Memorial Ruins of 2011 Tohoku Earthquake in Rikuzentakata

Memorial Ruins of 2011 Tohoku Earthquake in Rikuzentakata is a photobook by Naoya Hatakeyama. In summer 2020, at the request of the city hall of his hometown, Rikuzentakata, he photographed four buildings that are being kept as memorials of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Published by Akaaka Art Publishing in 2022.

The story behind the book

The four ruins are the former Takata-Matsubara roadside station, once visited by about 400,000 people a year; Kesen Junior High School, Hatakeyama's own school; a youth hostel where he had friends stay; and a housing block for young families. Ten years after the disaster, their interiors were still packed with mud. They were also, by chance, buildings where no one died.

The city plans to restore them for public viewing. These photographs record the interiors before that work, and the book offers them as a record for a long span of time, a door between people's awareness and memory.

What is in the book

• Photographs of four disaster ruins in Rikuzentakata, shot with a digital camera in 2020
• 160 pages, softcover; text in Japanese and English

About Naoya Hatakeyama

Naoya Hatakeyama is a Japanese photographer from Rikuzentakata, Iwate. His other books on his hometown include Rikuzentakata 2011-2014.