There Are No Children Here. Just Lots of Life-Size Dolls.

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Ms. Ayano keeps a doll modeled after her grandmother in the passenger seat of her car. When driving the hour and a half to the grocery store, she said, “I’m never lonely.”

The day before the recreated sports festival at the old school, Ms. Ayano staged various scenes with the help of a group of college volunteers, as well as a few other villagers and her sister and brother-in-law, who had come from Kyushu in southern Japan.

Up until dark, Ms. Ayano meticulously stitched arms, hair and clothing into place. After an overnight rain, she was up before dawn, refreshing her work.

By the time the festival opened, the sun emerged. Residents set up food stalls serving soba noodles, fried potatoes and octopus balls.

Osamu Tsuzuki, 73, the owner of a local construction firm, gave a welcoming speech. “On behalf of staff, villagers and more than 300 dolls,” he said, “we have all been waiting for you.”

A few children showed up from nearby towns or were visiting grandparents.

During a tug of war, people joined dolls whose hands Ms. Ayano had sewn to the rope. There were not enough human children, so competitors in their 80s gave it their all. After a footrace, Hiroyuki Yamamoto, 82, a resident of a nursing home down the mountain, stroked the cheek of a doll in one of the running lanes.

“She is so cute,” said Mr. Yamamoto, a retired road maintenance worker. “I wanted to talk to her.”

Kayoko Motokawa, 67, grandmother of a toddler who resembled a doll himself, said it was sad that Nagoro was now known for dolls rather than its people.



Source : Nytimes