Stories about people.

Stories about life.

Hometown Stories

Here it is!

- Amazing!
- It's beautiful!

Welcome back!

Today, we look at some families who have enshrined memories of their late loved ones in pearls.

Watch us do this, Dad.

They put the ashes of these loved ones into shellfish to grow into pearls in the sea.

I wish I could see him. I never thought he'd be gone so soon.

My daughter's death was unbearably painful and upsetting.

I just had to do something.

The families wait around six months for a reunion.

And then...

Our destination is Ago Bay, in Mie prefecture, central Japan.

With its calm waters and mild climate, the area has long prospered as a center of pearl farming.

Tanaka Hideki cultures pearls for families that have lost loved ones.

Today, he's with a local pearl farmer, selecting the healthy shellfish needed for pearl culturing.

Some died earlier this year.
These are healthy for now.

- The tips are sticking out.
- Yes, that means they're healthy.

He begins the pearl-making process in April.

First, he creates the nuclei that grow into pearls.

It's a mixture of clay and ashes.

To make these nuclei, Hideki rolls the mixture into tiny balls.

They are inserted into pearl oysters in the sea.

They get covered with a shiny coating and turn into pearls.

This is the first stage in pearl-making. I hope they'll return as pearls.

These are precious.

In June, Hideki gets a visit from a family.

See the round buoys? There are nets of oysters hanging there.

Kawai Kazuo lost his daughter a year ago.

The sea is so calm.

Kazuo's daughter, Tomoyo, fell ill after getting a COVID-19 vaccination.

She passed away 12 days later.

She lost consciousness while recuperating at home, and was taken to a hospital.

She died soon after.

The doctor said it was too late. I wailed and wailed.

Her death was so sudden and painful. It was unbearable.

She was our only child. Our princess.

Tomoyo loved her parents.

Since she was small, the three of them would regularly take trips together.

Even as an adult, she would take time off work to vacation with them.

Kazuo likes to unwind with a drink, so Tomoyo would make him presents of his favorite whiskies.

She was a loving daughter.

Tomoyo was never any trouble. She was a good daughter to us.

After she was gone, nothing mattered to me anymore.

Sometimes I feel I no longer care what happens to me.

Time did nothing to heal Kazuo's pain.

As a last resort, he turned to pearls.

We can look at her in photos. But part of her will be in the pearls .

Maybe they'll give me some relief. I have to keep busy, doing something.

Kazuo inserts the nuclei containing Tomoyo's ashes in the pearl oysters himself.

I wonder if it'll go in there. This is difficult.

Watch this again.

- You put the nucleus here.
- I see.

You make a tiny incision in the flesh of the oyster, and insert the nucleus.

You have to be quick or the shellfish will die.

Kazuo has only a brief moment to put the nucleus in, along with his love for his daughter.

It's really difficult.

Press on that a little.

Please go in... Yes, it's in! Is this good?

Tomoyo's ashes have been implanted in more than 100 oysters.

At most, only about 20 percent of the nuclei will turn into pearls.

- Let's hope the oysters work hard.
- The rest is up to them.

Hideki started culturing pearls for bereaved families.

It began with his own painful memories.

He married Yumiko when he was 38 years old.

Five years later, they had a daughter.

But the baby was born with a low birth weight, and passed away ten days later.

Yumiko showed signs of depression.

But Hideki says he didn't know what to do for her.

She'd often rush out of the house. What was I supposed to do?

Maybe I should've just cried with her. But that wouldn't have solved anything.

Hideki's job was related to funerals.

He wanted to find a way for people to keep their late loved ones close and pray for them,

rather than just committing their ashes to a grave.

While testing out different ideas, he learned about pearl farming in Ago Bay, and decided to try it using his daughter's ashes.

I held her in my arms only once, right before she passed away.

When she came back as pearls, I was happy to hold her in my palms.

I felt she'd finally returned in a physical form.

Pearl oysters have such amazing power. Our daughter was reborn deep in the sea.

Hideki has been culturing "pearls of the deceased" since 2018.

With his help, about 80 families have made pearls of their loved ones.

