Keiko Ogasawara and the Moshokom Theater Troupe

"To once again fill the town with smiles"

Ogasawara has loved the theater since high school, and wanted to try acting herself. She appeared on stage at the community theater in Kamaishi, and that experience drove her to create her own theater troupe.

Their play, Heikou Spiral, was themed around temporary housing, and portrayed the trials and tribulations of two sisters in the four years since the disaster as they struggled to move forward.

The troupe includes people directly affected by the disaster, as well as those who came in support. Therewas some debate within the troupe about the topic of temporary housing but after the performance many people told them to keep putting on plays about the disaster. Theater-goers encouraged them to perform not just on the coast, but also in the cities in the inlands, as well as outside of the prefecture.

“Theater is another way to rebuild the heart”

On reconstruction in the coastal region, Ms. Ogasawara says, “There are times where you go somewhere for the first time in a while and you think, ‘This place has changed.’ But I feel like we don’t know how we’re rebuilding the area, or what kind of place it’ll become. We don’t have the whole picture.”

“There are activities like ballet for mothers, amateur baseball, and choir, and I want people in Kamaishi to be more familiar with theater. I want Kamaishi to be a place that is able to show others about young people right now. The most important thing in reconstruction is for the people here to feel a drive to keep moving forward. I think the activities of our theater troupe are a way to rebuild people’s hearts.”

Many people are putting their hopes towards arts and culture in rebuilding the coast of Iwate.

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Originally from Tonicho, Kamaishi.

After graduating from Kozukata Senior High School, Ogasawara went to Tokyo for work. She returned to Kamaishi when she was 20.

In February 2015, she formed a theater troupe called Moshokom in Kamaishi while being employed as an office worker. They held their first big performance on March 29 and filled the theater with their youthful passion.