Geister heimsuchen (Haunting Spirits)

Location: Tokyo - Izu Oshima, JAPAN

Year: 2019
Dates: 8–10 October

Duration: 12 min 10 sec

Format: 4K ProRes 422 HQ

Sound: Christoph Rothmeier, Shingo Yoshida

Geister heimsuchen (Haunting Spirits)
 
"Haunting Spirits" is a project set in the rugged volcanic environment of Izu Oshima, once home to exiled convicts. Inspired by old postcards and the historical backdrop of the island, the project captures the voices of their souls through the roaring sounds of waves and storms. It seeks to document the pain, hopes, and lingering emotions of those who once lived there.
 
*Please use headphones to fully experience the deep bass sounds.

Exile Island: Izu Ōshima
Izu Ōshima, the largest island in the Izu archipelago south of Tokyo, was formed by volcanic activity and remains dominated by the active volcano Mount Mihara.
Since ancient times, the Izu Islands served as places of exile, and Izu Ōshima too received many convicts and individuals deemed politically inconvenient, its isolation making it well suited to the purpose. Among those exiled to Izu Ōshima were Minamoto no Tametomo, defeated in the Hōgen Rebellion, and the orphaned children of the Forty-seven Rōnin. Across the wider Izu Islands, other figures were banished as well: the Kamakura-period monk Nichiren was sent to Itō on the Izu Peninsula and later to Sado Island; Takeda Nobumichi, grandson of Takeda Shingen, to Hachijōjima; and the Christian convert Julia Ota to Kōzushima.

Records and Traditions of Punishment
According to the island's oral traditions and old documents, the following forms of punishment were carried out:
* Beheading: As told in the oral accounts of the island's elders, convicts deemed especially dangerous were put to death by beheading.
* Sudare Wrapping: A method of execution in which the condemned was rolled in a bamboo blind (sudare), bound tightly around it in many layers, and then thrown from the cliffs of Akahage.
* Pole Binding: A punishment in which the convict's arms were spread and lashed to a pole in a cruciform position; bound in this way, they were exposed along the thoroughfare during the day, both to prevent escape and to subject them to public shame.