A photograph can bring the past back to life.

Even if it’s black and white, the picture is in vivid color in the viewer’s mind, where the image becomes animated, so to speak, as if enkindled.

Has anyone experienced this strange power of photos?

The Yodo Line of the JR Shikoku Railway runs in the mountains of Ehime and Kochi prefectures.

I got off the train at Chikanaga station and took a narrow street in front of me. I soon arrived at a photo shop on a small shopping street.

Chikanaga Camera, as the shop is called, had many old pictures on display at the shopfront. All of them had been brought by neighborhood residents.

“Every one of these pictures tells an old story, and I am delighted to hear it from my neighbors,” said Tsugiko Kagajo, 64, the owner.

One photo showed a young man carrying a “mikoshi” portable shrine. In another, parents wore big smiles as they rooted for their children at a school baseball match.

And there was a picture of a bare-footed little girl, sitting on a pile of straw, her face all wrinkled from a huge grin that seems to be rippling throughout her body. What could have amused her so much?

The neighborhood used to be filled with people. But Kagajo observed, “A big road was built and life became more convenient, but that changed the fabric of our community.”

The Yodo Line on March 1 marked the 50th anniversary of the opening of the entire line.

Unfortunately, however, this is one of the nation’s numerous deficit-ridden railway lines.

A revenue of 100 yen requires an expenditure of 1,718 yen. But the locals are pushing for its continuation.

Local towns are shrinking inexorably. Shinkansen lines may keep expanding, but there is no stopping local trains from going obsolete, one after another.

Somewhere along the way, we must have made a mistake and started going in the wrong direction.

Looking at pictures of smiling faces, I became lost for a while in glum, silent contemplation.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 2

* *

Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.