See the little bits?

These are pieces of bone.

Members of another family have arrived from Tokyo.

Kaneko Kazuko, who lost her husband five months earlier, is there with her daughter, Asuho.

- Watch us do this, Dad.
- Put your thoughts into it.

Kazuko's husband, Takashi, was hospitalized with COVID-19.

He passed away four days later.

No visits were allowed—not even from close family.

They got to see him for only 20 minutes right before he died.

They couldn't even touch him, because of the protective clothing they had to wear.

He was 61, with years ahead of him. I wanted us to do lots of fun things.

I'd be bent with age and tell him, "Let's go to that supermarket today."

I'd picture us doing things like that.

But he passed away so soon. We never got to do those things.

Soon after he reached retirement age and left his job, he and Kazuko had been planning a family trip.

She still can't bring herself to put his remains in a grave.

If there's something I could wear that's part of him...

I could talk to it, and do all kinds of things.

I wonder how many pearls we'll get. What if it's only one?

- Then it'd be mine.
- What?!

Right? It'd be mine, no?

It takes 6 months to culture pearls.

Families wait for them to grow.

Some rivers in Mie and two nearby prefectures are in danger of flooding.

When a typhoon came, I was worried the oysters might get washed away.

Back in Tokyo, the two can't stop thinking about the pearls in Ago Bay.

My daughter says, "Dad loved the sea, so I expect he enjoyed it."

I figured I should think the same way.

I can't wait to see how many pearls we get.

If he was really having fun, there should be quite a few.

Keep at it, dear. Not much longer now.

I've been having a good time remembering a lot of things.

Hideki pulls up the oysters every week.

To help them grow, he removes seaweed and specks of dirts.

Kazuko comes to Ago Bay again, six months after her previous visit.

She's going to pull up the pearls containing Takashi's remains.

Wow. Amazing!

There's a lot of seaweed today.

It's like a bush.

Let's open them one by one.

Oh, I found one! Tada! It's beautiful.

I saw it right away.

- Look, Dad. It's so pretty.
- It's the first one.

Here.

- Find one, Kazuko?
- Not yet.

I can't find any, dear.

- Oh, here!
- Good job!

- Good for you. It's beautiful!
- I've found one, dear.

Some parts are sticking out.

I bet Dad threw them in for free.

He had a stubborn, eccentric side. So, maybe that's showing.

Don't you think so, dear?

These do look wonderful, though. See? They turned out pretty.

After we make a necklace, I'll wear it and show it to you.

I'm glad we did this.

Kazuo, who lost his daughter, Tomoyo, arrives with his family.

They're back to take out and greet their pearls.

- They've gotten bigger.
- Yes, they have.

If they're this big, I bet there are pearls in there.

Let's hope luck is on our side.

Father and daughter were like buddies.

They'd take trips together, just the two of them.

It's now been a year and a half since Tomoyo's sudden passing.

Here it is. I found one.

- It looks pretty.
- Yes, it is.

I'm glad I found one.

I found one first.

Ah, here's another one.

- It's beautiful.
- Here she is.

How should I put it? It's like my daughter is back as a pretty girl.

The pearls are so beautiful. I didn't end up crying while doing this.

Kazuo wants to have a pearl brooch made.

These pearls have a nice round shape. Maybe that reflects her character.

Usually, the shapes vary. You often get pointy pearls.

I see... The colors are very different.

Altogether, Kazuo and his family were able to extract 21 pearls.

I'm glad.

The number is 21.

That's our daughter's birthday.

Oh my...

From now on, the pearls will be with them.

Hello!

Kazuko visits her grandchildren.

Here. You can see it! Try picking it up.

When you miss Grandpa, you can talk to these pearls.

Thank you, Grandpa.

Kazuo heads to his daughter's favorite park.

I feel she's always with me. That's probably easing the pain.

But I still have a long way to go.

I just remembered a good thing that happened recently.

About 2 days after that day, I dreamed of my daughter.

It was the first time she had appeared in my dream since she died.

For a split second, she smiled at me, with this big grin.

I'll just have to keep living my life to the fullest.