Artist Rebuild After Devasting Loss In Earthquake

Dear Friends,

My name is Suzanne Ross, I am from London in the UK.

I came to Japan when I was 22 to study how to make traditional Japanese lacquer ware. I studied with the best craftsmen in Japan and was part of an active community of Wajima craftsmen in the most famous town for lacquer ware in Japan.

My troubles started on December 22nd when we had an unusually heavy snowfall of 70cm in a day.

Four trees fell on the roof of our house from the mountain behind smashing the roof in two separate places. A tree also fell on my studio roof ( which is located in the garden ) but at an angle so that although some branches pierced through the roof it didn’t smash the whole thing.

With water pouring through four ceilings, the power cables snapped and water pipes crushed in freezing temperatures, we had no choice but to evacuate to Kobonaga, my gallery in central Wajima. We moved as much of the furniture as we could out of the way of the leaks and moved the electrical appliances into my studio. Whilst my husband went to buy some buckets to catch the rain water in Wajima, I picked up a few belongings during which time more trees fell on the path totally blocking my exit. After several emergency phone calls, the fire brigade arrived with chainsaws to open up an escape route and escorted Cookie ( our Maltese dog ) and me down the narrow path.

In spring when the snow had melted, we planned to remove our furniture when we could get the trees blocking the path removed. We got a carpenter to repair the roof of my studio and asked the electrical company to fix the cables to my studio but knew that the house was beyond repair. During the daylight hours we worked to pack up things in the house and cover them with plastic but it was freezing work and we were tired and often wet so unfortunately I fell ill. We turned to the city for help and they rented us a property but because we had a pet, they were only willing to allow us to use a place that they were planning to demolish which had no hot water. We were happy to have a dry roof but as it was the beginning of the New Year’s long vacation, we had difficulties getting anyone to come and fix the boiler.

Clive ferried some of his things to the new house in preparation to start work after the holidays while I rested in my gallery with a high fever. Finally on New Year’s Day, my fever broke so we went to my studio to start packing up my tools, Clive was in the kitchen trying to box up a few dishes when the earthquake struck with a full force of 7.6 magnitude.

We had had a big earthquake in March of 2007 and although our house next door was damaged, my studio had withstood the earthquake without even a dish breaking so I was confident that it would withstand this one too. I was getting thrown around so I grabbed onto the central pillar for safety only to have the ground open up between my feet and the stone block which was supporting the pillar disappear into the ever opening crevice. The plate glass front doors were waving backwards and forwards getting ready to fall on me and there was a noise of roaring and smashing, I really don’t remember how I managed to get out of the building.

I went to search for my husband who had managed to escape from the house and Cookie who was smart enough to run for cover; it was a miracle that we were alive and without a single scratch. By this time, there were repeated tsunami warnings being issued on the loud speaker system and our neighbour had told us that in the past when a tsunami had hit Wajima, the water had traveled up the river bringing boats with it. I had images of us being swept away by the river so we immediately ran for the path only to find it no longer existed: the whole side of the mountain on both sides of our house had disappeared in massive landslides also destroying our bridge. We had no choice to climb the steep mountain behind our house praying that that too wouldn’t crumble away as we climbed it.

I could hardly breathe as I was still recovering from a chest infection and Clive had to carry Cookie as it was far too steep for him. We went to our cars just to find that the earth had opened up underneath them both; my back wheel was about 40cm off the ground and the soil in front of the bridge had also sunk considerably making it impossible to drive across. Trapped, wet and freezing, we went to our neighbour’s house which wasn’t damaged but had no water or electricity and took shelter there. Exhaustion and cold overcame me and I stayed there curled up trying to feel my limbs again. Our neighbours slept in their car for safety’s sake but I figured that if God wanted me dead then he would have done it earlier and I would most definitely have died of exposure if I had stayed outside. The stars were so beautiful that night, the brightest I have ever seen them but the sky over Wajima was red as Asaichidori ( the famous morning market street ) burnt ceaselessly because there was no water available to put out the fires.

