Let Us Spend The Night In The Villages

In the village of Ichinono a tiny, depopulated rural Japanese village puppets outnumber humans; most of the sixty residents there are past their retirement age; the younger have moved out for education or employment; no child was born in village for the past twenty years or so; the puppets made by the residents but, make their life less lonely. He told her, 'Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside; let us spend the night among the wildflowers. Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vine has budded, if the blossom has opened, there I will give you my love.'* And to Rie Kato and Toshiki who moved there from Osaka, the first child was born in twenty years in Ichinono. Note: *Song of Solomon 7: 11