As a symbol of recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake, a moai statue gifted from Chile in South America was installed in the "Minamisanriku Sansan Shopping Street" in Minamisanriku Town, Miyagi Prefecture, and a dedication ceremony was held on site on May 25= photo upper left (from The Mainichi Newspapers morning edition of the 26th). Reported widely in newspapers and on TV, many of you probably already know.
As we introduced on this blog on March 19 and 22, the statue was displayed in March at Marunouchi Building near Takebashi, then shown in Osaka, and finished and installed on site in Minamisanriku. As we wrote in March, after a moai was gifted from Chile to the Shizugawa district of Minamisanriku—where 41 people died in the 1960 Chile earthquake tsunami—in 1991, the statue was damaged in the tsunami of the Great East Japan Earthquake, and Chilean President Pinera, visiting Japan in spring 2012, promised a new donation.
The statue stands about 3 meters tall and weighs about 2 tons. The 1991 figure was carved from stone on the Chilean mainland; this time island stone was used and island craftsmen helped produce the "real thing" on the island.
Photo upper right shows the display at Marunouchi Building. It is the same statue, but there are differences
aren't there. The statue installed in Minamisanriku has eyes and wears a hat (?). Usually, when people think of moai,photo upper right is what comes to mind for most.
In fact, most moai seen on Easter Island look like that; only rarely do some wear hats. Whether most never had hats, all once did, or hats fell off over time remains unclear...
Eyes were originally attached to moai. Made of white coral and obsidian, they were likely obtained through trade because there are no coral reefs near Easter Island. Moai on the island have all lost their eyes; only a few surviving eyes are displayed at the island museum.
In Japan too, Buddhist statue eye-opening ceremonies are well known; similarly, inserting eyes in moai means "putting in the soul." Before the dedication ceremony, island stonemasons were invited for a ritual to set the eyes.
Even though we say "installed in the shopping street," the street itself is still in a "temporary" state. One cannot help praying that the moai's arrival will lead to the shopping street's full recovery.