ASAHI SHIMBUN
Calligrapher Kyoko Hirano draws the characters for “family gathering” and other phrases on the floor of her parents’ home, which was washed away by the March 11 tsunami, in Minami-Sanriku’s Shizugawa district, Miyagi Prefecture. PHOTO/Yasuhiro Sugimoto
MINAMI-SANRIKU, Miyagi Prefecture–Tokyo-based calligrapher Kyoko Hirano was aghast when she saw the destruction wrought by the March 11 disaster. The tsunami swept away her home.
But instead of giving in to the overwhelming sense of loss, she decided to use the foundation of what remained of the house as a canvas for creativity.
Hirano, 34, took ink and brush and wrote the kanji characters for “dansho” (pleasant chatter) and “danran” (a family gathering) on the floor of what had been her parents’ home in the Shizugawa district of this city.
The calligrapher allowed her brush strokes to fade out in a way that expresses her sorrow for the loss of her family’s ordinary life. All her family members escaped safely, she added.
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