Photographer Motonori Shimizu is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this social documentary photography. These images are from his project ‘Marginal Lives‘. To see Motonori’s gallery click on any image.
The ‘Marginal Villages’ In Japan are villages that had experienced depopulation. The majority of the remaining residents are over the age of 65 and the villages are in danger of disappearing. As I visited, I grow fascinated by these elderly people that accept everything around them, love their land, and live there gladly.
This station is famous for railway enthusiasts as ‘the secluded station that can only be reached by train’. Only a few people use the station a day including onlookers and a mail person.
Boats are essential to the life of residents.
The shopkeeper told her guests.
‘We used to get what we need from the other side of the river by the manually operated cable system, but my husband got sick and now does not have any strength to operate it.’
‘My husband says, “I don’t want to leave.”, so we are still here’
She tells the moving story with a smile.
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By Motonori Shimizu