2011/4/22
Atsushi Sasaki, missing father of Mayumi Suzuki (Provided by Mayumi Suzuki)
Mayumi Suzuki takes photos of the new first-graders on Tuesday at Onagawa Daiichi Elementary School in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture. (Shinichi Iizuka)
The Sasaki Shashinkan photo studio in the Washinokamihama district in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, as it looked after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The tiled building in the foreground, used for the darkroom, withstood the disaster. (Eitaro Takeyama)
Just as her father used to, photographer Mayumi Suzuki told the new first-graders to smile for the camera Tuesday at the welcoming ceremony at Onagawa Daiichi Elementary School in tsunami-devastated Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture.
"Put your hands on your laps. Smile. Three, two, one, go!"
It was the first time Suzuki, 33, had taken the commemorative group photo at the special occasion.
Her father, Atsushi Sasaki, operator of Sasaki Shashinkan photo studio in Onagawa, had taken the photo of the new first-year pupils at the school for many years.
But Sasaki has been missing since the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 and Suzuki, his second daughter, who now lives in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, returned to her hometown to fill in for him.
"I am here in place of my father. I hope I can help revitalize the town with my photos," Suzuki said.
Suzuki was raised in Onagawa and had also attended Onagawa Daiichi Elementary School. She later studied photography at a university in Tokyo, and works as a photographer, including taking portraits and snapshots at wedding ceremonies, mainly in Tokyo and Sendai.
Her grandfather had started the Sasaki Shashinkan photo studio, which was later taken over by her father. The family's studio building was swept away in the tsunami that followed the magnitude-9.0 earthquake. Both her father, 72, and mother Katsuko, 67, have been missing.
Her father was an award-winning portrait photographer, who was said to be able to instantly develop a rapport with anyone.
He would capture and record the lives of Onagawa citizens in his photos for the Shichi-Go-San festival to celebrate children's growth and Coming-of-Age Day.
Sasaki accompanied Suzuki's school trip as a photographer when she was in junior high school, she said.
On March 11, a tsunami estimated at more than 10 meters high engulfed Onagawa and swept away many houses. The town became isolated due to the resulting debris and devastation.
Suzuki tried hard to contact her parents but was unable to reach them. She returned to her hometown on March 28 for the first time since the earthquake and tsunami.
Even though the family's photo studio building had been destroyed, the tiled darkroom building withstood the disaster, and a light bulb in the room remained unbroken.
She said she was glad to see the darkroom had survived.
"It could have been protected by my father," she said.
Suzuki happened to find a photo album and brought it to a gym where many photos whose owners are unknown were on display.
"Here is a photo album of your family's," one attendant said, handing her an album with a blue cover.
It was a collection of portraits of 50 shipbuilders her father had taken about 20 years ago. He had invited the builders of a replica of the San Juan Bautista completed--the ship commissioned in 1613 by Sendai lord Date Masamune to send a mission to Rome to meet with the pope--to his studio and took black-and-white portraits of the men in suits.
Suzuki and her father developed the photos in the darkroom of her family's photo studio, which turned out to be the first and last joint effort between the two, she said.
Suzuki said she felt she received a message from her father through her encounters with his darkroom and his photo collection.
"I felt they were a message from my father that I should continue photography," she said.
She recalled what he had told her when she told him she was going to get married: "You don't have to come back to Onagawa to take over the family business. But I do want you to succeed in the art of photography."
"I am the third-generation owner of the Sasaki Shashinkan. I will continue taking black-and-white portraits, as my father did," Suzuki vowed, promising to continue taking photos of the children of Onagawa, while commuting from Kanagawa Prefecture.
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