Rising from the Tsunami

In March 2011, the east coast of Japan was hit by a tsunami that claimed the lives of more than 15,000 people and caused vast devastation. A trip along coastal communities, ending on Mount Osore—where in the Buddhist tradition the dead souls find sanctuary—reveals how traumatizing the disaster has been, and how people are dealing with it.

Many residents have lost loved ones. They exchange stories about the spirits of the dead, who visit the living in their dreams, or are said to have been seen on a bridge or near a tree that miraculously survived the tsunami. Years after the disaster, some residents still don’t know where they will be relocated to. Meanwhile, work is underway on the construction of new dikes and huge concrete breakwaters that block the view of the sea.

Fairylike jellyfish are superimposed over images of a man in a dark forest, like transparent ghosts. We witness a small community marked by sadness, where the dead still have a powerful presence.