Reconstruction efforts in municipalities severely affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami are bringing significant changes to districts such as Shizugawa in Minami-Sanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, and the lives of residents.
At around 6 p.m., Shizugawa was shrouded in darkness and there was hardly a soul in sight when Shinichi Sato, 54, was closing his photo business Saryo Studio in the center of the town.
Minami-Sanriku was hit by waves more than 23 meters high that left 831 people in the town dead or missing.
The municipality decided that there would be no residential properties in the center of the reconstructed town because it wanted there to be a separation between commercial and residential districts as part of safety measures. Residents were asked to move to higher ground on mountain land that has been leveled.
Most shops in the town are now concentrated in the Minamisanriku San San Shopping Village, which opened in 2017. The place where Sato once lived and worked is now below ground level as the center of the town has been elevated by 8-12 meters.
Sato has been commuting between his home on high ground and his photo studio in the shopping village for the past two and a half years.
Even though the journey only takes 5 minutes by car, he said he never imagined he would have to commute to work.
Sato said he felt a strong tremor on March 11, 2011, and immediately headed for an elementary school on high ground. He saw his hometown swallowed by the tsunami through the lens of a camera.
Since then, he has been shooting photos from the same locations because he feels that he has a role to play in documenting the reconstruction of the town as a survivor of the disaster.
Sato has lined the walls of his studio with photographs taken on the day of the disaster and throughout the area's reconstruction that he uses when speaking to tourists about the situation in the town.
"It feels strange, but this is what Shizugawa is now," Sato said.
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