This Japanese town is populated almost entirely by creepy dolls

The tiny village of Nagoro on Shikoku, Japan, used to be home to a large company and hundreds of people. Now, there are only 37 inhabitants — or at least, only 37 living inhabitants. Nagoro is also home to scores of life-size stuffed dolls made by 64-year-old Ayano Tsukimi. Tsukimi sews and dresses the dolls and positions them around town to replace her neighbors who have moved away or died.
Tsukimi started her doll project about 10 years ago, after she moved back to her hometown from Osaka. She says she's made about 350 dolls in that time, though they only last about three years before they need to be replaced. There are now many times more dolls than humans living in Nagoro, and Tsukimi wryly imagines a future where she's outlived all her neighbors and only dolls remain.
The first doll, intended to be used as a scarecrow, was made in the image of Tsukimi's father.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Others commemorate Nagoro residents, from children to old people.
There's even a doll made to look like Tsukimi herself.
The dolls enjoy leisure activities.
Sometimes they canoodle.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
But they also work hard and study.
Tsukimi acknowledges that some people may find the dolls unsettling.
But she's more interested in drawing people to the Iya Valley, where Nagoro is located, than the Uncanny Valley. She hopes the dolls might attract tourists who want to take pictures.
This article, by Jess Zimmerman, originally appeared at GlobalPost.
More from GlobalPost...
-
Book reviews: ‘Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America’ and ‘How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978–1998’
Feature A political ‘witch hunt’ and Helen Garner’s journal entries
By The Week US Published
-
The backlash against ChatGPT's Studio Ghibli filter
The Explainer The studio's charming style has become part of a nebulous social media trend
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
Why are student loan borrowers falling behind on payments?
Today's Big Question Delinquencies surge as the Trump administration upends the program
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published