that just before taking this photo, my father had phoned my mother asking her to stand in front of the house and wave and that mother had came out with a white towel and wave it vigorously so the kids could see.  

Looking at this photo now, this tiny coast town with a population of 10,000 seems to me like a beautiful jewelry box.   Honestly, I had  recognized very little attachment to this town where I had spent my first 18 years, but deep down inside, I always liked Onagawa; the smell of ocean, the, to strangers, undecipherable zu-zu-dialect, the laughter of middle age female workers at sea food processing factories, whitebaits being dried on the way to school (I would sneak the fish to eat when passing through.  Sorry! )

For the first time I have realized my love for the childhood town and my own identify that was based on Onagawa.  Without the 3/11 tsunami, I would never have come to realize my love for the town.   The disaster probably gave those who left Onagawa the chance to discover the town’s beauty.   


For that I want to thank the natural phenomenon called tsunami.

Though it was such a cruel trade-off…