a rememberance

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On the way to my job at Otaki's combined elementary/junior high school I stopped to take a shot of this buckwheat (soba) field. It was a beautiful morning.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the nagano-seibu-jishin 長野西部地震--Western Nagano Earthquake. The magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck at 8:48 AM on the morning of September 14th, 1984. The epicenter was located about 5 kilometers from the center of Otaki village. The jolt caused a section of earth from Mt. Ontake's southeastern slope to dislodge and it roared down the mountain and into the Otaki Valley at a ferocious pace. 29 people lost their lives in the quake.




This morning, at 8:48 AM
a siren rang out in the village
and we all hung our heads in
silence to remember the dead.







On the southeastern slope of Mt. Ontake, a mountain that is beloved and revered by village residents, there remains an enormous wound of crumbling rock, which serves as a reminder of the unpredictible power of the natural world.


As the siren rang this morning I thought of the dead, of nature's power, and of all the beautiful wonders that there are.

Comments

Taintus said…
Otaki homepage's blog post about memorial events for the Western Nagano Earthquake (in Japanese) http://blog.livedoor.jp/otaki_maki/archives/50525474.html
September 14, 2009 at 2:29 AM
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