Kamaishi

An old, disconnected black telephone stands in a telephone booth in the town of Otsuchi - about 20 minutes' drive from Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture. The phone has been visited by at least 25,000 people since the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, people who have come to convey their feelings to departed loved ones "through the wind."

The requests to see her perform had dwindled over the years. But when the earthquake struck at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, this city's last geisha was, fittingly, at home getting ready to sing that night at Kamaishi's 117-year-old ryotei, an exclusive restaurant featuring fine food and entertainment where she began working as a 14-year-old seven decades...

An old, disconnected black telephone stands in a telephone booth in the town of Otsuchi - about 20 minutes' drive from Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture. The phone has been visited by at least 25,000 people since the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, people who have come to convey their feelings to departed loved ones "through the wind."

The requests to see her perform had dwindled over the years. But when the earthquake struck at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, this city's last geisha was, fittingly, at home getting ready to sing that night at Kamaishi's 117-year-old ryotei, an exclusive restaurant featuring fine food and entertainment where she began working as a 14-year-old seven decades...