Photo Assortment Opens a Window on the Past

Seventy-Year-Old Photos Return Home

In 1955–57, the folklore photographer Haga Hideo (1921–2022) spent a complete of 182 days on the Amami islands, retaining a photographic report of surveys carried out by the Federation of Nine Learned Societies, a cross-disciplinary physique of students. Over the research’s three years, he shot over 500 rolls of movie, producing almost 20,000 images of the islands’ folklore, faith, language, conventional leisure and different themes, quickly after the islands’ reversion to Japanese rule in 1953.

Fast-forward to the current day. Haga’s movie had begun to deteriorate with age, and his son Hinata, who heads the Haga Library, a group of over 300,000 images taken by his father, started changing them into digital format in collaboration with Nippon.com. The digitalization undertaking was accomplished in July 2025 and the gathering was donated to the Amami Museum. Beginning in October that 12 months, the Nankai Nichinichi Shimbun, a neighborhood newspaper, ran a sequence of articles that includes the images, introducing scenes from way back to its readers.

Yomigaeru shima no fūkei (Island Scenes Brought Back to Life), the sequence of articles presenting postwar life by Haga Hideo’s images. (© Nankai Nichinichi Shimbun)

At prime, Haga Hinata (at proper) presents the digital picture knowledge to an Amami municipal consultant; beneath, Okinoerabujima residents welcome the picture assortment again house. (© Nippon.com)

The Haga Library additionally donated a neighborhood assortment that includes quite a few images taken within the cities of Uken on the island of Amami Ōshima and Wadomari and China on close by Okinoerabujima. Town authorities in Yoron, which had realized of the gathering within the meantime, later obtained images as properly.

In reality, starting in 2020, the Yoron Board of Education had initiated a drive to gather photographic supplies on Yoronjima’s historical past and tradition. This was the Yunnu Photo Archive depicting nature and the native lifestyle, led by Okinawa’s University of the Ryūkyūs, the National Museum of Japanese History in Chiba Prefecture, and a neighborhood nonprofit group.

The picture exhibition on Yoronjima. (Courtesy Yoron Board of Education)

Photos taken by Haga Hideo, together with a few of the former Yoron Castle, had been featured within the Yunnu Photo Archive in February 2026. Board of Education curator Minami Yūsuke was enthusiastic about Haga’s images, which clearly confirmed how a cliffside had been labored into the citadel’s ramparts. The images, which had been additionally included in a pamphlet in regards to the citadel, are a beneficial useful resource for learning the remnants of the construction, which was designated a nationwide historic website in 2025.

Yoron Castle, the most important such construction after these on the principle island of Okinawa, was erected within the early fifteenth century. It was solely in existence for a decade or so; little is understood about its look on the time, and analysis on the citadel continues.

Remnants of Yoron Castle photographed 70 years in the past. As a part of the Federation of Nine Learned Societies’ research, Haga additionally photographed archaeological websites. (© Haga Hideo)

Looking west from the heights above the previous citadel. (© Haga Hideo)

Peace Is Precious

On Okinoerabujima, the picture exhibit traveled to seven locales featured within the images. In Wadomari, the black-and-white images, colorized utilizing generative AI, had been proven alongside present-day pictures of the identical places, stimulating vivid recollections of instances previous amongst older residents.

Said one 80-year-old customer: “The photos took me back to my childhood days as though it was yesterday. It all brought tears to my eyes.” Reminiscing about days way back, a youthful customer expressed nostalgia, saying “Life was hard in those days, for sure, but the people are all smiles, and their happiness spills over to me. I also enjoyed searching the photos to identify people I know.”

Visitors of all ages perused the images and supplies on the exhibition. (Courtesy Wadomari Board of Education)

At two venues in China, aged girls chatted with kids, telling tales about what life was like then, for instance, going to underground caves to gather spring water. The 90-year-old storyteller Murata Hiroko stated “Nowadays, we have all sorts of modern conveniences, but after the war, there wasn’t enough food, we had nowhere to live, and we could barely clothe ourselves. I hope that telling children what life was like then will make them realize just how grateful we should all be for the peace we have today.”

Left: Women bearing buckets on their heads ascend the stone stairs out of the pitch-dark Sumiyoshi Kuragō limestone cave. Right: Wanjo, one of many island’s spring-fed ponds. In the times earlier than piped-in water, springs like these had been the islanders’ supply of water. (© Haga Hideo)

Middle-schooler Ichiki Yūha stated that Murata-san’s point out of meals shortages had made a powerful impression on her. “In the past, there were no school lunches. I heard from her that some children had just a few bites of sweet potato to eat for lunch, while others, with nothing to eat, played in the schoolyard at lunchtime to distract themselves from hunger. I’m really grateful for the plenty that we have today.”

