Illuminating a Vanishing Way of Life
Sneak Preview Screening: "Revolving Lanterns (Soumatou)"
followed by a Q&A with director Itaru Matsui and landscape designer Yoshihiro Yabe
Tuesday, December 8 at 6:00 pm
In Japanese with English subtitles Japan 2026 113 minutes
Directed by: Itaru Matsui
Produced by: Charlotte Cook
Music by: Tomoo Nagai
Featuring: Yoshihiro Yabe, Sachiko Yabe, Sakako Ogura, Yuako Ogura, Kazuichi Miyazawa,
Yasuko Miyazawa, Tami Yabe, Atsuko Ishii, Takatoshi Araumi, Ryuichi Yabe, Tomino Sanpei
Film courtesy of Ritornello Films
What does it mean to belong to a place in which time stands still, and what happens when that place is on the verge of vanishing? In "Revolving Lanterns," filmmaker Itaru Matsui travels to Okugawa, a mountain community nestled in the mountains of Nishi-Aizu, Fukushima, where decades of depopulation have left only 500 mostly elderly residents. Isolated as they are, there is something lively and timeless about them.
Matsui's hypnotically cinematic documentary illuminates the daily activities, memories and rituals of people who are determined to remain in the landscape their families have inhabited for generations.
At the center of this intimate portrait-although he is rarely seen-is landscape designer Yoshihiro Yabe, who returned to his hometown after the Fukushima nuclear disaster made it impossible for him to stay away. His late grandmother had urged him not to sell the family land, even as she acknowledged how difficult it would be to make a living there. Outside Yabe's ancestral home in Okugawa is a century-old cherry tree that his grandmother cherished, connecting the living with those who came before them. "There are voices," says Yabe, "if you listen for them."
As villagers gather wild plants, tend to their homes and rice fields, honor the mountain kami and maintain seasonal festivals, Matsui discovers a community in which the dead remain part of everyday life. For residents who speak without hesitation of wanting to die where they were born, the mountain landscape is more than just a beautiful setting: it is a shared repository of ancestry and memory.
The film's soundscape is equally rooted in Nishi-Aizu. Composer and percussionist Tomoo Nagai created the enchanting music from local materials and everyday objects, including paulownia wood, shrine stones, bamboo and disused farm tools. The result complements Matsui's patient observation of a rapidly vanishing way of life.
Please join us for this sneak preview of the contemplative, entrancing "Revolving Lanterns," before its Japan release on December 12.
For more in Japanese and English: https://www.soumatou.jp/
ITARU MATSUI makes films exploring the relationships among people, their surroundings and moving images. His documentary "Only I Can Hear" (2022), about hearing children of Deaf parents, screened at international festivals and across Japan. His work has received recognition at Hot Docs, Doc Edge and from Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. In 2025 he published "Next Folktales," a book examining moving images as a form of lived experience. His 2026 documentary "Revolving Lanterns" premiered in the Wide Angle documentary competition, Busan International Film Festival.
YOSHIHIRO YABE was born in Nishi-Aizu and worked in landscape design in Tokyo, Canada and Shanghai before returning to his hometown in 2012 with his family. They moved into a 360-year-old traditional house with his grandfather, who had been living alone, and he has since applied his professional experience to community revitalization initiatives, including the Okugawa Community Development Council. His return home and relationship with the village are central to "Revolving Lanterns."
Please make your reservations at the FCCJ Reception Desk 03 3211-3161 or register online.
All film screenings are private, noncommercial events primarily for FCCJ members and their guests.
- Karen Severns, Film Committee