We stayed with our neighbours for another day who generously shared their home, food, heater and bottled water with us. There was no electricity, water or internet plus we couldn’t recharge our phones so we had no way of telling anyone we were alive. We were painfully aware that they would run out of water soon so we left.

We managed to get our cars out by using metal drain covers, then we used the same drain covers to make ramps on the bridge for us to drive over. The road to Wajima was a total mess with parts fallen away into the river, landslides, fallen trees and huge crevices with large steps where the ground had shifted.

It took us over an hour to make the 12 minute journey back to Wajima; we tried to get into an evacuation centre but were told that they were all full and that they had no futons but we could try to sleep in the hallway with a blanket. We decided to head for Kobonagaya and found that the door had been twisted so we couldn’t unlock it. We went to the back of the building and smashed the window in order to unlock it and climbed in. Once we removed the lock from inside we were able to pry open the front door and finally enter !

We were fortunate that although many of the glass display cases were smashed and everything had been thrown to the floor, the building itself was stable and was one of the few places that still had electricity so we were able to use the heaters.

Food and water was slow to be distributed but luckily some friends came with water, gas canisters and body wipes and we still had some food left from our original evacuation. Volunteers set up a soup kitchen in the empty restaurant opposite my gallery so they gave us hot soup and rice balls every day. The self-defense force started to pour into Wajima along with fire engines and ambulances from all over the country. The athletics ground next to my gallery had been turned into a helipad with helicopters flying in evacuees from Suzu and delivering food and supplies as well as diggers to try and unblock the roads.

The constant sound of helicopters, the masses of soldiers, the scenes of total destruction and the regular aftershocks along with no water makes it feel like living in a war zone; the stress is incredible. We walked around Wajima to save petrol never knowing whether the next tremor will bring down roof tiles or a house that is leaning over to fall upon you, your foot or the broken pavement. The once sleepy town of Wajima with its traditional craft, historic market, charming harbour and friendly people is no more. The carpenters and craftsmen I used to work with have had their workshops and homes flattened, friends and colleagues homes have been destroyed or severely damaged and families have been split up. The children here have no schools to go to as they are packed with evacuees and the 221 dead cannot be cremated with still 102 missing just as we are moving into the harshest part of winter.

This year Wajima nuri was celebrating its 500th anniversary and I was celebrating 40 years in Japan. We have lost both our home which we lovingly renovated ourselves over many years and raised our two daughters in and most of our possessions. I have lost my beautiful studio with all the unusual materials which I had collected, many irreplaceable tools and equipment and of course all of my different urushi. The house we rented to evacuate too is also so badly damaged that its impossible to live in too.

The devastation is so complete that I have no idea how Wajima can recover from this. Other than a few pieces that I managed to rescue from my gallery, I have my life and little more than the clothes I stand in.

I have spent all my adult life creating and supporting Japanese traditional lacquer ware. Very few people can do the entire process and even fewer can explain or teach it in English. I am not ready to quit urushi yet; last year I had just started to create new forms and expressions using lacquer and I have committed to exhibitions for October and November 2024 which I really don't want to give up on.

I very much want to live in a vibrant urushi area where I can not only continue to develop my own work but also continue to educate people about Japanese lacquer ware culture and how important it is not to lose its heritage. The destruction of Wajima is a serious blow to the traditional lacquering world as it was one of the craft’s strongest footholds, many living national treasures and famous craftsmen came out of Wajima with its community regularly winning the top awards.

I will need to start from scratch to rent and furnish a new home, I need clothes and bedding and more importantly to me I will need to find a new studio and buy all the tools and equipment necessary to start making again. I will need some money to live on until I can produce sufficient stock to have an exhibition and replace my various income streams.

Thank you so much for reading this far and I appreciate any support that you are willing to give me and in doing so help me to keep this exquisite traditional culture alive.