An aged lady describes the images to kids within the Sumiyoshi district of China. (© Sakae Makiko)

Students intently study the images at China Junior High School. (© Sakae Makiko)

Photos Bring Back the Past

On Okinoerabujima, rice cultivation has virtually disappeared, and folks customs similar to ceremonies led by yuta priestesses, prevalent when the images had been taken 70 years in the past, have largely died out. Local historian Sakida Mitsunobu, now 83 years of age, wrote a lot of the captions to the images. Providing particulars that solely the oldest residents would know, he strove to create captions that might stimulate viewers’ imaginations. “You can almost hear people’s conversations and laughter. I tried hard to bring that to life, so that exhibition visitors would be aware of the value of this record.”

Sakida Mitsunobu, who was acquainted with the late Haga Hideo. (© Sakae Makiko)

Left: Stick-on labels determine a few of the folks on this picture (courtesy Wadomari Board of Education). Right: Visitors had been additionally an excellent supply of data (© Sakae Makiko).

To complement exhibition guides’ explanations, guests had been invited to attempt to determine the people within the images with stick-on labels. Ijichi Hirohito, a employees member on the Wadomari Folk History Museum, stated: “Seeing names helps stimulate visitors’ memories. Some will recall the name of shops or certain locations in the photos. There was even one woman who came forward to say that she was the bride in a wedding ceremony photo.”

Morita Taiki, an enhancing employees member of China’s group newspaper, had this to say about Haga’s work: “His photos clearly convey scenes and ceremonies that are difficult to describe in words. We intend to use those in our publication.”

Clockwise from higher left: a yāmin betrothal ceremony, newlyweds, and a crowd attending the celebratory event. (© Haga Hideo)

Photos Help Preserve a Dying Language

Wadomari Board of Education staffer Futori Takeshi says that the exhibition’s captions facilitate the images’ utility for academic functions. Many guests expressed curiosity in having a personally accessible assortment, so plans are within the works to compile a photograph album. The assortment will even be proven in different components of Japan in order that former islanders can view them, and Futori hopes that this will likely be a chance for them to dig out previous images of island life that could be of their possession.

Furthermore, the gathering might contribute to actions for preserving the native Okinoerabujima tongue. During Japan’s speedy financial progress within the Fifties and Sixties, use of the language, known as shimamuni, was discouraged, and it fell into disuse. Shimamuni is likely one of the Kunigami languages, which immediately are listed in UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. Tanaka Mihoko, who heads the Society for the Preservation of Shimamuni, dedicated to retaining the language alive, believes that seeing the images helps folks recall the tongue and the tales they heard in it a long time in the past. “I hope that seniors will talk among themselves as they view the photos, and recollect this lost language.”

Tanaka Mihoko hopes to assist move on shimamuni, an endangered native language. (© Sakae Makiko)

A storyteller shares mungatai folks tales on Okinoerabujima. The tales have been recorded in writing, however successors to the oral custom depend on reminiscence to breed the storyteller’s intonation and accent. (© Haga Hideo)

In 2017, the nationwide authorities designated Amami Ōshima an ”environment- and culture-focused” nationwide park, in recognition of each the islands’ biodiversity, which ranges from subtropical evergreen broadleaf forests to coral reefs, and the each day life and conventional tradition coexisting with that setting. Amami Ōshima and Tokunoshima had been inscribed on the UNESCO Natural World Heritage listing in July 2021, bringing renewed consideration to the islands. The Amami Museum is planning to exhibit Haga’s picture assortment in 2026, a welcome alternative to introduce the islands’ tradition to guests from different components of the nation. Across the passage of time and distance, images of life on the Amami islands 70 years in the past depict the character and tradition that the islanders have lengthy prized and guarded.

Islanders study images from the Nine Learned Societies’ research in 1957. Cameras had been uncommon on the time, and the images had been an occasion in themselves. (© Haga Hideo)

(Originally printed in Japanese. Reporting and textual content by Sakae Makiko of Nankai Nichinichi Shimbun. Banner picture: A senior citizen explains what life was like within the Fifties, throughout the picture exhibition at China Junior High School. © Sakae Makiko.)