



Meet 64-year-old Ayano Tsukimi from Nagoro—a small village in eastern Iya, Japan. Tsukimi passes her time by making life-size dolls in the likeness of the deceased from her village or of the people who have moved away. When the dolls are finished, Tsukimi strategically poses them “in places that were important to them.” Beyond just posing them in important places, she also creates and decorates their background settings.

Tsukimi is married, but her husband and daughter live away from her in Osaka. She lives with her 83-year-old father in her family’s house.





Here’s Tsukimi’s “Valley of the Dolls”:



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