Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a daily column that runs on Page 1 of The Asahi Shimbun.
June 6, 2023 at 13:31 JST
“Rebirth,” a monumental tour de force by Manabu Ikeda, is an intriguing work of art.
Viewed from a distance, it shows a massive flowering tree in full bloom with enormous waves crashing nearby. However, a closer scrutiny reveals an aggregation of myriad objects drawn with a fine-point pen.
Among them are train cars of Sanriku Railway Co., flexible container bags filled with radiation-contaminated soil, and hands joined together in prayer.
They all symbolize the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011 and the tsunami it triggered, and the artist obviously tried to draw as many such motifs as he could.
The work took Ikeda over three years to complete. He saw hope for the future in the “process of rebirth of this colossal tree spreading its roots after being almost uprooted by the quake.”
Post-disaster rebirth happens not only to trees but also in the hearts of survivors and their communities. Their new lives take root, like trees that naturally turn to light.
And that seemed to be the promise implied by every seedling at a tree-planting ceremony that took place on June 4 in the city of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture. With the emperor and the empress attending, seedlings of the prefectural tree, Nanbu Akamatsu (pinus densiflora), were planted.
Abutting the ceremony site, there stood “Kiseki no Ipponmatsu” (The Miracle Pine Tree), the only tree in the Takata Matsubara pine forest that survived the 2011 quake and tsunami. It brought encouragement to countless people at the time.
At the foot of this living monument to the catastrophe, 40,000 young pine trees are now growing.
Planted by volunteers and members of a local NPO committed to protecting the Takata Matsubara pine forest, the trees are said to have grown taller than Yoshihisa Suzuki, 78, the NPO director.
However, I understand it will be another 50 years before the scenic pine forest on the white-sand beach regains its former glory.
“Fifty years from now, I want to be the wind blowing in the sky, looking at the reborn pine forest,” Suzuki said of his dream.
I won’t be living in this world, either. I think I’d like to be a bird, riding the wind with Suzuki and admiring the forest.
--The Asahi Shimbun, June 5
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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
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In front of “Kiseki no Ipponmatsu” (The Miracle Pine Tree) in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako are briefed about the status of the city’s reconstruction by Mayor Taku Sasaki. (Hiroyuki Yamamoto)
