THE LANTERN OF LOST MEMORIES

The quiet story of a man who works in the staging area where people who have recently died spend time reflecting on their lives before moving on to the next stage.

Hirasaka works in a photo studio—one of many, he assumes—where his job is to await deliveries of one photo for every day of a person’s life; then, when that person appears, he helps them come to terms with the fact that they’ve just died. During their time in his studio, he treats them to whatever snacks and beverages were their favorites and gives them space to reflect on their life through photographs. Their job is to choose one picture from every year they were alive; once that task is done and Hirasaka has built a lantern to hold them all, the newly deceased will sit and watch it spin. If a photo looks faded, that means it’s a memory that has been revisited so often it has become worn with use. In those instances, Hirasaka and his guest can travel to the 24 hours of that day to retake the picture so it’s just as rich and vibrant as it was when the memory first formed. That picture is the last thing the person will see in the lantern as they head off to the next stage. The story is told in three richly drawn vignettes, each focusing on a different person being helped by Hirasaka. A bittersweet picture emerges of complicated people from different walks of life impacted by hardships who nonetheless survived—until their ultimate passing, that is, either from natural causes or at the hands of others. As kind, or mean, or nondescript, or memorable as each person is, their strongest memories—perhaps of helping others, or making a wrong choice—are held up as experiences that made them who they are in life, impacting their future selves and who they become in this world and the next.

A complex tale of humanity and how small interactions can change the course of a life.