Reviving Rural Memory: The Nakatsugawa Photographic Archive
The Nakatsugawa Village Photographic Archive Project preserves and reinterprets early 20th-century photographs taken by Ito Jintarō, documenting everyday rural life in Yamagata during the Taishō period. Rediscovered by chance and digitally restored, the images are contextualized through oral histories with local elders and shared via postcard series and online media, transforming a near-forgotten attic collection into a living community archive.
2020-2022
Heritage Documentation
Nakatsugawa Postcard History Project
Heritage documentation
In Nakatsugawa, a small mountain village in Yamagata, a remarkable set of photographs resurfaced by chance. During the Taishō period, Ito Jintarō was given a camera by a visitor from Tokyo and began documenting everyday life in the village. Without proper equipment, he improvised a darkroom by pulling a futon over his head and developed the photographs himself.
Decades later, his grandson Ito Katsuaki (b. 1960) discovered the prints while cleaning the family attic. He initially thought little of them and considered discarding them. They survived only because a Tokyo photographer—who frequently visited Katsuaki’s farmhouse B&B—recognized their historical value. With his encouragement, the photographs were digitally revived in his studio and later exhibited, quickly becoming a source of pride and fascination for the local community.
While the exhibitions resonated deeply with the locals, the need arose to preserve and share the stories behind the images in a more lasting and accessible form. In agreement with Ito Katsuaki, twelve photographs were selected and produced as a series of monthly postcards. Each postcard included a QR code linking to a blog post about village life in that specific month in the past. To write these stories, I conducted interviews with elderly residents, gathering memories and reflections that contextualized the photographs within lived history.
The postcards circulated locally and were also given as souvenirs to customers of the village’s online store, blending analogue mementos with digital storytelling. Through this project, what was nearly lost in an attic became a living archive—connecting the village’s past with its present community and broader audiences.
👉 Please check out the complete set of articles here.
This project was carried out while working with Fulford Enterprises and was funded by ZNK (Zenkoku Nōgyō Kyōgikai) and Furusato Zaidan.