he ghosts of Ishinomaki: space, hauntings, and the materialized absences of disaster

Abstract

19 I visited the northern prefecture of Miyagi, in the Tohoku region of Japan for the first time in 2016. On a hot summer day, I stopped for dinner in the city of Ishinomaki. I was coming from nearby Ogatsu, where, together with another researcher, I interviewed an American artist that transformed tsunami debris into art. Passing through the city centre on our way to the central station, I thought something looked eerie, out of place, but I couldn’t put my fingers on it. The day after, I talked about it with a Japanese colleague, who did extensive research in Ishinomaki.