The Island of Lost World

In the summer of 2011, I visited Yururi Island off the Nemuro Peninsula for the first time. What I saw was a landscape deeply reminiscent of the vanishing nature of Nemuro, and traces of the history of the area, which flourished as a kelp fishing and horse-producing site. They were buried in the dense fog, forgotten, and illuminated me like a setting sun quietly sinking into the sea. Capturing those lingering lights in a photograph was the first dialogue with the “things disappearing.” The island’s horses will disappear…. And the island’s existence will be forgotten…. That summer, I was standing alone in the meadow in the afterglow of the sun setting down.

The dialogue with the “things disappearing” has continued in silence. The seasons passed over the island quietly, and I spent some of that time with the horses. The wildflowers drop their leaves as the island’s sea fog fades into the grasslands. The horses begin to prepare for winter by putting on their winter coats. Soon, the island’s sky was covered with snow, the faded grass was painted white, and the stars began to illuminate the snowy fields. The horses cuddle together under the light, and sleep standing still, quietly, on the snow where they stopped for the last time of the day. And as the huge icicles covering the island’s cliffs gradually melt and the sea birds begin to sing there, another sea fog season comes to the island. The seasons pass over the island quietly. And the herds of horses emerging from the fog diminish in number as the years go by, and eventually, they are no longer “herds” at all.

Without being asked to do so by anyone, I commuted to the island alone from my base in Tokyo, and more than ten years have passed since then. The time I spent facing the “things disappearing” was painful, but when I look back on what I have seen, it is fragile, delicate, and yet beautiful. It felt like a sanctuary accidentally born, left behind, and remaining in the sea in the far north. I will never forget the summer day when I wandered alone in the dense fog looking for the horses, or the winter day when I walked through the snowfield by moonlight and welcomed the dawn with the horses. Like an imaginary island drawn on a map, the island exists in memory. The horse lives on in the photograph. Everything becomes an illusion that cannot be traced. However, the island named “Yururi” in the remote sea still has a faint light in the dense fog.

Okada Atsushi

JRA賞馬事文化賞受賞

書籍『エピタフ 幻の島、ユルリの光跡』

住人ゼロ、上陸禁止、馬だけが暮らす現代のロスト・ワールド。木村伊兵衛賞写真家による“ユルリ島をめぐる冒険”の記録

初版発行 2023年６月11日

著者：岡田敦
構成：星野智之
デザイン：泉 美菜子（PINHOLE）
編集協力：田代綾香（岡田敦写真事務所）
発行：インプレス

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JRA Equine Cultural Award Winning Works

Epitaph - The Light Trail of Yururi

First Edition: June 11, 2023

Author: Okada Atsushi
Composition: Hoshino Tomoyuki
Design: Izumi Minako (PINHOLE)
Editorial Assistant: Tashiro Ayaka (Office Okada)
Publishing House: Impress Corporation

Amazon
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Attention

Yururi Island is a natural monument designated by Hokkaido, so landing other than academic research is prohibited.