In the ruins of a historic market, a Japanese artisan looks for his cats
- Artisan Kohei Kirimoto puts out food and water not only for his three missing cats, but also for the community felines living in Wajima’s Asaichi morning market
- The cats had helped ease the toll Covid-19 had taken on Wajima, and Kirimoto says he wants to find them and help them ‘get back to their daily existence’
Kohei Kirimoto, an eighth-generation lacquerware artisan, walked through the ruins of his century-old workshop in the Japanese coastal town of Wajima on Thursday, concerned only for his missing cats.
The workship, renowned worldwide for its traditional lacquerware, lay in a smouldering heap following the New Year’s Day earthquake and subsequent fire that engulfed it.
Kirimoto put out food and water not just for the three cats that lived in what had been his home and workspace, but also for the dozens of community felines that lived in Wajima’s “Asaichi” morning market, famed for its winding rows of stalls of seafood, snacks and craftworks.
“The warmth of the people in this area and in the land was reflected in the everyday lives of the cats,” said Kirimoto, 31. “I want to help those cats that are hiding somewhere to get back to their daily existence.”
Wajima was one of the hardest-hit communities when a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck central Japan on the afternoon of New Year’s Day, in what was the strongest temblor the country has seen since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Nearly 100 people have been confirmed dead and the search for survivors continues.
The quake hit the highest reading on Japan’s intensity scale, buckling roads and knocking down hundreds of buildings. But perhaps the biggest cultural loss was a massive fire that consumed most of the Asaichi market that dates back 1,000 years.
